Alice Lethbridge
Alice Lethbridge | |
|---|---|
 Alice Lethbridge, from a 1912 publication. | |
| Born | Alice Matilda Lethbridge 1866 Clerkenwell, London, England, UK |
| Died | 4 February 1948 (aged 81 or 82) |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Alice Turner Alice St. Johnson |
| Occupation | Dancer |
Alice Matilda Lethbridge (1866 – 4 February 1948) was an English music hall dancer and Gaiety Girl, best known for her "skirt dance" act.
Early life
Alice Matilda Lethbridge was born in Clerkenwell, the daughter of Thomas and Louisa (née Holliday) Lethbridge. Travel writer Grace Marguerite Hay Drummond-Hay was her niece, the daughter of her brother Sidney Lethbridge. Alice Lethbridge studied dance with John D'Auban.[1][2]
Career
Lethbridge was a Gaiety Girl, best known for performing a "skirt dance",[3][4] in which she manipulated a voluminous long skirt while dancing, swirling the fabric to reveal glimpses of knees and thighs.[5]
Lethbridge's version of the skirt dance involved arching her back almost to the horizontal, a challenging position that may have inspired similar moves for American dancer Loie Fuller.[6] In 1896 she was described as "the tallest dancer on the English stage".[7]
She was appearing in the musical farce A Man About Town in 1897,[8][9] when George Bernard Shaw reviewed her work as "sufficiently hard-working and conscientious" but showing "no compensating brilliancy in the twinkling of her feet".[10] Other shows featuring Lethbridge were Mynheer Jan (1887), in which she danced a "vigorous" saltarello,[11] Carina (1888), La Prima Donna (1889),[2] Robert Macaire (1891), Joan of Arc (1891),[9] Cinder-Ellen (1892), Little Christopher Columbus (1894),[1] and Baron Golosh (1895).[12] She toured in Australia and North America in the 1890s.[2]
Personal life
Alice Lethbridge married actor Henry Jameson Turner in 1889. She was widowed when he died soon after. She married again in 1906, to author and diplomat Sir Reginald St Johnston. She died in 1948, aged 81 or 82.[13]
References
- ^ a b St.-Johnston, Sir Reginald (1906). A History of Dancing. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Company. pp. 122–25.
- ^ a b c "A Chat, with Miss Alice Lethbridge". The Era. March 17, 1894. p. 11. Retrieved April 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Flitch, John Ernest Crawford (1912). Modern Dancing and Dancers. Grant, Richards, Limited. p. 81.
- ISBN 9780786412679.
- ISBN 9780415103633.
- ISBN 9780819568434.
- ^ Whizz (October 3, 1896). "Out and About". Pick-me-up. 17: 11.
- ^ Whizz (January 16, 1897). "Out and About". Pick-me-up. 17: 251.
- ^ ISBN 9780810892828.
- ^ Bernard Shaw, George (January 9, 1897). "A Musical Farce". Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art. 83: 38.
- ISBN 9780819568434.
- ^ "A Galaxy of Stars in a New Opera". Western Mail. April 16, 1895. p. 3. Retrieved April 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Tatham, David. "Dictionary of Falklands Biography". www.falklandsbiographies.org. Retrieved 2019-04-03.
External links
- Portraits of Alice Lethbridge at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Martie Fellom, "The Skirt Dance: A Dance Fad of the 1890s" (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1985). ProQuest document ID 303393658.