Valerie Adams

My Life with the Royal Ballet As a Dancer and Teacher Valerie Adams

In this book Valerie Adams describes her early days at the Wessex School of Dancing in Bournemouth and joining the Sadler's Wells Upper School in London. After she became a member of the Sadler's Wells Company at the Royal Opera House, she went with the Company on their 3rd tour of the USA and Canada and went again the following year, with Moira Shearer and Robert Helpmann in the Old Vic production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Dame Ninette de Valois trained Valerie Adams to teach and she went on to teach at the Sadler's Wells School. She was invited by the Dutch Government to form a Ballet School at the Koninklijk Conservatorium voor Muziek at The Hague, in order to produce dancers for the three Dutch Ballet Companies. After five and a half years, she returned to teach at The Royal Ballet School, as it is now known. And two years later, Dame Ninette invited her to be at her side when she formed a Teachers' Course. She became Course Director in 1971, and finally retired in 2000. This book is her story, and the story of the Course.