In the 1950s, ballet became part of the cultural threads of both middle-class Maltese and British expatriates on the island. Much controversy was raised at the sight of dancing girls and young women but the significant contribution of women in ballet marks our connections to the Royal Academy of Dance’s centenary in 2020.

Isobel Monro on the roof of Union Flats, Għar id-Dud Street, Sliema, c.1956. Photo: Henry Monro, courtesy of Pia GoddardIsobel Monro on the roof of Union Flats, Għar id-Dud Street, Sliema, c.1956. Photo: Henry Monro, courtesy of Pia Goddard

A post-war regeneration of ballet

As explained in the chapter ‘The Ballet Boom of the Fifties’ in the recently-published book Princess Poutiatine and the Art of Ballet in Malta, ballet in Malta appealed to the post-war, aspirational middle classes of Malta. For the British Forces’ families on the island, ballet perpetuated the connections between the followers of the art form and their homeland. For pioneers, like Princess Nathalie Poutiatine, Isobel Monro and other teachers on the island, the sacredness of ballet offered a cultural significance.

Ballet schools, including Pou­tia­tine’s Russian Academy of Dancing, and The Isobel Monro School of Dancing, as well as the other teachers offering dance classes around Sliema, symbolised a ‘colonial nostalgia’ for the 1930s in the aftermath of World War II.

Moreover, ballet began to filter through the cultural strata of the island, referencing not only the golden era of Poutiatine’s ballets at the Royal Opera House in the 1930s but also the diversity of artistic and education representations. Ballet became a beacon of hope and opportunity in the post-war era.

But what was the central argument against the endeavours of these teachers? What were the challenges in the vision and actualisation of ballet as education and training in Malta? And how did the women teaching ballet in Malta counter-argue their art?

The cover of Princess Poutiatine and the Art of Ballet in MaltaThe cover of Princess Poutiatine and the Art of Ballet in Malta

Teachers on the island

Beyond the recently-published book on Poutiatine, research on ballet teachers in Malta has yet to emerge. I will here refer to a series of articles, which were published as part of ‘Curtain Up! by Trouper’ series in the Times of Malta between May and June 1956, to shed light on some of the teachers on the island: Poutiatine, Lina Perry and Marie Rome Camilleri.

In the feature titled ‘Ballet in Malta’ (May 16, 1956), Trouper suggested that it was the younger generation of teachers, including the talented and former Poutiatine pupil Marie Rome Camilleri, who were deemed to be crucial in the development of ballet on the Island. Camilleri, however, wasn’t the only ‘young’ teacher offering classes in Sliema.

Jane Selvagi, another former student of Poutiatine, taught in a small flat on Graham Street and remained unmentioned in Trouper’s series of articles on ballet. Although almost unheard of, Selvagi too contributed to ballet education of young girls in the mid-1950s, including recognising the talent of a very young Daphne Lungaro-Mifsud.

In another article titled ‘Balletic Barrage’ (May 23, 1956), Trouper claimed that dance teacher Lina Perry did not see a future for ballet in Malta. While little is known of her reputation as a dance teacher on the island, other than teaching classes in ballet based on the RAD syllabus, modern dance, character dance, tap, burlesque and musical comedy, Perry did not have financial resources to showcase her choreography in recitals. Nor did Perry enter her students for RAD examinations, given that, according to her perceptions, there wasn’t a cultural ‘demand’. Nevertheless, Perry insisted that if students wanted to train professionally as dancers or teachers, they needed to pursue their studies in England.

Princess Nathalie Poutiatine in Christmas Waltz (1934). Photo courtesy of Tanya BayonaPrincess Nathalie Poutiatine in Christmas Waltz (1934). Photo courtesy of Tanya Bayona

In ‘Ballet and Youth’ (May 30, 1956), Trouper shed light on Poutiatine’s thoughts on ballet edu­cation and training in Malta. Its subtitle ‘Enthusiasm but no dedication’ offered a realist, yet grim affirmation on the approach by young Maltese dancers at large.

On the possibility of having a Maltese company of professional dancers, Poutiatine reflected: “The difficulty stands in the fact that parents in Malta are not always keen on their daughters taking ballet as a career… because they look at the materialistic aspect of the thing. Among other things they fear it would make their daughters vain.”

