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Introduction. The interviews excerpted here were conducted by Dale Harris in Shearer’s home in Edinburgh in 1976 and 1978, 25 to 30 years after the fact. Harris was an American dance critic and historian. The transcript in the New York Library archive is in its original typed form with redactions and edits, some in Shearer’s…
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When Moira Shearer transferred from the International Ballet to the Sadler’s Wells Ballet in the spring of 1942, she was moving from a very small barebones company of 21 to 22 dancers to a considerably larger one, which according to the published programmes, had a complement of between 29 to 34. The International Ballet…
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Moira Shearer had celebrated her 16th birthday in February 1942 while The International Ballet, for whom she then worked, were on the road in Sheffield in the north of England. Soon afterwards she left that company and, around the middle of March, joined The Sadler’s Wells Ballet that was based at the New Theatre…
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The May 1958 issue of the vaguely risqué British magazine, Men Only, included an article on Moira Shearer by the American writer, Sam Solon (S. L. Solon). The article was titled “Bewildered Beauty” and explored Shearer’s career as an actress. The cover of the May 1958 issue of Men Only. The artwork is by the…
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In 1987, while he was working in California, Powell wrote an article for the magazine, American Film. It was titled “Dance, Girl, Dance” and documented how, 40 years earlier, he persuaded Moira Shearer to appear in his film, “The Red Shoes”. The article is reproduced below with minor edits intended to add clarity to…
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When asked by a reporter during one of her lecture tours of the U.S. in the 1980s why she took on such a long and exhausting schedule, Moira Shearer replied succinctly, “I have a terrible overdraft”. Needless to say, she was being euphemistic. One of her chroniclers at the time described the Kennedy family…
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At some time in the early summer of 1947 and before filming began on June 22nd, Michael Powell, director of the film “The Red Shoes”, convened a meeting at his house on Melbury Road, west London. Present were his co-director and producer, Emeric Pressburger, Anton Walbrook, the lead male actor, Moira Shearer, Hein Heckroth,…
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Writing in the May 1948 issue of the magazine, “Sound”, under the title, “Ballerina; a study of Moira Shearer”, Jean Tucker, their dance critic, looked forward, perhaps a little apprehensively, to the projected September general release of the film, “The Red Shoes”. In it, Shearer played the part of a young dancer who was…
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There follows a skeletal, fragmentary account of the life that Moira Shearer and Ludovic Kennedy spent together, primarily during their 56-year marriage. It is based on a 10-year search of the public record that includes newspaper/magazine articles and interviews of the subject by writers, critics and historians. In public Moira Shearer maintained her “stage…
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On February 2nd, 1944, The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer reported that the Sadler’s Wells Ballet (SWB) were closing their London season at the New Theatre on February 5th and that on Monday, February 7th “they begin an Ensa tour …..Miss Margot Fonteyn and the rest of the company and orchestra, a total of…
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Moira Shearer had about a dozen homes in her lifetime; those in which she lived after 1950 she shared with her husband, Ludovic Kennedy and, after 1952 with their children. By the time, in 1985, Mr and Mrs Kennedy moved into their new home, “Rose Cottage” in Avebury, Wiltshire, they were “empty nesters”. …
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On January 16th, 1947, Moira Shearer made a presentation to 400 students of the Royal Academy of Dancing and the Arts (RADA) in London on the problems she experienced in dancing and acting in the film, The Red Shoes. Her presentation was reported in the Daily Express the following day, under the headline, “Making…
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In early March 1973 Moira Shearer left the comfort of her home at The Old Manse in Makerstoun, Scotland and travelled to the US to begin a gruelling 6-week lecture tour. She was 47 years old, had been married for 23 years and had 4 children. The theme of the lectures was “The History…
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(All credit for this post goes to Scott Bilotta, an American who researches the history of photography and collects materials related to this. In his collection he has an envelope containing three glass plate negatives that resulted from a photo shoot of Moira Shearer in New York in October 1949.) On October 4th, 1949,…
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The Old Vic presented a lavish and highly criticized production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Edinburgh Festival in late August and early September 1954. Robert Helpmann, the former Sadler’s Wells dancer portrayed Oberon and Moira Shearer played Titania in her first major dramatic role. The play ran for 2 weeks between August…
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Up until 1948 Moira Shearer was virtually unknown outside the British ballet world. But on July 22nd of that year the film “The Red Shoes” premiered at the Gaumont Theatre in the Haymarket in London. The film went out to general release in the U.K. in early September and soon after Moira Shearer became…
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Moira Shearer declined to write her autobiography. Probably at her publisher’s suggestion, later in life, she began to write one but after a few weeks gave up. She decided that she had no desire to reminisce on paper. Since then and since her death in 2006 there has been no attempt at a biography…
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In 1931 when Moira Shearer, who was then known as Moira King, was five years old she accompanied her parents to live in the small town of Ndola in Northern Rhodesia. Her father was a civil engineer and was working to help establish the copper industry there. The following year Shearer’s mother enrolled her…
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Moira Shearer’s dancing was often compared to that of her close contemporaries Beryl Grey and Violetta Elvin and most especially to that of Margot Fonteyn. Some critics talked of her dancing in “the shadow” of Fonteyn and, true as this might have been, it did not concern Shearer. She strove to emulate Fonteyn but…
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Moira Shearer’s career in cinema was closely related to that of Michael Powell. A majority of the films she made were directed by him and he knew well how to showcase her many talents. One of these was her natural colouring, her pale skin, her auburn hair and her dark grey-blue eyes. It was…
