Beatrice Collenette

Beatrice Collenette (1899 – 2001) was a Guernsey-born American dancer and dance educator, and the founder of the Collenette School of Dancing in Pasadena, California in 1926. She was a protégée of Anna Pavlova and the first ballet teacher of Twyla Tharp.

Beatrice Collenette, from a 1921 publication

Early life and education

Collenette was born in Guernsey on the Channel Islands. After her father, physician Frank de Beauchamp Collenette, became too ill to practice, she moved to Londo, England, to perform and earn a living.[1]

She studied with Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova at Ivy House in London, and danced in her company.[2] Pavlova treated young Collenette almost as a daughter for a time, but she was irritated by the girl's preference for practicing technique at the expense of expressiveness.[3] After her time with Pavlova, she also studied with Enrico Cecchetti and Ivan Clustine.[4]

Career

Collenette was taken to the United States after World War I by theatrical manager Henry Wilson Savage.[5] She appeared on the Broadway stage twice in musicals: in Zelda Sears's Lady Billy (1920–1921), and in Jack and Jill (1923). In 1926, Collenette founded the Collenette School of Dancing in Pasadena, California. By 1931, she was appearing in regional newspaper advertisements, endorsing Welch's Grape Juice.[6] In 1936, Collenette was chosen to teach San Francisco Ballet classes during Adolph Bolm's absence.[7] Her ballet company mostly performed at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, but also toured regionally and nationally.[8][9][10]

Among her young students in the 1950s was dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp.[11][12]

Personal life and legacy

Collenette married journalist Joseph Kenyon Ivie, moved to California, and had a daughter, Joan Collenette Damon, who followed her mother into dance education as head of the Collenette School of Dancing for forty years, until she retired in 2002. Beatrice Collenette marked her 100th birthday with family and former students in San Juan Capistrano in 1999.[2] She died in 2001, aged 102 years.[1]

The Collenette school remains in operation in San Marino, California as of December 2017.[13][14]

References
  1. Mary Reinholz, "Beauty in Motion" Archived 2017-12-17 at the Wayback Machine Pasadena Weekly (November 26, 2014).
  2. Eleanor Yang, "Dance in her Heart" Los Angeles Times (June 28, 1999). via Newspapers.comopen access
  3. Carrie Gaiser Casey, "Pavlova and her Daughters: Genealogies of Contingent Autonomy" in Melanie Bales, Karen Eliot, eds., Dance on Its Own Terms: Histories and Methodologies (Oxford University Press 2013): 218. ISBN 9780199940004
  4. "Ballet Group to Give Concert" San Bernardino County Sun (July 22, 1937): 15. via Newspapers.comopen access
  5. "Liberty" Brooklyn Life (April 2, 1921): 15. via Newspapers.comopen access
  6. Welch's Grape Juice advertisement, Los Angeles Times (August 28, 1931): 8. via Newspapers.comopen access
  7. Isabel Morse Jones, "Collenette Chosen" Los Angeles Times (February 9, 1936): C8.
  8. "Ballet Wins Approval at El Capitan" Los Angeles Times (July 21, 1932): 11.
  9. "Evening of Dance to be Presented" Los Angeles Times (August 9, 1931): B12.
  10. "Collenette Dancers Give Outstanding Program at Bowl" San Bernardino County Sun (July 24, 1937): 13. via Newspapers.comopen access
  11. Amelia Derezinski, Twyla Tharp (Rosen Classroom 2006): 10-11. ISBN 9781404206465
  12. James Robert Parish, Twyla Tharp (Infobase Publishing 2009): 14-15. ISBN 9781438112114
  13. About page, Collenette School of Dancing.
  14. Stacy Lee, "Collenette School of Dancing Marks 90th Season" San Marino Tribune (October 27, 2015).
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