de Valois House
de Valois House is named after Dame Ninette de Valois (1898-2001) who was almost single-handedly responsible for transforming the status of British ballet. A dancer herself, she founded The Royal Ballet, The Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Royal Ballet School where she fostered the talents of dancers such as Margot Fonteyn.
In the 1920s she taught ballet at Heathfield. She retired in 1963 but maintained a formidable presence in the world of the performing arts until her death in 2001.
de Valois encourages all to hold on to a vision and to strive to achieve this. She was tenacious and courageous, determined that British ballet could rise above the glass ceiling imposed on it by the society of its day. We wish all our girls to have ambitions and to work hard to achieve them.
