Opera Scotland

Peter Darrell Suggest updates

English dancer, choreographer and director.

Peter Darrell was the founder Director of Scottish Ballet (formed by transferring his Western Theatre Ballet company to Glasgow in 1969). He began his career dancing with ballet companies in England and Sweden. As co-founder of Western Theatre Ballet in 1959, he pioneered a repertoire of ballets on subjects usually seen in films and plays, but not in the medium of dance. He specialised in narrative ballet, both in the theatre and for television. He created ballets in Canada, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and America.

For Scottish Ballet he created successful and freshly thought through productions of traditional classics such as Giselle (1970) and Swan Lake (1977). Among his new works were Beauty and the Beast (1969, with music by Thea Musgrave), Tales of Hoffmann, Cinderella, and Mary Queen of Scots, which was premiered at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in March 1976. A one-act ballet, The Scarlet Pastorale, with music by Frank Martin, was one of the last new works created for Dame Margot Fonteyn.