Peto photographs to inspire ballet’s rising stars at Genée

Published On Mon 14 Sep 2015 by Grant Hill

Photographs of some of the most famous dance figures of the twentieth century - including Scottish-born choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, Margot Fonteyn and Monica Mason – taken by the Hungarian-born photojournalist Michael Peto will greet participants of the Royal Academy of Dance’s Genée International Ballet Competition 2015.

The Genée Final, to be held at the Sadler’s Wells theatre on Saturday, 19th September, is one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world.

The Peto photographs, held by the University of Dundee, will go on show at a reception for this year’s Genée participants at City Hall in London on Tuesday, 15th September. The reception will be attended by Darcey Bussell CBE, President of the Royal Academy of Dance, Strictly Come Dancing judge and former Royal Ballet Principal dancer.

The University is delighted to be presenting Peto’s iconic ballet photographs in partnership with the Royal Academy of Dance as part of a series of special events to complement the Genée, a coveted platform for all young ballet dancers. .

“Michael Peto was one of the keenest and most distinctive observers of the British arts and ballet scene and photographed many backstage scenes,” said Patricia Whatley, Head of the Department of Culture & Information at Dundee.

“In 1963 Peto published an acclaimed book The Dancer’s World with text by Alexander Bland, the nom de plume of the ballet and culture critic Nigel Gosling.  He also photographed all of the greatest names of the era including Nureyev and Fonteyn, also RAD President from 1954-1991. It is extremely fitting that those photographs can now serve as inspiration to the dance stars of tomorrow who will be taking part in the Genée.”

The display will move to the Members Dining Room at the House of Commons on Saturday, 19th September for an Afternoon Tea attended by Genée judges Dame Monica Mason DBE, former Director of The Royal Ballet, David Nixon OBE, Artistic Director of Northern Ballet, and David Bintley CBE, Artistic Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Many of Peto’s greatest ballet photographs are from the 1960s when the dance world was rocked by the defection of the Soviet-born star Rudolf Nureyev to the West in 1961. This display takes that story as its starting point as Nureyev rehearses for his London Gala Debut with the founding choreographer of The Royal Ballet, Frederick Ashton.

Born in 1908 in Báta, Hungary, Michael Peto settled in London at the outbreak of the Second World War, working firstly as a writer. He trained as a photographer in 1947; his photographs first published in The Observer in March 1949. He became a regular contributor alongside other celebrated photojournalists including Jane Bown, Peter Keen and David Sim.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Peto documented social issues and the key cultural and political figures of the era. His publications include The Dancer’s World (1963) with Nigel Gosling and About Britain (1967) with Kenneth Harris. Following Peto’s death in 1970, his archive of 130,000 original negatives and vintage prints was donated by his family to the University of Dundee.

In recent years Peto’s arts and political portraits have been exhibited for the first time to hundreds of thousands of new and appreciative audiences at the National Portrait Gallery, London, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, National Museums Liverpool and The Scottish Parliament.

This year, for the first time in its 84-year history, the Genée International Ballet Competition Final will be live streamed online,allowing the dancers of tomorrow to take their debut steps on an international stage with an enlarged global audience of dance lovers and professionals in virtual attendance. Past Genée medallists, such as Leanne Benjamin or Xander Parish, have gone on to work for some of the best ballet companies around the world.

 

Notes to editors:

Royal Academy of Dance

With about 14,000 members spread across 83 countries, the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) is one of the largest and most influential dance education and training organisations in the world. Established in the 1920s to improve standards and re-invigorate dance training initially within the UK, the Academy helps and encourages its teachers to perfect their teaching skills and pass on this knowledge to their students. There are currently over 1,000 students in full-time or part-time teacher training programmes with the Academy and each year the examination syllabus is taught to thousands of young people worldwide, with around a quarter of a million pupils per year going on to take our exams.

The Genée International Ballet Competition

Known simply as ‘the Genée’, it is one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world, attracting the finest young dancers trained in the Royal Academy of Dance’s syllabus from across the globe. Candidates receive a unique opportunity to work with renowned choreographers and teachers for five days before performing at the Semi-finals and then the Final, where they compete for a range of medals and prize money.

This year’s entrants come from Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Candidate interviews can be arranged by request.

This year’s Genée has been made possible by the support of Mondor, Bloch UK Ltd., Freed of London, British Harlequin plc and the Dame Margot Fonteyn Scholarship Fund.

The Michael Peto Collection

The University of Dundee is the custodian of the Michael Peto Collection.

Peto, a Hungarian Jew, came to Britain at the outset of the Second World War. He travelled extensively in the course of his career including three tours with the Save the Children Fund, to locations including the new state of Israel, Korea, North Africa and India.  In the 1960s his work involved the arts, especially the Royal Ballet, BBC drama and Prospect Theatre Productions. 

Peto’s major interest lay in the study of the human form in its natural surroundings. The photographs of the famous include Nelson Mandela, Nikita Khrushchev, Indira Gandhi, Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn, Ian McKellen, Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole, The Beatles, Louis Armstrong, Samuel Beckett, C.S. Lewis and Iris Murdoch. Amongst the portraits of the less famous are miners, shipbuilders, market vendors and street ‘urchins’.

The Patron of The Peto Collection is Brian Cox, Actor, CBE.

 

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Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk