Royal Ballet School Lower School Uniform, 1960's

[childthursday]

Hi! I have a character who is a student at the Royal Ballet School (England) in the 1960's. She's eleven, it's her first year. I am looking for information on what colors her uniform - both for dance and academic classes - would have been

Comments

[clanwilliam]

a) The Royal Ballet School might well be able to help you. They tend to have a good section and in my dealings with the Royal Ballet they've been very helpful. Also try contacting Dancing Times, who at the very least might be able point you in the right direction.

b) There's Lorna Hill's books on Sadlers Wells, which includes the school in the early 1950s, but I think it's the senior school. Definitely Veronica lived out, and was not at White Lodge.

c) Check Noel Streatfeild out. Ballet Shoes may give you an equivalent idea on dance uniform, even though it's 1930s and set at a fictional stage school, but it's specific on assorted dance uniform the children need. Also Apple Bough has the youngest accepted at the RB school and may have some detail.

d) I believe the red/grey/white uniform was around for a long time. Secondly, the tunics were almost certainly white, regardless of the colours attached. Rationing was still going on in the 1950s, and people weren't rich, so it was quite likely that tunics might be expected to last a couple of years anyway, with just a change of accessories as you went up the school. White and grey were the most likely colours - one reason for white and pink for dancers is that it's so much harder to hide mistakes in footwork and alignment, both from the teacher and from yourself in the mirror during class. It makes it much easier to see that you're wrong - black is a good colour for fudging mistakes. (I started ballet again as an a adult, having begun writing about it, and I wanted to get a physical feel for it. I chucked my black leggings pretty quickly because I couldn't actually see where I was going wrong in class, even though pink was a lot less flattering on me.)

If you look at the last picture, note the difference in coverage in tunics between the girls. Yvonne has a comparatively new one with extra length, while Susan's is on its last legs for fitting her - such items were expected to last as long as possible, after all.

Form I's summer uniform looks like it was white dresses, probably with a red trim, but it might have been a check red or pink and white gingham-type print - assuming that the red/white/grey uniform applied back then. The boys were almost certainly wearing grey shorts with red ties in that case, which were one of the most common types available then.

[clanwilliam]

Also, Min has a website: http://www.myballetcareer.co.uk/ - from the dates, I think it's the same Min as your photo. She might well be able to help!

[childthursday]

I did get the photos from there. I e-mailed her with no response yet, but I'm hopeful!

[childthursday]

Awesome! This is very helpful.

I'll give e-mailing the school a try. Other boarding schools have either been nonresponsive or told me they have rather Byzantine processes for getting information, so I've been reluctant.

Good notes on rationing, which would help explain why the uniform was a cardigan and not a blazer (yarn and knitted goods used less coupons than woolen cloth and clothing.) White with colored accessories would also make a lot of sense...white takes washing so much better than colors.

I had the impression for summer dresses that they were often striped or checked, but these looked solid to me. Red trim makes sense.

I've been re-reading Ballet Shoes, and some of the other books; I didn't know about Apple Bough so I'll look that one up, too. I always wondered if the "ballet tunics" mentioned in the books were any different from leotards - my mother wore a leotard for dance in the 60's, but in America - I never saw a picture till I found this.

The Sadler's Wells series sounds interesting (always love more ballet books.) I know that the school did and does have day pupils, not all boarders, so she might be in the Lower School in the first books.

Thank you, this is really helpful!

[st_aurafina]

Seconding the rec for the Sadler's Wells books - Lorna Hill apparently did extensive research and had contact with people at the Wells. I don't know much about ballet in the fifties and sixties, but her books seem to have a lot of detail in them about the school.

I just pulled Veronica at the Wells off the shelf, and her dancing uniform is described as a grey silk tunic (which she had made or made herself - "Oh, the awful job I'd had to get it made in time"), pink tights, and "a belt and matching headband" (but no description of colour.)

[childthursday]

Oh, that's great. Grey makes sense! I'll have to start ordering the books.

[st_aurafina]

There's a lot of books in the series, and they're not all set at the school. If you prefer to read in a focused way, the ones that focus more on the Wells are (from memory):

Veronica at the Wells
Masquerade at the Wells
Ella at the Wells

The first book in the series has a dedication to Dame Ninette de Valois "for reading this manuscript of this book which is so closely concerned with Sadler's Wells".

[childthursday]

Thanks for helping narrow it down! I'll want the whole series eventually I'm sure, but I'm on a budget right now.

[katharhino]

The girl in Streatfield's "Family Shoes" actually goes to the Royal Ballet School. I think "red and grey" uniforms sounds familiar. Hold on, found my copy. Yep, red and grey it was. Family Shoes was first published in 1954.

[childthursday]

Oh,awesome! Thank you for checking!

I am slowly replacing all of my old children's books, but I had no idea how many Streatfield actually wrote! It's going to take a while to get them all.