Ninette de Valois rehearsing A Wedding Bouquet in 1950

Ninette de Valois (third from right) created the role of Webster, the maid, in Frederick Ashton’s ballet A Wedding Bouquet (1937). Here she rehearses with members of the Sadler's Wells Ballet for a gala in May 1950, in which she danced the part. In the 1949/50 season, Palma Nye, far left, danced the role. In this photograph, de Valois is in position as Webster within the group, while Nye does the character’s steps at the side. 

Photograph by Roger Wood © Royal Ballet and Opera, Roger Wood Photographic Collection

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