Adeline Genée

Dame Adeline Genée DBE (born Anina Kirstina Margarete Petra Jensen; 6 January 1878  – 23 April 1970) was a Danish-British ballet dancer.

[1] She was so admired for her classical style in that ballet,[citation needed] that she was offered the position of prima ballerina at the Empire, and stayed there for ten years.

Genée did much to raise the status of ballet by reviving earlier productions and creating an audience for more elaborate works.

For several years, Genée alternated between a season in London and one in America, although after her marriage to Frank S. N. Isitt in 1910 she gradually reduced the frequency of her appearances.

On 3 December 1912 she made her debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera, with a program of divertissements which included La Camargo,[6] which had premiered earlier in 1912 at the London Coliseum.

[7] On 17 December 1912, the Met saw the premiere of La danse, subtitled "An Authentic Record by Adeline Genée of Dancing and Dancers between the Years 1710 and 1845".

She took these on her subsequent tours of America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as The Dryad,[10] an earlier collaboration with Bright which had been a success at the Empire in 1908.

[12] This was an original ballet, created for an earlier, special appearance at the London Coliseum, with period dance music composed by Bright.

She gave her name to the Adeline Genee Theatre in East Grinstead (built in 1967, but now sadly demolished) and the Genée studio in the Royal Academy of Dance, Battersea, London.

This led Richardson to organise a meeting of eminent dance professionals at the former Trocadero Restaurant in Piccadilly, with Genée as one of the special guests representing what were, at the time, recognised as the leading methods of classical ballet training.

This meeting ultimately led to the formation of the Association of Teachers of Operatic Dancing of Great Britain, which was officially founded in December 1920.

[citation needed] In 1931, the association established the Adeline Genée Gold Medal Awards, as a scholarship scheme for aspiring young dancers.

The Genée competition attracts candidates with recent finals being held in Australia, Canada, Greece, Hong Kong and Singapore.