Cyril w beaumont biography of abraham hamilton

BEAUMONT, Cyril W. A Short History of Ballet.

The great and the good of the dance world went to learn from his vast store of knowledge, to reminisce about the golden years of the Diaghilev company, or just to exchange gossip; younger people, just starting out on a lifetime of dance-watching, went of course for the books and the magazines and the memorabilia — it was a sort of anteroom to dance heaven — but also, in my case at least, just for a glimpse of the great man himself, the man who wrote the majestical Complete Book of Ballets, amongst so much else.

By the time I met him, Mr Beaumont was around very quietly spoken, formally dressed, extremely polite and apparently very much wrapped up in his own world — it was quite a surprise to discover he would do such mundane tasks as organising subscriptions to the big American dance periodicals, and quite amazingly flattering when he eventually learnt my name and even — unasked — wrote a dedication in the front of one of his books for me.

He grumbled but clearly became fond of her and took her, to a certain extent, into his confidence. In the DARK. Much more interesting are the descriptions of the people who came to the shop: Mr Beaumont encouraged her to keep a journal a copy is now in the ROH archives and so we can hear for instance about Margaret Rolfe, who as a child had been taught by Marie Taglioni and still had souvenirs the great ballerina had given her.

She gives us with an affectionate, though not uncritical, portrait of a remarkable man and I found it very easy to like him: he claimed he could turn very nasty when necessary though it seems a very mild nastiness and mostly deserved , and it sounds as if he could be infuriatingly stubborn; but mostly he comes over as a much warmer and more fallible person than I would ever have guessed.

For a more formal account of C. She contributed regularly to Dance Now for its last 10 years and wrote for the Yearbook of the Encyclopaedia Britannica - ; she writes a 'London Letter' for the Washington-based quarterly, Dance View. She is based in London and also makes several trips to Copenhagen each season. Update: In June Jane decided to retire from writing - see more on this page.

The above list is composed of those whose work we feature regularly and have generally contributed in the last few months.

Since leaving Lloyds in he has been an insurance consultant, arbitrator, mediator and expert witness.

You must be logged in to post a comment. Jane Simpson. Book cover. Cyril Beaumont at his home in Bedford Court Mansions. The statuette is of Emma Livry.