Alfred Rodrigues


Alfred Rodrigues was a South African ballet dancer and choreographer. His works have been produced by ballet and opera companies in many countries of the world.

Early life and training

Born in Cape Town, a cosmopolitan city near the southern tip of South Africa, Alfred Rodrigues made his first appearance on stage as a child. In 1936, when he was 14, he saw a performance by Colonel de Basil's Ballet Russe when the company toured South Africa, and his interest in ballet was kindled. He joined the Cape Town Ballet Club in 1937 after he saw an advertisement placed in a newspaper by Dulcie Howes, asking for male dancers. Subsequently, as a student in the ballet classes of the celebrated teacher Cecily Robinson, he failed to show any particular talent as a dancer, but in workshops he did demonstrate a certain flair for choreography. He made his first ballet in 1938, a short piece for students in the Ballet Club set to a piano transcription of "Danse Macabre," a tone poem by Camille Saint-Saëns with spooky melodies, driving rhythms, and dramatic structure. Encouraged by Howes, he soon made two other works for the club, Le Roi s'Amuse and L'Île des Sirènes.

Professional career

Rodrigues's promising career as a choreographer was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. He joined the South African army and saw combat in Egypt and Syria before being demobilized at the end of the war. In 1946, he arrived in England on a troopship, made his way to London, and resumed his dance studies with Stanislas Idzikowski and Vera Volkova, who taught at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School. One of his first dancing jobs was in the West End production of Song of Norway, the hit musical with choreography by George Balanchine. The next year, 1947, he was invited to join the Sadler's Wells Ballet, as male dancers were in short supply in postwar London. In 1949, he was promoted to soloist and was encouraged to pursue his choreographic interests, whereupon he restaged L'Île des Sirènes for a tour by Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann, the stars of the company. As a dancer, he toured the United States and Canada with the company but made no mark as a performer. As a choreographer and producer, however, he was more successful, making several ballets for the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet that were well received.
Having won critical approval for his work, Rodrigues decided to pursue a free-lance route, concentrating on a career as a choreographer. He started in 1955 in Italy, with a production of Romeo and Juliet in the Roman amphitheater in Verona and a production of Cinderella for the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Both ballets were set to music by Sergei Prokofiev, and both were staged especially for French ballerina Violette Verdy. After these two productions, he proceeded to mount his ballets all over the world, working in Poland, Denmark, Turkey, the United States, Chile, Japan, Germany, the Philippines, and South Africa. With his gifts for the theatrical and the dramatic, he generally favored narrative works.

Ballets

Among the works choreographed by Rodrigues are the following.
Rodrigues was also active in popular musical theater, in movies, and in television productions. Among the West End musicals and revues for which he created dances are Airs on a Shoestring, Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure, Pay the Piper, Chrysanthemum, Ann Veronica, and On the Brighter Side. His greatest success was Charlie Girl. Starring Dame Anna Neagle, it ran for five years at the Adelphi Theatre. In British film history, Rodrigues is known for An Alligator Named Daisy, Oh, Rosalinda!, and Show Band Parade. On television, he created dances for the series Eric Robinson Presents On the Bright Side, which aired during the 1960s. His facility in creating lighthearted dances served him as well in musical theater as on the ballet stage.

Personal and later life

In 1948, Rodrigues married British ballerina and teacher Julia Farron, with whom he had a son. Christopher. They were a devoted couple. In old age, Rodrigues became severely handicapped, but as late as 1996, he was in Japan to revive Cinderella for the Kobayashi company, with Farron giving him support by acting as "his legs." Wherever he worked, he was loved by his dancers for his humor, warmth, and compassion. He died at age 80, after a long and unusually productive career.