Moira Shearer

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Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer in 1954
Born
Moira Shearer King

(1926-01-17)17 January 1926
Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
Died31 January 2006(2006-01-31) (aged 80)
Oxford, England
Other namesLady Kennedy
Years active1938–1987
Spouse
​
(m. 1950)​
Children4

Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy (17 January 1926 – 31 January 2006), was an internationally renowned Scottish ballet dancer and actress. She was famous for her performances in Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948) and The Tales of Hoffman (1951) and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960).

She has been portrayed by Shannon Davidson in the short film Òran na h-Eala (2022) which explores her life-changing decision to appear in The Red Shoes.[1][2]

Early life[edit]

She was born Moira Shearer King at Morton Lodge in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, in 1926, the only child of civil engineer Harold Charles King and Margaret Crawford Reid, née Shearer.[3] In 1931 her family moved to Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, where her father worked as a civil engineer and where she received her first dancing training under a former pupil of Enrico Cecchetti, focussed on the Russian dance curriculum.[4] The family returned to Scotland when she was 10. She was educated at Dunfermline High School and Bearsden Academy.[5]

When she returned to Britain with her parents in 1936, her mother took her to the London studio of the Russian ballet master Nicholas Legat. The studio manager, assuming that Shearer was a beginner, referred them to Flora Fairbairn, a well-regarded teacher of young dancers starting out. Three months later, by chance, Legat saw Shearer dance in a private recital and reportedly remarked, "This is no beginner," and accepted her as a pupil.[4][6]

Dance career[edit]

At Legat's studio she met the dancer and choreographer Mona Inglesby,[7] who gave Shearer a part in her new ballet Endymion, presented at an all star matinee at the Cambridge Theatre in 1938.[8] After three years at the Legat studio, she joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet School at 14. After the outbreak of the Second World War, her parents took her to live in Scotland.[4] She joined Mona Inglesby's International Ballet[9] for its 1941 provincial tour and West End season before moving on to Sadler's Wells in 1942.

Shearer's breakthrough role in her post-war dance career was her Sadler's Wells performance as Princess Aurora, the lead female role in The Sleeping Beauty on 1 March 1946. Margot Fonteyn had danced Princess Aurora on the gala opening night, 20 February 1946; Pamela May took the role the following night, and Shearer assumed the role a week later.[10] The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised her "extraordinary elegance and grace ... these are unteachable things, enchanting beyond technique."[11]

Other notable performances in this period include Shearer's role in Frederick Ashton's Symphonic Variations, which debuted at Covent Garden in April 1946, with Fonteyn in the lead female role,[12] and her interpretation of Swanhilda, the principal female role in Coppelia in October of that year, which one reviewer praised as "a performance memorable in her own career as well as in the annals of British ballet."[13]

During Shearer’s career at Sadler’s Wells, the prima ballerina of the company was Margot Fonteyn.[14] Shearer, seven years younger than Fonteyn, was among a group of talented younger dancers, including Beryl Grey and Violetta Elvin, who entered the company after the Second World War. In her autobiography, Fonteyn recognised their talents, saying of Shearer, “Then came Moira Shearer, with her incredible airy lightness and ease, to be a real threat to my position. Moira was young, fresh, beautiful and different.”[15] For as long as she remained at Sadler’s Wells, Shearer and Fonteyn were both colleagues and competitors.

Film career[edit]

Shearer first came to the public's attention as Posy Fossil in the advertisements for the Noel Streatfeild book Ballet Shoes while she was training under Flora Fairbairn, a good friend of Streatfeild.

She achieved international success with her first film role as Victoria Page in the Powell and Pressburger ballet-themed film The Red Shoes, (1948).[16] Even her hair matched the titular footwear, and the role and film were so powerful that although she went on to star in other films and worked as a dancer for many decades, she is primarily known for playing "Vicky".

Shearer retired from ballet in 1953, but she continued to act, appearing as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the 1954 Edinburgh Festival. She worked again for Powell in the films The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) and Peeping Tom (1960), which was controversial at the time of release and damaged Powell's own career.

In 1972, she was chosen by the BBC to present the Eurovision Song Contest when it was staged at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.[17] She also wrote for The Daily Telegraph newspaper and gave talks on ballet worldwide.

The choreographer Gillian Lynne persuaded her to return to ballet in 1987 to play L. S. Lowry's mother in A Simple Man for the BBC.

Personal life[edit]

In 1950, Moira Shearer married journalist and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy. They were married in the Chapel Royal in London's Hampton Court Palace.[16][18] She and Kennedy had a son, Alastair, and three daughters, Ailsa, Rachel, and Fiona. When her husband was knighted in 1994 for services to journalism, she could be addressed as Lady Kennedy.

Shearer died at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, England, at the age of 80.[19]

Filmography[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
1948 The Red Shoes Victoria Page
1951 The Tales of Hoffmann Stella / Olympia
1953 The Story of Three Loves Paula Woodward segment "The Jealous Lover"
1955 The Man Who Loved Redheads Sylvia / Daphne / Olga / Colette
1960 Peeping Tom Vivian
1961 Black Tights Roxane
1987 A Simple Man Mother made for television

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Òran na h-Eala". IMDb. Amazon.
  2. ^ "Òran na h-Eala". Film Directory. British Film Council.
  3. ^ Debra Craine; Judith Mackrell (2010). The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Oxford University Press. pp. 408–. ISBN 978-0-19-956344-9.
  4. ^ a b c Fisher, Hugh (1952). "Moira Shearer". Dancers of To-day. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ "Obituary of Moira Shearer". The Daily Telegraph. 2 February 2006. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  6. ^ Crowle, Pigeon (1949). Moira Shearer - Portrait of a Dancer. London: Faber & Faber. pp. 16–18.
  7. ^ Inglesby, Mona; Hunter, Kay (2008). "Ballet in the Blitz". Groundnut Publishing. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ Handley-Taylor, Geoffrey (1947). "Mona Inglesby, Ballerina and Choreographer". Vawser and Wiles. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ "Mona Inglesby". The Independent. London. 13 October 2006. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  10. ^ "At Covent Garden - Forecast of Ballet and Opera Plans". No. 3385. The Stage. 14 February 1946. p. 1. 'The Sleeping Beauty' ... will be given an uninterrupted four and a half-week season with alternative casts. On the first night, Margot Fonteyn will dance as Princess Aurora ... On the second night, Pamela May will dance as Princess Aurora.
  11. ^ "A New Dancer". Manchester Guardian. 2 March 1946. p. 4. This role, the ballet's main one, was being danced for the first time in the season, by Moira Shearer. An exciting event, as it proved, the more so for being unheralded.
  12. ^ "Covent Garden". No. 3396. The Stage. 2 May 1946. p. 8. a new ballet by Frederick Ashton
  13. ^ "Covent Garden". No. 3422. The Stage. 31 October 1946. p. 1. ... a performance memorable in her own career as well as in the annals of British ballet.
  14. ^ Daneman, Meredith (2004). Margot Fonteyn. New York: Viking. p. 212. ISBN 0670843709.
  15. ^ Fonteyn, Margot (1976). Margot Fonteyn - Autobiography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 107.
  16. ^ a b Percival, John. "Shearer, Moira". ODNB. OUP. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  17. ^ O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007. ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3.
  18. ^ "Moira of the Red Shoes". Photoplay. 1950.
  19. ^ Obituary in The New York Times, 2 February 2006. Retrieved 11 October 2014.

External links[edit]

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Preceded by Eurovision Song Contest presenter
1972 		Succeeded by
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