Edris Stannus was born near Blessington, Ireland. At the age of seven, she moved to Kent, England, to live with her grandmother. At 10, she began to take ballet classes; three years later, she joined the Lila Field Academy for Children, where she got training from prominent ballet masters, such as Enrico Cecchetti and Edouard Espinosa. She danced in revues and music halls around London. In those days, ballet dancers had to have French or Russian stage names, so she changed her name to Ninette de Valois.
In 1919, 21 years old de Valois received the role of a principal dancer of the Beecham Opera; two years later, she joined the prestigious Ballets Russes as a soloist, performing with the company throughout Europe.
In 1924, at 26, she had to take a step back from intense dancing after discovering she had damage from an undiagnosed case of childhood polio. It changed the course of her career, and she decided to open a dancing school. In 1926, she founded the Academy of Choreographic Arts for girls in London and a sister school in Dublin.
Only two years later, Lilian Baylis, the owner of the Old Vic Theatre, invited de Valois to provide dancers and coach actors in the theater’s productions. The collaboration was very successful, and in 1931, when Sadler’s Wells Theatre was re-opened, de Valois’ school moved in under a new name – the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School. In that same year, she founded the Vic-Wells Ballet Company. In 1956, the company and school were granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth II and renamed the Royal Ballet.
In addition to classic ballet production, such as Giselle, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker, de Valois created original choreographies, such as Job, The Rake’s Progress, and Checkmate. In these productions, she withdrew from the traditional Russian convention, creating a distinctly English style of choreography, drawing from English tradition, themes, and sources, preferring British composers, and forming more prominent roles for male dancers.
In 1963, at the age of 65, she retired as director of the Royal Ballet but headed the school for several more years. She continued to make public appearances and served as patron of various companies, including the Irish Theatre Ballet, the Cork Ballet Company, and the Irish National Ballet. She died at the age of 102.
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