Anton Dolin (ballet dancer)

Sir Anton Dolin (27 July 1904Template:Spaced ndash25 November 1983)<ref>Template:Cite book </ref> was an English ballet dancer and choreographer.

Biography

File:Anton Dolin.jpg

Dolin in The Prodigal Son, Ballets Russes, during the Australian Tour of 1939

Dolin was born in Slinfold in Sussex as Sydney Francis Patrick Chippendall Healey-Kay (generally known as Patrick or Pat Kay to his friends). He was the second of three sons of Henry George Kay (1852–1922) and his wife, Helen Maude Chippendall Healey (1869–1960), from Dublin.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He trained at Serafina Astafieva's school at The Pheasantry in London's King's Road.<ref name=Dech>Decharne, Max. (2005) King's Road: The Rise and Fall of the Hippest Street in the World. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 23; Template:ISBN</ref> In 1921, he joined the Ballets Russes under the guidance of Sergei Diaghilev, the pre-eminent ballet impresario of the time, becoming a principal dancer from 1924. It was Diaghilev who gave Patrick his stage name: Diaghilev 'russified' names of his star dancers to keep up the tradition of his company.Template:Sfn

In the 1930s, Dolin was a principal with the Vic-Wells Ballet. There he danced with Alicia Markova, with whom he went on to found the Markova-Dolin Ballet and the London Festival Ballet. In 1933, he spotted Vera Zorina and introduced her to Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo in 1934.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He joined Ballet Theatre when it was formed in 1940 and remained there as a dancer and choreographer until 1946.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Dolin wrote several books, including: Divertissement (1931), the autobiography Ballet Go Round (1938) and Alicia Markova: Her Life and Art (1953).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was knighted in 1981. He is featured in the documentary film A Portrait of Giselle.Template:Citation needed

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in April 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's Royal Academy of Dance.Template:Citation needed Upon Dolin's death, dancers Jelko Yuresha and Belinda Wright inherited the rights to his choreography of Giselle, Pas de Quatre, and his acclaimed original ballet, Variations for Four. Yuresha and Wright danced—and later staged—productions of these ballets with dance companies around the world, designing original costumes and sets for those performances.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 2017, Yuresha (rights holder) and Philip Ronald Kay (Dolin's nephew and heir) founded the Sir Anton Dolin Foundation in Berlin, Germany with the aim of protecting Dolin's legacy. Since then, all rights to Dolin's works are the property of the Sir Anton Dolin Foundation.Template:Citation needed

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1929	Dark Red Roses	Dancer	Uncredited
1930	Alf's Button
1934	Forbidden Territory	Jack Straw
1935	Invitation to the Waltz	Chief Dancer
1945	A Song for Miss Julie	Himself – Ballet Dancer
1953	Never Let Me Go	Marya's Partner	Uncredited
1974	The Girl from Petrovka	Ignatievitch
1980	Nijinsky	Maestro Cecchetti

Sources

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External links

• National Library of Australia photographs
• Images of Anton Dolin
• Anton Dolin at Andros on Ballet

• Columbia Encyclopedia entry
• Concise Encyclopædia Britannica entry
• Template:Usurped

• The Anton Dolin Cuttings Books are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre and Performance Department.
• Sir Anton Dolin Foundation