Beatrice Collenette (1899 – 2001) was a Guernsey-born American dancer and dance educator, and the founder of the Collenette School of Dancing in Pasadena, California in 1926. She was a protégée of Anna Pavlova and the first ballet teacher of Twyla Tharp.
Collenette was born in Guernsey on the Channel Islands. After her father, physician Frank de Beauchamp Collenette, became too ill to practice, she moved to London, England, to perform and earn a living. [1]
She studied with Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova at Ivy House in London, and danced in her company. [2] Pavlova treated young Collenette almost as a daughter for a time, but she was irritated by the girl's preference for practicing technique at the expense of expressiveness. [3] After her time with Pavlova, she also studied with Enrico Cecchetti and Ivan Clustine. [4]
Collenette was taken to the United States after World War I by theatrical manager Henry Wilson Savage. [5] She appeared on the Broadway stage twice in musicals: in Zelda Sears's Lady Billy (1920–1921), and in Jack and Jill (1923). In 1926, Collenette founded the Collenette School of Dancing in Pasadena, California. By 1931, she was appearing in regional newspaper advertisements, endorsing Welch's Grape Juice. [6] In 1936, Collenette was chosen to teach San Francisco Ballet classes during Adolph Bolm's absence. [7] Her ballet company mostly performed at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, but also toured regionally and nationally. [8] [9] [10]
Among her young students in the 1950s was dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp. [11] [12]
Collenette married journalist Joseph Kenyon Ivie, moved to California, and had a daughter, Joan Collenette Damon, who followed her mother into dance education as head of the Collenette School of Dancing for forty years, until she retired in 2002. Beatrice Collenette marked her 100th birthday with family and former students in San Juan Capistrano in 1999. [2] She died in 2001, aged 102 years. [1]
The Collenette school remains in operation in San Marino, California, as of December 2017. [13] [14]
Twyla Tharp is an American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works in New York City. In 1965 she formed the company Twyla Tharp Dance, which merged with American Ballet Theatre in 1988. She regrouped the company in 1991. Her work often uses classical music, jazz, and contemporary pop music.
The San Gabriel Valley, often referred to by its initials as SGV, is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, with the city of Los Angeles directly bordering it to the west, and occupying the vast majority of the southeastern part of Los Angeles County. Surrounding landforms and other features include the following:
The Pasadena Star-News is a paid local daily newspaper for the greater Pasadena, California area. The Pasadena Star-News is a member of Southern California News Group, since 1996. It is also part of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, along with the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and the Whittier Daily News.
Virginia Bruce was an American actress and singer.
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Angel Corella López is a Spanish former principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre and guest artist with The Royal Ballet, Kirov Ballet, New York City Ballet, La Scala and the Australian Ballet among many others. Since the 2014/2015 season, he has been the Artistic Director of Philadelphia Ballet.
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Miranda Weese is an American former ballet dancer, teacher and ballet master. She joined the New York City Ballet in 1993 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1996. In 2007, she left to perform with the Pacific Northwest Ballet, first as a guest artist, then joined the company as a principal dancer, before retiring in 2010. In 2017, she joined the Boston Ballet as a children's ballet master.
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Doris Niles was an American dancer.
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Hilda Butsova, was an English ballet dancer, a member of the companies of Russian dancers Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin.
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Nine Sinatra Songs is a ballet choreographed by Twyla Tharp to songs sung by Frank Sinatra. The ballet is danced by seven couples, portraying different stages of romantic relationships, with ballroom dancing incorporated into the choreography. The ballet was made for Twyla Tharp Dance, and premiered on October 14, 1982, at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, Canada.
May Montoya Cole Jones also known as Warcaziwin or Sunflower, was an American writer, lecturer, and clubwoman based in Los Angeles, California.
