History of the RAD: The 1960s

1960

In 1960, the first Fellowship of the Academy was awarded to Tamara Karsavina and Stanislas Idzikowski.

Photo: An example of the Fellowship of the RAD award given to Phyllis Bedells in 1970. This is currently displayed at RAD headquarters.

1961

Rudolf Nureyev performs Poème Tragique – a solo created for him by Frederick Ashton for his first appearance in London at the RAD Gala Matinée of Ballet in November 1961.

Photo by GBL Wilson.

1963

First Solo Seal and Gold Medal Competition held in public. The first event took place at the City Temple Hall in 1963 and it became a popular annual performance.

Photo by WinkiPop Media.

Phillip Richardson bequeaths the majority of his book collection to the Royal Academy of Dancing.

Photo: In 1963 the library received the personal collection of the late Philip Richardson, including the 40 titles described by I. K. Fletcher in his Bibliographical Descriptions of Forty Rare Books, relating to the art of dancing, in the collection of P.J.S. Richardson, OBE (1954). While many of these were sold in 1999, important early printed books that still remain in the collection include Caroso’s Il Ballarino (1581), Menestrier’s Des Ballets Anciens et Modernes (1682) and Feuillet’s Choregraphie (1701) featured in this image.

Dalal Achcar FRAD travelled back to Brazil after training in Paris and London for many years. As a result of what she had learnt through the Royal Academy of Dance, the first RAD course ran for dance teachers in Brazil in 1963.

Photo courtesy of the Ballet Dalal Achcar.

1965

In 1965, the first Summer School was hosted. In 1965, the first Summer School was organised by Louise Browne at Elmhurst School of Camberley. Teachers and dancers attended from America, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Dame Marie Rambert, Karsavina and Fonteyn went out to speak and there were classes and lectures by Dolin, Idzikowsky, John Gilpin, Ruth French and many others.

The first Canadian examiners to be appointed (post war).

Joan Harris was Director of the Norwegian Opera (now the National Ballet) from 1961 – 65. She established and also became head of the Opera Ballet School from 1965 to 1987. Joan chose to use the system from Royal Academy of Dance (named Royal Academy of Dancing at the time) in London with exams taking place every end of school year.

In the same year, students performed on a national stage in Malta for the first time.