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Wendy Ellis Somes | |
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| Born | Wendy Rose Ellis Blackburn,Lancashire, England |
| Occupation | Ballerina |
| Spouse | Michael Somes |
Wendy Ellis Somes is a former principalballerina with theRoyal Ballet inLondon, and is now a worldwide producer of theSir Frederick Ashton balletsCinderella andSymphonic Variations.
She was born Wendy Rose Ellis inBlackburn, and received her early training at the Carlotta School of Dance, later winning aBritish Ballet Organization scholarship. In 1963 she was selected to study at theRoyal Ballet School, and moved to London with her parents to continue training. She started there in 1963 and joined the Royal Ballet in 1970.
Initially part of thecorps de ballet, Ellis quickly progressed to solo roles such as Princess Florine inSleeping Beauty, the Young Girl in Ashton'sThe Two Pigeons and Lise in another Ashton ballet,La fille mal gardée. It was during this time that she met her future husbandMichael Somes.
Ellis later danced in many Royal Ballet productions, with notable main/leading parts in ballets by Ashton (Cinderella, La fille mal gardée, Symphonic Variations,The Dream,Enigma Variations,A Month in the Country,Jazz Calendar,Les Patineurs, A Wedding Bouquet,Façade), alongside roles in hisLes Rendezvous,Scènes de ballet,Birthday Offering,La Valse andMonotones I). She danced main roles in the ballets ofSir Kenneth MacMillan (Romeo and Juliet,Mayerling,Gloria), with the role of Princess Stephanie in Mayerling[1], and her role in Gloria[2], created for her by MacMillan. Among the other MacMillan works, she performed inThe Rite of Spring,The Invitation,Song of the Earth,Elite Syncopations andMy Brother, My Sisters. She also danced in works byGeorge Balanchine,Bronislava Nijinska,Hans van Manen,Jerome Robbins andJohn Neumeier, and in the classics, including the main role of Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. She retired from dancing in 1990.
After retiring, Ellis began to work more closely with Somes on ballet production. Somes and Ashton had been friends and collaborators since beforeWorld War II in 1939, and Somes had staged many of Ashton's ballets[3]at the Royal Ballet and elsewhere after his retirement from classical dancing in 1961 (he continued in character roles for a number of years afterwards). Ashton bequeathed his Cinderella and Symphonic Variations to Somes on his death in 1988. Ellis and Somes together produced Cinderella with theRoyal Swedish Ballet inStockholm, and Symphonic Variations withDutch National Ballet inAmsterdam, followed byAmerican Ballet Theatre[4]inNew York. Somes then willed his Ashton ballets to Ellis, and they passed to her on his death in 1994.[5]
Ellis subsequently produced Ashton's Cinderella with theNational Ballet of Japan at theNew National Theatre[6]inTokyo, the Royal Ballet itself[7](creating a new production with designersToer van Schayk[8]and Christine Haworth[9]in 2003, and a further new production collaboration in 2023 with sets by Tom Pye[10]and costumes byAlexandra Byrne), theJoffrey Ballet inChicago[11][12]andLos Angeles[13], thePolish National Ballet[14]inWarsaw,Ballet West[15][16]inSalt Lake City,Boston Ballet[17]inBoston andAmerican Ballet Theatre[18][19] inNew York. She produced Symphonic Variations again with the Dutch National Ballet after the passing of Somes, followed by theNational Ballet of Canada inToronto, the Royal Ballet[20][21][22], theSan Francisco Ballet[23]inSan Francisco, theBirmingham Royal Ballet[24][25] atSadler's Wells Theatre in London,Sarasota Ballet[26][27]inSarasota,Florida,Australian Ballet[28]inSydney,Australia,Ballett am Rhein[29]inDüsseldorf,Germany andthe Washington Ballet[30]inWashington, D.C.
Ellis was part of the 1978The South Bank Show television documentary about Mayerling.[31]
At the invitation ofMargot Fonteyn, Ellis featured in the 1979 BBC Television seriesThe Magic of Dance.[32]