CHOREOGRAPHER

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, and his Guardian obituary by Kemp’s collaborator Michael Coveney, 26 August 2018. Sprawling autograph inscription in green ink (‘with love for Paul from lindsay X’) across top of centre pages of an attractive programme for Kemp’s celebrated treatment of the works by Jean Genet and Oscar Wilde, with numerous photographs and illustrations: 16pp, 8vo, in black and white, on glossy paper, stapled into glossy red covers. Full page introductory piece on the Lindsay Kemp Company by David Haughton. See Image of autograph.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. The letterhead is both printed and embossed. Addressed to ‘Miss M. G. Hocken, / Meadow Way House Studio, / St. Ives, / Cornwall.’ Signed ‘Ninette de Valois’. Reads: ‘May I suggest you write to the Director of Productions at The Royal Opera House. I do not know what our theatre does with regard to the many requests for such exhibitions - so I would be grateful if you would forward your request to this particular department.’

There has been a recent resurgence of interest in Mona Inglesby and her International Ballet (1942-1951). In 2008 Kay Hunter published a study of the troupe, titled 'Ballet in the Blitz'; then in 2012 BBC Radio 4 aired a documentary about Mona Inglesby and International Ballet, titled 'Black-Out Ballet: The Invisible Woman of British Ballet'. The writer of the documentary, Ismene Brown, gave the following explanation of her motives: 'In 2006 an elderly dancer died in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex. She was 88, and had once been one of Britain's most recognised ballerinas.