Dame Antoinette Sibley, DBE (born February 27, 1939, Bromley, Kent) is a British prima ballerina. She joined the Royal Ballet from the Royal Ballet School in 1956 and became a soloist in 1960. [1]
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Initially Sibley had relatively small roles such as a friend of Swanhilda in Coppelia or as Red Riding Hood in Sleeping Beauty. [2] Joan Lawson writing in The Dancing Times said of Sibley's dancing, "lyrical qualities and beautifully flowing line". [3] On 21 March 1959, Dame Ninette de Valois, artistic director of the Royal Ballet allowed Sibley to undertake her first major role at a matinee at the Royal Opera House. Sibley was cast as Swanhilda in Coppelia. During 1959, Sibley had the chance to be tutored by one of the greatest ballerinas of the twentieth century, Tamara Karsavina. [4] Karsavina said to Sibley,
"To get the full benefit from battements frappes we must train our muscles to give a quick reaction. This means that the degage must be sharp and in the nature of a 'hit out'." [5]
On 24 October 1959, Sibley was unexpectedly allowed to dance the lead role in Swan Lake partnered by Principal Dancer, Michael Somes. This was her big break. [6] Tours to the United States and the Soviet Union quickly followed. Natalia Roslavleva writing in The Ballet Annual observed of Sibley and the Royal Ballet when dancing in Moscow,
"Youthful charm, good technique and engaging personalities do part of the work for these dancers. To become great they will have to invest a lot of sweat and tears in the development of mature stagecraft." [7]
Sibley's first occasion to dance Aurora in Sleeping Beauty was on 27 December 1961. She danced with John Gilpin. The performance was noted, "Her Aurora, already enchanting, promises to be for her generation what Fonteyn's had been to mine." [8]
Sir Frederick Ashton's The Dream, a balletic version of William Shakespeare's famous play A Midsummer Night's Dream was created for Sibley and up and coming male dancer, Anthony Dowell. [9] Ashton cast Sibley as Tatiana and Dowell as Oberon. David Vaughan noted of the partnership,
"sure of a place in contemporary ballet history if only because it initiated a new partnership, Sibley and Dowell, that was to become second only to Fonteyn and Nureyev in popular esteem ..." [10]
Writing of Sibley's performance Vaughan further stated,
"no-one has managed to emulate Sibley's swiftness and her impersonation of a half-wild creature, nor the silken fluidity of Dowell's phrasing." [11]
Sibley was renowned during her time at the Royal Ballet for her performances in MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet. She also danced the major roles in the great classics of Odette and Odile in Swan Lake, the title role in Giselle and Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. Further roles were in Ashton's ballets, Symphonic Variations and Daphnis and Chloe, Jerome Robbins's Dances at a Gathering and Afternoon of a Faun. Sibley also was the ballerina MacMillan used to create the lead in Manon.
Sibley decided to retire from dancing after months of struggling with injury. She took the advice of Karsavina who had said, "leave the stage before the stage leaves you." [12] In retirement she became President of the Royal Academy of Dance in 1991.
Sibley was married to and divorced from the late dancer Michael Somes. Later she remarried in 1974 London-based banker, Panton Corbett.
Clarke, M., Antoinette Sibley, London, Dance Books, 1981 ISBN 0 903102 64 1
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