British-born Monro also remained unmentioned in Trouper’s articles. Unlike Perry, Monro had a vision for ballet in Malta, believing in the artistic, educational and cultural importance of examinations and performance opportunities in ballet. Between 1956 and 1959, Monro taught her students at the Savoy Hotel on Rue D’Argens hill, in Sliema. The daughter of a naval drydocks employee period­ically stationed in Malta from 1938, Monro was examined in England by some of the pioneers of the RAD, including Felix Demery, and took her teaching examination in Taunton (south-west England) in 1952.

Ballet became a beacon of hope and opportunity in the post-war era

By November 1956, her school of British young girls began to give concerts for the Malta Cultural Institute. In July 1957, RAD examiner Peggy Whiteley landed in Malta to examine Monro’s 50 students and conducted a training course for teachers. One of the three who undertook this short teachers’ course was Lillian Attard, who succeeded Monro as the local representative for the RAD.

Monro and RAD exam students, 1958. Photo: Henry Monro, Courtesy of Pia GoddardMonro and RAD exam students, 1958. Photo: Henry Monro, Courtesy of Pia Goddard

Controversy: ballet as ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’

Marie Rome Camilleri, Sheila Mamo and Princess Poutiatine, c. 1953-1954. Photo courtesy of Sheila WennerMarie Rome Camilleri, Sheila Mamo and Princess Poutiatine, c. 1953-1954. Photo courtesy of Sheila Wenner

By 1957, ballet on the island was considered both sacred and profane. In The Bulletin (June 26, 1957), ‘Today’s Maltese Commentary’ suggested that “ballet is not intended to trade on the appetites of the human body but to exhibit the rhythms it is capable of”.

A spat of features included a defence for ballet as an art form of the highest merit, a protest article calling for a total ban and a response from one of the readers of Times of Malta who shared their views on the dance genre. Furthermore, The Bulletin (August 5, 1957) offered further criticism against the puritanical criticisms of ballet. For ‘John Citizen’, ballet presented “no moral problem” but that it was “foolish and silly to condemn ballet as such”.

Nevertheless, opposition to the ballet boom of the 1950s began to surface in religious and male groups, generating a lot of criticism on the value of ballet in the lives of Maltese girls and young women.

On August 21, 1957, the Sodality of Our Lady and St Francis Xavier of Birkirkara registered a public protest against ballet performances “which are being held with increasing frequency”. The ‘perpetrators’ were the ballet teachers on the island.

The Sodality finally appealed to parents to disallow their children from participating in such recitals, to charitable institutions and associations to reject the holding of such performance in their aid and to the authorities concerned to take the strongest action, in the circumstances, to safeguard public morality.

As a counter-argument, Major Alfred P. Briffa wrote (August 29, 1957): “Ballet is an art. To condemn ballet as immoral is tantamount to condemning all art… Without art one loses all sense of beauty.”

Celebrating ballet and the Royal Academy of Dance

The desire to raise the standard of ballet during the 1950s in Malta reflected the central tenets of the establishment of the RAD in London during its formation year in 1920. While not all teachers on the island subscribed to the ‘examination’ model, the ballet boom of the 1950s in Malta was effective through a collective approach to rendering ballet as part of the education of young women.

Both middle-class Maltese and the community of British girls experienced different forms of ballet education and training: Poutiatine retained her ‘Imperial Ballet School’ model of education and training; others, like Monro, believed in the RAD’s approach to shaping the lives of young dancers through learning a syllabus and taking examinations. Both ballet pioneers believed in the role of educated and trained teachers.

Ballet teachers in the late 1950s reinforced the notion of ballet as ‘education’ and as ‘culture’, while the importance of healthy, well-rounded and expressive young children challenged the criticism of ballet as ‘profane’.

The sacred ideals of ballet as education are still at the heart of the RAD’s mission today, particu­larly as it celebrates its centenary in 2020 amid a global pandemic. The availability of classes (and the period suspension of classes or shift to online Zoom classes), are a significant reminder of the importance of artistic and cultural education to all those who take up ballet.

The legacy of ballet in Malta, whether through the RAD’s approach or other teaching methods, is still central to the island as a cultural and educational gift that was once fiercely guarded by a handful of pioneering teachers in the 1950s.

Princess Poutiatine and the Art of Ballet in Malta is available from Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti https://www.patrimonju.org/books/princess-poutiatine-and-the-art-of-ballet-in-malta and Midsea Books at https://midseabooks.com/shop/history/princess-poutiatine-teatru-manoel-the-national-theatre-of-malta/.

Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel is head of research at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. She has authored numerous publications, co-edited Network of Pointes (2015), the Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet (due 2021), and sole-authored Princess Poutia­tine and the Art of Ballet in Malta (2020).

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