N.Z. DANCER’S FEAT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21923, 18 January 1946, Page 4

N.Z. DANCER’S FEAT

SCHOLARSHIP WON

BALLET IN BRITAIN

POPULARITY IN N.Z.

(Special Correspondent.) (9 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 17. A young New Zealander, Alexander Grant, has the distinction of being the first overseas winner of a scholarship awarded by the Royal Academy of Dancing to come to England since the war. He is expected to reach London next month to join the Sadlers Wells Ballet School.

This was announced by Madame Genee, the academy's famous president, at its silver jubilee dinner. In the 25 years since this organisation began, she said, ballet dancing had steadily increased in public interest throughout Britain. Miss Ellen Wilkinson, Minister of Education, declared that the ballet was an international . language, and Sir Alan Herbert, better known as Mr. A. P. Herbert, although he admitted not having seen a ballet for 20 years, said he hoped that in future ballet dancing in Britain would receive more attention from the State.

The big event in the ballet world will occur next month when “Sleeping Beauty” will be presented at the reopened Covent Garden. Indicating the increased interest taken in ballet dancing in New Zealand, the academy’s, silver jubilee record shows that the number of entries in major examinations increased from 57 in 1935 to 258 in 1944. Similarly, entries in the children’s examinations increased from 67 to 654.