Manon (staging) |
Monica Parker was born in
Axminster, Devonshire,
England and started dancing
at the age of ten in a school in
Exeter. Six years later she
entered The Royal Ballet
Upper School where she
studied for two years. During
this time she became
particularly interested in Benesh
Dance Notation, which she was
studying with Joan Benesh, the
wife of Rudolf Benesh who
invented the system, and in the
second year of her studies at The
Royal Ballet School she began to
teach
notation.
Four years after her graduation, in
1965, Miss Parker was invited to
assist Joan Benesh in the setting
up of the Institute of Choreology,
where she worked for two years
before joining Kenneth MacMillan
at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin as
Principal Dance Notator. When
Sir Kenneth was appointed
Director of The Royal Ballet in
1970, he invited her to transfer to
that company where she has since
been based, as Principal Dance
Notator. She has recorded and
reconstructed numerous works for
the company during this period,
with a concentration on those by
Sir Kenneth, and has also
reconstructed works for a host of
major dance companies around
the
world.
Following the death of Rudolf
Benesh in 1975, Miss Parker was
appointed Principal of the
Institute of Choreology and
subsequently Director. She
continues to work as Notator with
The Royal Ballet, mainly on the
MacMillan ballets. She has worked
all over the world, restaging works
from The Royal Ballet's repertoire
for other companies:
Manon in Stockholm for
the Royal Swedish Ballet;
Concerto for American
Ballet Theatre, Peter Wright's
production of Giselle for
the Houston Ballet,
Concerto and
Anastasia, Act III for the
Stuttgart Ballet,
Voluntaries for the Royal
Danish Ballet, The Four
Seasons for the Paris Opera
Ballet, Elite Syncopations
for the National Ballet of Canada,
and excerpts from Giselle
and The Sleeping Beauty
in
Shanghai.
Her work for the Institute has
included the teaching of and
lectures on the Benesh Movement
Notation in Australia, Canada,
China and Hong Kong, and she
has also represented the Institute
at major conferences around the
world. She has co-authored two
books on dance notation:
Dance Notation for
Beginners and "Benesh:
the Notation of Dance" IMAGES
AND
UNDERSTANDING. |
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