The unlikely birthplace of modern British ballet

A Buddhist centre on a busy street in Cambridge is believed to be the unlikely birthplace of modern British ballet.

The Cambridge Buddhist Centre, on Newmarket Road, is one of only four Georgian theatres remaining in the country, according to the centre's archivist Kulapida.

The space was hugely influential on the ballerina, choreographer and founder of the Royal Ballet, Dame Ninette de Valois, who worked there in the late 1920s, when it was known as the Festival Theatre.

"It was really the place that she did learn to become a modern, creative choreographer," said Dr Anna Meadmore, the Royal Ballet School's archivist.

The space, which was first called the Theatre Royal, was built in about 1814 and attracted famous actors of the day, including Sheridan Knowles and Charles Kean, while author Charles Dickens gave readings of his books, but by the 1870s, it had gone bankrupt.

Kulapida said: "The most important thing happened in 1926, when it was taken over by this quite incredible, quite eccentric man called Terence Gray, a millionaire.

"He wanted to get away from realist theatre, to produce something which was quite abstract; for him movement and light were much more important than words and it has parallels with what was going on in experimental theatre in those grand centres of Europe."

Influenced by the modern theatre designer, Edward Gordon Craig, Gray ripped out the theatre's private boxes and created a more open stage.

Having done so, the site was renamed the Cambridge Festival Theatre and he invited his cousin Dame Ninette to choreograph a number of its performances, including its first night.

Meadmore said: "It was a very innovative architectural space at the Festival Theatre with its apron stage and this created a space for her to think about movement in a different way."

She said Gray's ethos of "wanting to constantly be experimental" affected every design element of the productions, including "not only costume, not only minimal scenery, but also this extraordinarily sophisticated lighting, which was truly innovative".

"So things like pools of light into which actors would move, this was really new; it's not just like following a main performer with a spotlight," she said and all this influenced the way Dame Ninette worked going forward.

Gray then invited his friend the Irish poet W.B. Yeats over from Dublin, introducing him to Dame Ninette, who was created a dame in 1951.

Meadmore said: "She was thrilled when Yeats told her how much he admired the movement that she had choreographed for his play On Baile's Strand, and it was this connection that led to the collaboration of them working together at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

"If she hadn't worked at the Festival Theatre, she would not have worked with Yeats, and that dynamic between those two theatres was incredibly important to her as a young creator."

Dame Ninette founded the Vic-Wells Ballet Company and the Sadler's Wells School with Lilian Baylis, later renamed the Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School.

The Festival Theatre closed in 1939, was used as a store by the Arts Theatre in the 1960s and became the Cambridge Buddhist Centre in 1998.

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