Sir Frederick Ashton
(September 17, 1904 - August 18, 1988) U.K.
Dancer, choreographer
Sir Frederick Ashton, born at Guayaquil, Equador, was a gay dancer and England's greatest choreographer. He studied with Massine and Rambert before joining the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1935 as chief choreographer. Ashton during its greatest years directed the Royal Ballet (that he co-founded). He worked with such great dancers as Fonteyn, Nureyev, and Baryshnikov, and created over 80 works, including full-length ballets, as well as shorter works for operas and films.
 Ashton collaborated with gay composer Virgil Thomson on lesbian writer Gertrude Stein's avant-garde opera Four Saints in Three Acts. His biography, "Secret Muses" by Julie Kavanagh, "makes no bones about Ashton's homsexuality." In the book, Ashton's "chum" Neil (Bunny) Rogers relates a 1930s hijink: "Spotting a minor playwright performing fellatio on a major playwright in a corner of a typical theatrical party, Ashton quipped to Bunny Roger, 'Look! There's K** trying to suck some talent out of E**'."
Frederick Ashton was knighted in 1962. One review of the book characterizes Ashton as "witty, snobbish, vain and petulant - but above all... a talented figure who was a major player in the artistic life of his day." He died in Sussex, England.
Biography: Julie Kavanagh, Secret muses: The life of Frederick Ashton
|
