Tuesday, February 20, 2007

"Take That, Adolf!" The Royal Ballet's formative years during WWII

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Members of the Sadler's Wells Ballet leave Victoria Station for Holland in 1940

It has been nearly 8 months since The Royal Ballet visited Boston with Manon, but I've come across two articles from London papers on the Royal that I find too fascinating to pass up. The occasion for them is the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms exhibit, Dancing Through the War. The exhibit tells, through photographs, letters, descriptions and a short documentary film by Lynne Wake, the story of The Royal Ballet's intense and formative period during World War II. First from The Guardian:



"...in the spring of 1940, the dancers were given their most perilous mission. With Britain still battling Germany for the hearts and minds of mainland Europe, the Vic Wells Ballet was sent off on a propaganda tour of the Netherlands, France and Belgium. Before a cheering public wearing full evening dress, the dancers performed in The Hague on May 6. Four days later, German soldiers parachuted into the streets. In extreme danger, the company remained trapped in their hotel for three days before they could be smuggled out in the stinking hold of a cargo boat, crowded in among refugees and bombed most of the way home by German planes. Later, the Foreign Office admitted that, just days before the tour was due to start, they had become aware of Hitler's intention to invade; they had refused to cancel the tour for fear of compromising military intelligence." Read all of Take That, Adolf!

And from The Telegraph: As Bombs Fell, They Dance On



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