10 April 2022 14:05
Remembering Dr Ann Hutchinson Guest
We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Dr Ann Hutchinson Guest at the age of 103.
Ann’s association with the RAD goes back to the 1970s when she worked with us on an intensive introductory course for Labanotation for RAD teachers. This resulted in the publication, in 1978, of “A Study of Ballet Technique, based on the Royal Academy of Dancing Children’s Syllabus”, Parts I and II. During this time she was also on the Board of Governors of the Teachers’ Training Course, as it was then called. She continued to have a close relationship with the RAD College (now Faculty of Education) as a Specialist in Movement Analysis and Labanotation.
Ann’s contribution to the dance field as a world-renowned expert in dance notation, highly acclaimed author and researcher on dance, as well as founder of the Language of Dance Centre, will be celebrated and remembered for many years to come.
Dr Ann Hutchinson Guest. Photo: Jennie Walton.
Ann studied Labanotation with Sigurd Leeder at Dartington Hall in England in the 1930s and trained in modern dance and ballet. In New York, she co-founded and directed the Dance Notation Bureau, danced on Broadway and taught at the Juilliard School. Her research into dance notation systems of the past provided revivals of ballets such as the Pas de Six from La Vivandiere and Nijinksy’s L’Apres-midi d’un Faune.
Speaking of Ann’s passing RAD Chief Executive Luke Rittner said: “Ann Hutchinson Guest has left an indelible mark on dance as an art form and her research, scholarship and writings are a legacy that will be of inestimable value to future generations of dancers, choreographers and academics.
Her death brings to a close an association with the Academy that has spanned at least five decades – not least during the 20 years that Ivor, her beloved husband, was the Academy’s Chairman.
We all owe Ann an incalculable debt of gratitude for all that she did throughout a long life to make dance accessible to everyone – a cause she espoused long before it became a central theme of all our lives. May she rest in peace.”