Ninette de Valois was born Edris Stannus in Baltyboys House, Blessington, County Wicklow, the second daughter of a British army officer and a distinguished glassmaker, Lillith Graydon- Smith. So disappointed was her father that she was not a boy, he refused to light the celebratory bonfires which the estate tenants had prepared to mark the birth.
Edris showed an early interest in dance. The first dance she learned was an Irish jig, which she picked up from the family cook when she was seven. Soon afterwards her parents sent her to live in Kent with her grandmother, who sent her to ballet lessons.
In 1914 Edris started as principal dancer in a Christmas pantomime at the Lyceum Theatre in London’s West End. This winter engagement continued throughout World War I and was supplemented by summer engagements in variety shows. She continued to study dance, and in 1921 embarked on a European tour that culminated in a meeting with the famous Russian impresario, Sergei Diaghilev. In 1923 Diaghilev engaged Edris, by now working under her more exotic professional name of Ninette de Valois, for his company, Les Ballets Russe. She stayed with the company for two years.
In 1926 Ninette was invited to London’s Old Vic Theatre as a choreographer. The following year WB Yeats persuaded her to do the same job at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre. While in Dublin she also performed in Plays for Dancers by WB Yeats.
She returned to London again in 1931 to work on a new project with the Old Vic’s manager, Lilian Baylis, who had just opened Sadler’s Wells Theatre. The project was to set up a resident ballet company; Ninette would be the director. The company was established, originally under the name of the Vic-Wells Ballet, then later the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. A strong disciplinarian, Ninette was renowned for her imperious manner, phenomenal memory and ability to throw a tantrum.
In 1935 Ninette underwent a serious operation, which was performed by the Irish surgeon Dr Arthur Connell, who was based in London. The two fell in love and were married later the same year. She retired from dancing two years later, concentrating instead on raising the profile of British ballet and introducing classic ballets into the British repertoire. In the inter-war period, Ninette discovered and trained the great Margot Fonteyn, and gave the legendary choreographer Frederick Ashton a job with her company. As a choreographer in her own right, she created 110 works, including forty complete ballets. In 1946 she moved the Sadler’s Wells Ballet into the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden and started a second touring company, now known as the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
In 1947 Ninette received the first of a number of awards: a CBE from King George VI. Later she received the Légion d’honneur from the French government, the Erasmus prize from the Netherlands, and an Irish Community award. The British further honoured her by making her a Dame in 1951 and conferring a royal charter on her ballet company in 1955, thereby transforming it into the Royal Ballet.
Ninette handed over the directorship of the Royal Ballet School to Frederick Ashton in 1963, but remained a governor. She became patron of Irish National Ballet and is also credited with helping to establish ballet companies in Canada and western Asia. Her involvement declined over the years, but she remained interested and attended performances at Covent Garden as late as 1997. Dame Ninette de Valois died in 2001 in London, at the age of 102.