# Ballet Guild > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ballet_Guild > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ballet_Guild.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet_Guild > Source revision: 1311408938 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **The Ballet Guild** was an English ballet company, active from 1941 until 1946. It is closely associated with the dancer-choreographer partnership of **Molly Lake** (1900–1986) and **Travis Kemp** (1914–1995).[1] ## Formation and role The Ballet Guild was formed on 10 May 1941 by Deryck Lynham,[2] the barrister [Christmas Humphreys](/source/Christmas_Humphreys) (who acted as chairman)[3] and others, and was based in [St John's Wood](/source/St_John's_Wood), London. The company was formed to encourage the development of ballet as an art, and to provide opportunities for young dancers and creative artists. The Guild set up a ballet school, assembled a library of resources, and organised lectures, demonstrations and exhibitions.[4] The company was short-lived, and had disbanded by 1946. At that time there were a dozen or more small ballet groups touring the UK and vying for audiences, including the Arts Theatre Ballet, the [London Ballet](/source/London_Ballet) and the [International Ballet](/source/International_Ballet).[5] ## Seasons and productions The Guild put on short experimental seasons and toured under [ENSA](/source/Entertainments_National_Service_Association) using ad-hoc companies assembled by the dancers and choreographers Molly Lake[6] and her husband Travis Kemp.[7] Lake and Kemp had both previously been in the [Pavlova](/source/Anna_Pavlova) and [Markova-Dolin](/source/Alicia_Markova) companies, and Lake was an exponent of the [Cecchetti method](/source/Cecchetti_method).[4] A quintet, later an orchestra, was formed by [Leighton Lucas](/source/Leighton_Lucas) to provide the music. Most of the London performances took place at the [Rudolf Steiner Hall](/source/Rudolf_Steiner_House) near Baker Street, or the [Garrick Theatre](/source/Garrick_Theatre) in Charing Cross Road.[3] One of the company's earliest productions was the new ballet *Sawdust*, with music by [Mary Lucas](/source/Mary_Lucas), which was performed in London and Wolverhampton in May 1941 under the direction of Leighton Lucas.[8] Other ballets produced under the Guild included *Victorian Bouquet* (choreographed by Lake, music by Rossini), *Nymphenburg Gardens* (Lake, Mozart),[9] and *The Last Curtain* (Lake, Weber), all three of which were televised just after the war by the Embassy Ballet (later the Continental Ballet), an offshoot of the Ballet Guild.[10][11] ## Legacy The Guild's library was used as the foundation for the Archives of the Dance, initially established under the chairmanship of [Cyril Beaumont](/source/Cyril_W._Beaumont) in 1946.[12] This later became the dance holdings of the [Theatre Museum](/source/Theatre_Museum), London, and is now at the [Victoria & Albert Museum](/source/Victoria_and_Albert_Museum).[13] In 1954, Molly Lake and Travis Kemp took up an appointment to teach and direct the [Turkish National Ballet School](/source/Turkish_State_Opera_and_Ballet) (which the Turkish Government had asked [Ninette de Valois](/source/Ninette_de_Valois) to establish), where they worked for the next two decades.[7] ## References 1. Naomi Benari. *Vagabonds and strolling dancers : the lives and times of Molly Lake and Travis Kemp*, Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (1990) 1. Deryck Lynham. *Ballet Then and Now: a History of the Ballet in Europe* (1947) 1. Christmas Humphries. *[Both Sides of the Circle](https://books.google.com/books?id=C92TBwAAQBAJ&dq=Deryck+Lynham&pg=PA113)* (1978) London: [Allen & Unwin](/source/Allen_%26_Unwin) ISBN 0-049-2102-38, pp. 113-115 1. Janet Rowson Davis. 'Ballet on British Television, 1946-1947: Starting Again', in *Dance Chronicle*, Vol. 13, No. 2 (1990), pp. 103-153 1. Karen Eliot. *Albion's Dance: British Ballet During the Second World War* (2016), pp. 30-33 1. ['Molly Lake', Oxford Reference](https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100048209) 1. [Travis Kemp obituary](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-travis-kemp-1596215.html), in *The Independent*, 13 August 1995 1. Cohen, Aaron I. (ed.): *International Encyclopedia of Women Composers* (1981), Bowker. ISBN 9780835212885 1. '[The Work Of The Ballet Guild](https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/the-ballet-guild-founded-by-christmas-humphreys-and-based-news-photo/3383033)', in *Picture Post* No 1509, 28 August 1943 1. ['Victorian Bouquet' and 'Nymphenburg Gardens'](https://web.archive.org/web/20220914161940/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/874c219f699c47f1a88ef126bcfd357c), *Radio Times* Issue 1189, 14 July 1946, p. 27 1. '[The Last Curtain](https://web.archive.org/web/20220914161943/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/b580729bfb7848758611720a563c1c55)', *Radio Times*, Issue 1220, 16 February 1947, p. 35 1. David Wiles, Christine Dymkowski (ed.): *[The Cambridge Companion to Theatre History](https://books.google.com/books?id=OqN7Umqcy9MC&q=%22London%25&pg=PA271)* (2013) p. 271 1. Sarah C. Woodcock. '[Dance Research](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1290790)': *The Journal of the Society for Dance Research*. Vol. 8, No. 1 (Spring, 1990), pp. 62-77 --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ballet Guild](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet_Guild) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet_Guild?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.