Ivor Forbes Guest

Ivor Forbes Guest

Ivor Guest, 16 April 2010
Born (1920-04-14) 14 April 1920
Chislehurst, England
Occupation Historian, lawyer and administrator
Language English
Nationality British
Period 1953–2008
Genre History
Subject Ballet, Napoleon III
Notable awards Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
2000
Spouse Ann Hutchinson Guest (m. 1962)
Relatives Ernest Lucas Guest (uncle)

Ivor Forbes Guest DUniv MA FRAD (born 14 April 1920) worked professionally as a lawyer, but is best known as a historian for his study of ballet. He was chairman of the Royal Academy of Dance for twenty three years (1970–93) and has been a Vice-President since 1993[1] and Secretary then Trustee of the Radcliffe Trust.[2][3] In 1997 he was made a Doctor of the University by the University of Surrey, its highest honorary doctorate.[4]

He is married to the movement notation expert Ann Hutchinson Guest and acts as a trustee of the Language of Dance Centre, which she founded.[5]

Early life

Ivor Guest was born on 14 April 1920 in Chislehurst, Kent, England.[4] Guest's father, Cecil Marmaduke Guest served as a lieutenant in the Transvaal Scottish in the First World War and was later made up to captain, serving with the South African Scottish in France, where he was gassed. Declared unfit for further service he remained in England.[6] He married Ivor's mother, Christian Forbes-Tweedie on 30 July 1918.[7][8]

Ballet historian

Photo of the ballerina Giuseppina Bozzachi (1853–1870) costumed as Swanilda in the ballet Coppélia. Paris, France, 1870, reproduced in Guest's The Ballet of the Second Empire

Guest's first book, Napoleon III in England (1952), came from an interest in his birth town's association with the exiled Napoleon III. Then, despite a successful career as a lawyer, Guest spent holidays and other leisure time researching the ballet of the Second Empire in the archives of the Bibliothèque de l'Opéra in Paris, producing two volumes on the subject entitled The Ballet of the Second Empire (1953, 1955).[9]

He received tributes in Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research in 1995,[9] the year of his 75th birthday; and in Dance Chronicle in 2001.[4]

Publications

Guest's writing focuses primarily on the ballet in Paris, at the Opéra, in the years 1770 to 1870. He also chronicles the international careers of some of ballet's stars.[4]

Ballet

Other history

Honours

In 1997, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award for services to ballet which is the RAD's highest honour; he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award.[1] In 2000 he received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Royal Academy of Dance – Vice Presidents". Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  2. ↑ "The Radcliffe Trust". Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  3. ↑ "Charity Performance". Retrieved 5 January 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Dorris, George (2001). "'Ivor Guest – An Appreciation'". Dance Chronicle (Marcel Dekker, Inc) 24 (1, Tribute to Ivor Guest): 1–5. doi:10.1081/dnc-100103139. JSTOR 1568050.
  5. ↑ "Language of Dance Centre – People Involved". Retrieved 5 January 2011.
  6. ↑ Gale, William Daniel (1974). History of Coghlan, Welsh & Guest. p. 36. ASIN B004H70LE2.
  7. ↑ The Tweedie Family (PDF). 2005. p. 90. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  8. ↑ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  9. 1 2 Clarke, Mary; Crisp, Clement (Summer 1995). "Ivor Guest: By Way of an Introduction". Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research (Edinburgh University Press) 13 (1, Ivor Guest 75th Birthday Celebration Issue): 2–6. JSTOR 1290897.
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