| Collecting Strand | National Resource Centre for Dance |
| Level | Collection |
| Ref No | BB |
| Title | Bice Bellairs Collection of Revived Greek Dance |
| Date | 1896-1967 |
| Extent | 6 linear metres |
| Name of Creator | Bellairs; Beatrice (1910-1991); dancer, choreographer and educator |
| Description | Bice (Beatrice) Bellairs was a student of Ruby Ginner in the 1920s and 1930s and went on to set up her own school in London which later moved to Guildford and became the Guildford School of Acting.
Ruby Ginner was the founder of the Revived Greek dance method, later named Classical Greek Dance. She founded the Grecian Dancers company and then the Ruby Ginner School of Dance which subsequently became the Ginner-Mawer School of Dance and Drama. In addition, she founded the Association of Teachers of the Revived Greek Dance (ATRGD) which later became the Greek Dance Association and was affiliated to the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) Greek Dance Branch.
The collection largely comprises material given by Ruby Ginner to Bice Bellairs though some material may have come directly from Bice Bellairs or her school. Additionally, this collection includes issues of the Greek Dance Association journal (BB/K/1) which were donated by a former pupil of Ruby Ginner.
The collection includes vinyl records, scores, books and periodicals, photographs, posters and programmes, and film footage featuring Pauline Grant and the Ballet Group.
The records of a number organisations and activities feature in this collection, including:
- photographs, programmes and scrapbooks and scores relating to the Ginner Mawer School
- posters relating to performances by the Ginner-Mawer Theatre Company
- scrapbooks, publicity material and paperwork relating to the Greek Dance Festival
- papers, publicity, lectures, programmes and periodicals produced by the Association of Teachers of the Revived Greek Dance/Greek Dance Association
- papers relating to the Ruby Ginner Cup.
In addition there are records relating to Greek dance lectures given by Ruby Ginner; publicity material relating to Ruby Ginner and Irene Mawer dance performances; and articles written by both Ginner and Mawer. Photographs include Anna Pavlova, Ruby Ginner and Irene Mawer.
A particular highlight of the collection are the scrapbooks (BB/N) which contain material covering Ruby Ginner and Irene Mawers' careers, the performances of the Ginner-Mawer Company and the career of Alexander Dyer, Ginner's husband. Some of the scrapbooks also relate to Ginner's friend, the ballerina Anna Pavlova. |
| Arrangement | Material arranged at time of cataloguing according to the format-based classification scheme which was then in use by the National Resource Centre for Dance. |
| Administrative History | Bice (Beatrice) Bellairs was a student of Ruby Ginner (see below) in the 1920s and 30s, her name appears on several of the theatre programmes in the collection when she performed as a child dancer. In 1935 she set up her own school in London with a fellow student Pauline Grant - the Grant Bellairs School of Dance and Drama. This relocated to Guildford where Bice remained until she retired in 1986. Some of the material in the collection (such as books and music scores) has the Bellairs stamp on, suggesting it came from her school. Bellairs remained a close friend of Ginner's and, as such, much of the material such as scrapbooks was passed directly to Bice from Ruby Ginner.
Ruby Ginner was born in Cannes and moved to England when she was eleven. She studied ballet whilst also playing many juvenile dramatic roles under the direction of Elsie Fogerty and Frank Benson. Working with Fogerty on Greek choruses she began research at the British Museum to learn about ancient Greek dance and movement. After founding the company Grecian Dancers, who performed in London, she established the Ruby Ginner School of Dance where she was later joined by the mime artist, Irene Mawer. The school was renamed the Ginner-Mawer School of Dance and Drama. Ginner also founded the Association of Teachers of the Revived Greek Dance (ATRGD) which later became the Greek Dance Association and was affiliated to the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) Greek Dance Branch. During the late 1920s-early 1930s, Ginner choreographed performances for the Greek Festival of Drama, Folk Song and Dance in Athens and outdoor performances in Hyde Park and Regents Park, London. In 1936, with the ATRGD, Ginner also presented a Greek Dance Festival (featuring 400 performers) at the Royal Albert Hall.
Ruby Ginner's Revived Greek Dance (subsequently, Classical Greek Dance) drew on athletics, drama and dance with an allegiance to ancient Greek ideals. The movements arranged by Ginner originated from her artefact based study of dancing figures from the ancient Greek arts. The method explores various styles: lyrical, athletic, bacchic, pyrrhic, tragic and choric. The use of props such as spears, swords and shields, cymbals, tambors and thyrsi was common to several of these styles. There is attention to opposition and symmetry and angular designs which are layered onto steps such as walks, skips and runs. The athletic work came from the athletics in Greek art and echoed its archery positions and javelin hurls. Dramatic expression and its emotional resonances were also features of this form. Ginner was awarded the Gold Leaf commemorative medal and a diploma by the Hellenic Red Cross for services to Greece in the Second World War. She was also awarded an MBE in 1968 and was still working at the age of 80. |
| Related Material | See also the following collections held by the University of Surrey:
the Classical Greek Dance Collection, archive ref CGD, held by the University of Surrey. This contains material donated by other students of Ruby Ginner and Revived/Classical Greek Dance.
Guildford School of Acting archive, archive ref GSA |
| Custodial History | The core of this collection is material given by Ruby Ginner to Bice Bellairs. On her death in 1991 it was given to the Guilford School of Acting and then was donated to the National Resource Centre for Dance in 1997.
Additonal material was given by Bice Bellairs to the University of Surrey Dance and Culture Course Director and subsequently given to the National Resource Centre for Dance in 1998.
A batch of material including the Greek Dance Association Journal was given to the National Resource Centre of Dance in 2008 and was subsequently catalogued as part of this collection. |