Stanley Williams (ballet)

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Stanley Williams (1925 - 1997) was a dancer and, later, a renowned ballet instructor.

[edit] Early Days

Stanley Williams was born in England, with an English father and a Danish mother. The family soon moved to Denmark, and Stanley was enrolled at the Royal Danish School of Ballet. His instruction was steeped in the Bournonville tradition, training with Harald Lander, although he also studied with Vera Volkova, a disciple of Agrippina Vaganova. In 1943, Stanley joined the Royal Danish Ballet, becoming a principal dancer six years later, and by 1950 he had begun teaching at the Royal Danish School of Ballet in Copenhagen.

In the 1950's, Stanley Williams was performing as a principal dancer with George Krista's Ballet Comique in London, where he also stood as balletmaster.

By 1964, Stanley's reputation had reached George Balanchine, who invite him to instruct at the School of American Ballet in New York City.

[edit] New York

From 1964 until his death in 1997, Stanley Williams was first among instructors at the School of American Ballet. As a teacher, he was soft-spoken and his class followed a routine pattern that was familiar to those who had taken his class before (but that was sometimes hard to follow for those who hadn't).

His original teaching style relied a lot on exercises to develop speed, foot work and petit allegro (small jumps), in the tradition of the Bournonville and Balanchine ballet styles. Williams contrasted slow movement with sudden, almost spastic moves, and spoke in vague terms that some students found hard to understand. One of his famous phrases was "You're going out, you have to go in," which he constantly repeated to correct many different types of movements and steps without being too specific.

Williams often stressed his dislike of certain features of the Russian ballet style, which in his opinion, lacked the movement flow, continuity and contrast he was seeking. He smoked a pipe and was the only person allowed to smoke in the Rose building, where SAB and NYCB are situated. He apparently accepted the job as a teacher on the condition that he be allowed to smoke in the building. The smell of his pipe, which often pervaded the SAB corridors, became associated with him and SAB.