Born on the 17th of September 1904, Sir Frederick Ashton was the founding choreographer of The Royal Ballet where he became resident in the 1930’s when it was known as Sadler’s Wells Ballet. Widely accepted to be one of the most influential forces in 20th Century choreography, Ashton was also a talented dancer. His career lasted for 6 decades from 1926 to 1982 and he left behind him an enormous body of work that is still widely acclaimed to this day.
The first full-length ballet that Sir Frederick choreographed for The Royal Ballet was his 1948 version of Cinderella. Set to the music of Prokofiev Ashton drew on the choreography of renowned Russian choreographer Marius Pepita for the inspiration for his version of Cinderella. Ashton’s interpretation features ‘dreams’ and dreamlike qualities as an ongoing theme throughout the ballet. Sir Frederick’s interpretation of Cinderella was well received, achieving great success and often being cited to this day as a masterpiece in choreography.
Cinderella was followed by Sylvia in 1952, a piece of work that had fallen out of favor with ballet goers for some number of years. Ashton recreated Sylvia with new choreography and legend has it that he was inspired to rework the piece after the ballet’s musical composer, Leo Delibes, appeared to him in a dream asking Ashton to rework the under-appreciated ballet. Sir Frederick choreographed the entire ballet as tribute to the great Margo Fonteyn.
Sir Frederick’s final three-act ballet was Ondine, which was another opportunity to showcase the brilliance of Margo Fonteyn. Created in 1958 Ashton’s version incorporates a recurring theme of the sea and water in general. Ashton apparently struggled with Ondine as he did not find that the music inspired his choreography however Ondine was well received by the critics when it premiered.
One of Sir Frederick Ashton’s greatest pieces of choreography is widely regarded to be La fille mal gardée. The ballet received its London premiere in the January of 1960 and is often considered to be the definitive version. Music for the ballet had been swapped and changed previously so Ashton took back the 1928 Ferdinand Hérold score for his version and found great inspiration for his choreography from the music.
Sir Frederick resigned as Director of the Royal Ballet in 1970 under circumstances that have never been confirmed. It is believed that there was some dispute that greatly upset Ashton. He continued to choreograph for the company for many years however and also worked for other companies and provided choreography for films and stage musicals too. He died at home in Suffolk in August 1988.
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