{{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = Lady St. Johnston | name = Alice Lethbridge | image = AliceLethbridge1912.tif | alt = Alice Lethbridge, from a 1912 publication. | caption = Alice Lethbridge, from a 1912 publication. | birth_name = Alice Matilda Lethbridge | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1866|01|29}} | birth_place = Clerkenwell, London, England, UK | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1948|02|04|1866|01|29}} | death_place = Eastbourne, England, UK | other_names = Alice Turner<br>Alice St. Johnston | occupation = Dancer | spouse = {{plainlist| *{{marriage|Henry Jameson Turner|9 December 1889|2 December 1898|end=d}} *{{marriage|Sir Reginald St. Johnston|12 June 1906}} }} }}
'''Alice Matilda Lethbridge''' (29 January 1866 – 4 February 1948) was an English music hall dancer and Gaiety Girl, best known for her "skirt dance" act.
==Early life== Alice Matilda Lethbridge was born in Clerkenwell, the daughter of Thomas and Louisa (née Holliday) Lethbridge. Travel writer Grace Marguerite Hay Drummond-Hay was her niece, the daughter of her brother Sidney Lethbridge. Alice Lethbridge studied dance with John D'Auban.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LLZHAAAAIAAJ&q=Alice+Lethbridge+dance&pg=PA122|title=A History of Dancing|last=St.-Johnston|first=Sir Reginald|date=1906|publisher=Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Company|pages=122–25}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30238336/alice_lethbridge_1894/|title=A Chat, with Miss Alice Lethbridge|date=March 17, 1894|work=The Era|access-date=April 3, 2019|page=11|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Career== Lethbridge was a Gaiety Girl, best known for performing a "skirt dance",<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtZAAAAAIAAJ&q=Alice+Lethbridge+dance&pg=PA81|title=Modern Dancing and Dancers|last=Flitch|first=John Ernest Crawford|date=1912|publisher=Grant, Richards, Limited|pages=81|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g7vtBsF5OH0C&q=Alice+Lethbridge+dance&pg=PA154|title=Tap Roots: The Early History of Tap Dancing|last=Knowles|first=Mark|date=2002-05-20|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786412679|pages=154|language=en}}</ref> in which she manipulated a voluminous long skirt while dancing, swirling the fabric to reveal glimpses of knees and thighs.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PMoJI880ifEC&q=Alice+Lethbridge+dance&pg=PA2|title=Fifty Contemporary Choreographers|last=Bremser|first=Martha|date=1999|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=9780415103633|page=2}}</ref>
Lethbridge's version of the skirt dance involved arching her back almost to the horizontal, a challenging position that may have inspired similar moves for American dancer Loie Fuller.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UtPbjaGZ4GoC&q=Alice+Lethbridge+dance&pg=PA18|title=Traces of Light: Absence and Presence in the Work of Loïe Fuller|last=Albright|first=Ann Cooper|date=2007-09-04|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|isbn=9780819568434|pages=18|language=en}}</ref> In 1896 she was described as "the tallest dancer on the English stage".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Whizz|date=October 3, 1896|title=Out and About|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h1s2AQAAMAAJ&q=Alice+Lethbridge+dance&pg=PA11|journal=Pick-me-up|volume=17|pages=11}}</ref>
She was appearing in the musical farce ''A Man About Town'' in 1897,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Whizz|date=January 16, 1897|title=Out and About|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h1s2AQAAMAAJ&q=Alice+Lethbridge+dance&pg=PA251|journal=Pick-me-up|volume=17|pages=251}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nF8pAgAAQBAJ&q=Alice+Lethbridge+dance&pg=PA325|title=The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel|last=Wearing|first=J.P.|date=2013-11-21|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810892828|pages=70, 86, 230, 325}}</ref> when George Bernard Shaw reviewed her work as "sufficiently hard-working and conscientious" but showing "no compensating brilliancy in the twinkling of her feet".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bernard Shaw|first=George|date=January 9, 1897|title=A Musical Farce|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFlJAQAAMAAJ&q=Alice+Lethbridge+dance&pg=RA1-PA38|journal=Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art|volume=83|pages=38}}</ref> Other shows featuring Lethbridge were ''Mynheer Jan'' (1887), in which she danced a "vigorous" saltarello,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=H. W. O. H.|date=March 1, 1887|title=Drama|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UtPbjaGZ4GoC&q=Alice+Lethbridge+dance&pg=PA18|journal=The Artist|volume=8|pages=88–89|isbn=9780819568434}}</ref> ''Carina'' (1888), ''La Prima Donna'' (1889),<ref name=":2" /> ''Robert Macaire'' (1891), ''Joan of Arc'' (1891),<ref name=":1"/> ''Cinder-Ellen'' (1892), ''Little Christopher Columbus'' (1894),<ref name=":0"/> and ''Baron Golosh'' (1895).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30238636/alice_lethbridge_1895/|title=A Galaxy of Stars in a New Opera|date=April 16, 1895|work=Western Mail|access-date=April 3, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She toured in Australia and North America in the 1890s.<ref name=":2"/>
==Personal life== Alice Lethbridge married actor Henry Jameson Turner in 1889. She was widowed when he died soon after. She married again in 1906, to author and diplomat Sir Reginald St Johnston. She died in 1948, aged 82.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.falklandsbiographies.org/biographies/413|title=Dictionary of Falklands Biography|last=Tatham|first=David|website=www.falklandsbiographies.org|access-date=2019-04-03}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{NPG name|mp89696}} * Martie Fellom, "The Skirt Dance: A Dance Fad of the 1890s" (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1985). ProQuest document ID 303393658. * {{Commons category-inline}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lethbridge, Alice}} Category:1866 births Category:1948 deaths Category:People from Clerkenwell Category:English female dancers