Humble Beginnings

To kick off this blog, I thought I would start with some basic background information on Antony Tudor, in order to better understand his development as a twentieth century dance innovator.  For a full biography of Antony Tudor, I would recommend Undimmed Lustre:The Life of Antony Tudor by Muriel Topaz.

First off, Antony Tudor was not actually born Antony Tudor.  His birth name was William Cook.  Born on April 4, 1908 to a butcher, Tudor grew up in a blue collar neighborhood in the suburbs of London.  Although his life, like most of the youths in his neighborhood, was not saturated with the arts, Tudor was heavily influenced by what little exposure he had as a child, mostly piano lessons given by his mother and trips to the cabaret-style music halls of London.  He claims to have been "choreographing" at the age of six, putting on little shows with his siblings at the local fish market.

Antony Tudor as a child.

Tudor's first experience with ballet was rather awkward.  The first time he ever witnessed a ballet class was during his time in school when he glanced through a studio window while he was passing by on a streetcar.  He described movements of the dancers as "the strangest things."  He eventually signed up for a class with the studio, but soon left as he found that it wasn't focused enough, drawing from many different styles and techniques, but not doing any of them any justice.  Disappointed with his experience with dance, he turned to acting for a time, gaining moderate success as well as gaining further experience in dance through the roles he played.  Ultimately, he found that his pursuit of acting was limited by his lack of vocal skills.

It wasn't until he was nineteen that he again experienced ballet.  After witnessing Balanchine's Apollon Musagète, Tudor found his interest in dance renewed and found that it burned much more fervently than before.  Unable to quit his menial job as an office boy for a local meat market, Tudor began taking night classes with Marie Rambert, a former student of Diaghilev and a proponent of the Cecchetti method.  Although he suffered a great disadvantage due to his late start, Rambert was persistent in her effort to develop the talent she saw in Tudor, throwing him in the deep end in a way by having him train with her top dancers as a novice.  In order to pay for his classes he would perform odd jobs around the studio, such as bookkeeping, lighting and set design, and janitorial duties, in addition to his full-time job as office boy.

Antony Tudor as one of his first roles, Hercules.

It is his humble beginnings, in addition to his phenomenal choreography, that caused me to pick Antony Tudor.  As someone who grew up in similar circumstances, what with starting late and all, it means a lot to me to hear the tenacity with which Antony Tudor pursued his life as an artist and the ultimate success he achieved as a result.  It gives me hope that I too could be an innovator in my field, despite the inherent disadvantages I face.