Ballet costumes
The earliest ballet item in the collection is a single pointe shoe worn in the 1930s by Ninette de Valois, dancer, choreographer and Founder of The Royal Ballet. The majority of ballet items cover the history of performances by The Royal Ballet and The Birmingham Royal Ballet from the 1940s onwards. The earliest costumes are for Robert Helpmann’s ballet Hamlet, designed by Leslie Hurry in 1942. There are also numerous costumes for successive productions of Swan Lake, designed by Hurry between 1943 and 1979. The Sleeping Beauty is represented by costumes from all productions performed by The Royal Ballet from 1946, the production designed by Oliver Messel that reopened the Royal Opera House, to Maria Bjornsson’s lavish production of 1994.
There are costumes and accessories designed by great artists and designers such as Cecil Beaton (Marguerite and Armand), Derek Jarman (Jazz Calendar), Nicholas Georgiadis (Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker), David Walker (The Dream), Robin and Christopher Ironside (Sylvia) and Osbert Lancaster (La Fille mal gardée). The collection includes costumes worn by Margot Fonteyn, Robert Helpmann, Rudolf Nureyev, Lynn Seymour, Anya Linden, Beryl Grey, Sylvie Guillem, Jonathan Cope, Darcey Bussell and many more.