Biography of Antony Tudor

About the Artist

Antony Tudor (born William John Cook) was born in London on April 4, 1908. He grew up in Finsbury, a working class neighborhood in London's East End. His artistic aptitudes surfaced early and were encouraged by his parents. His father took him to music shows, his mother tutored him on the piano, and he sang soprano in the church choir until his voice deepened. At sixteen Tudor spent evenings in London's theatre district where he became interested in ballet. He credits ballerina Anna Pavlova and Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes with his choice to become a dancer and choreographer.

At 19 Tudor took ballet classes with Dame Marie Rambert, cofounder of the modern British ballet movement. She formed the Ballet Club in 1929 and hired Tudor as her general assistant. It was during this time that he changed his name to Antony Tudor for professional reasons. He premiered his first ballet, Cross Gartered, with the Ballet Club in 1931. In 1934 he choreographed The Planets, which was composed of episodes, each evoking the symbolic meaning of a planet through gesture and movement. Three years later Tudor's choreography evolved. Jardin aux Lilas (1936) portrayed the bittersweet relationship between lovers confined by Victorian strictures. In Dark Elegies (1937) performed to Songs on the Death of Children, the dance expressed grief and mourning.

In 1939 he moved to New York City to help Lucia Chase and Agnes de Mille establish Ballet Theater (later known as American Ballet Theatre). He was the resident choreographer for the next ten years. In 1942 he created Pillar of Fire (1942) about the coming of age of a heroine amid the sexual repression and small town provincialism. In 1949 he left Ballet Theater to stage new works and revivals in the United States and abroad. Leaves Are Fading (1975) was the most acclaimed of his later works. It was considered to be an abstract work that traces psychological threads of relationships.

Tudor will be remembered for his influence in contemporary ballet that stemmed from his psychological probing of his characters. He died at 79 of a heart attack on April 19, 1987 in New York.