Choreographer, director, designer Robert de Warren honoured at Kennedy Center
After the performance of the ballet The White Feather, created in memory of the Iranian National Ballet, Robert de Warren was honoured at Kennedy Center for Performing Arts for his contributions as Director under the patronage of Empress Farah Pahlavi.
As requested by the Shah and the Empress, Dame Ninette de Valois, the founder of the Royal Ballet, recommended de Warren to bring the national ballet to an international level. During his directorship from 1965 until 1978, de Warren introduced the international ballet repertoire to the Iranian audience and also choreographed Persian legends to specially composed music. While in Iran, he researched Iranian dance, creating the National Folklore Institute of Iran and its performing company, the Mahali Dancers, which toured the world as ambassadors of its country’s culture.
Robert de Warren began his career in The Royal Ballet, going on to choreograph, direct, design and produce. He became Artistic Director of UK’s Northern Ballet Theatre, and Director of the La Scala Ballet in Milan and artistic supervisor of its school, and then Director of the Sarasota Ballet in Sarasota, Florida. Coming full circle, de Warren created a ballet based on a Persian legend, Zal and Rudabeh, in Sarasota, attended by the Empress on opening night.
De Warren said,
I was deeply moved when I was invited on stage to take a call in recognition of the work I had done to develop and preserve dance in Iran and to be received so warmly by the Empress and the Imperial family who attended the performance. These memories have awakened me to how much I can still contribute to the dance world.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
