Annette Page
Quick Facts
Biography
Annette Page (born 1932) is an English former ballerina.
Life
Brought up in Manchester, Page began to take ballet classes when she was about four. This led to her taking Royal Academy of Dance exams, and seeing the Royal Ballet in Manchester persuaded her to pursue a dance career. When she was twelve she auditioned for Ninette de Valois, who offered her a scholarship to attend the Royal Ballet School, at which she began during the final year of the Second World War.
At the age of seventeen she was given a contract by Sadlers Wells, the Royal Ballet's touring company, and a year later joined the Royal Ballet. began to .
Page's debut in 1949 was as the balletic dog 'Pepe' in a revival of the 1930s one-act ballet A Wedding Bouquet, She did however rise to become a principal ballerina dancing all the great classical and romantic roles, usually partnered by her husband Ronald Hynd. Other partners included Christopher Gable, Donald MacLeary, Anthony Dowell and Rudolph Nureyev, with whom she danced The Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadere. Her farewell performance was in April 1967 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where she danced the role of Lise in Ashton's La fille mal gardée. And her final performance was as Cinderella with the Royal Ballet in Seattle, in which she had created a record by dancing the role twice in one day at the Royal Opera House.
She was later to assist her husband (Ronald Hynd) during his directorship of The Bavarian State Ballet, Munich and was a Member of The Arts Council of Great Britain. Her daughter, Louise was born in April 1968.