Sir Fredrick Ashton was a very important Choreographer in British ballet who re-staged Giselle after Petipa. Ashton wrote that in his early days he had felt an obligation to concentrate on pleasing and entertaining his audience. He grew up in peru and saw and fell in love with Anna Pavlova in 1917. Anna Pavlova was Russian, she trained and danced with Marius Petipa, she established a school of dance in England and had a successful touring career.
Ashton worked in an office in 1921 but then his brother offered to pay for his training at the age of 17. His training was from 1925 - 1935. Dame Marie Rambert was convinced of his talent but aware he had started to late to become the best dancer in the world so she manoeured him towards choroegraphy. Ashton was very successful with his choreographing and created 20 ballets for Rambert. Whilst he was dancing in Paris he found a new idol to replace Anna. The new idol was Bronislave Nijinska, she was Russian, petite and strong. After 1935, Ashton moved away from Rambert to work with Ninette de valois and the vic wells ballet (now the Royal ballet.
Ashton's ballet focused on Social hirearchy and power struggles. In 1939 he saw the start of WW2 which influenced his style. His work became plot-less for a while. Scenes de ballet (1948). He returned to narrative ballet in 1955 with Romeo and juliet. Ashton was very animated with his choreography and it wasnt all pure ballet.
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