Mim, a personal memoir of Marie Rambert

Although the name Rambert is now associated with modern dance, it is perhaps forgotten that the founder of the Rambert Dance Company, Marie Rambert, was one of the major instigators of the flowering of English Ballet in the 1930s. Never over-modest, she nicknamed herself 'the midwife at the birth of English ballet.'



She died in 1982 at the age of 94. She was not just 'another ballet person'; her long life was crowded with activity and achievementand a selfless dedication to art. A woman of taste in literature, music, theatre in all aspects, she nurtured and guided a remarkable number of gifted choreographers, notably Frederick Ashton, Antony Tudor, Andre Howard, Walter Gore, and later Norman Morrice and Christopher Bruce. She gave them the opportunity to try out their ideas on the tiny stage of the Mercury Theatre, built by her husband, the playwright Ashley Dukes.



'Mim'is about Marie Rambert the woman, from her upbringing in her native Poland, living and working in the Paris of the 1920s, until the outbreak of the First World War brought her to England.



Lively, witty, unpredictable, funny, often outrageous, she was as

well known for her outbursts of temperament as she was for her artistic achievements.



She inspired, exasperated, and goaded her unusual group of dancers and choreographers who recognised her qualities and dedication and relished working in an atmosphere that crackled and sparkled with creative life.