William Chappell (dancer)

His designs for Les Patineurs remained in the repertory and his conception for Les Rendezvous, although frequently revised, continues. He brought his vast experience of ballet design to opera, musical theatre, revues and drama, as both director and designer.^[5]

Direction

Chappell has been credited as directing the following productions:

• The Lyric Revue (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith and the Globe Theatre, London with Dora Bryan, Graham Payn and Ian Carmichael - 1951–1954)^[7]
• High Spirits (revue) (
  London Hippodrome with Cyril Ritchard and Diana Churchill - 1953)^[7]
• Sheridan's The Rivals (Saville Theatre, London with Laurence Harvey - 1956)^[7]
• Noël Coward's South Sea Bubble (Lyric Theatre with Vivien Leigh - 1956)^[8]
• Arthur Macrae and Richard Addinsell's revue, Living for Pleasure (Garrick Theatre with Dora Bryan, Daniel Massey, George Rose and Lynda Baron - 1958)^[7]
• Wolf Mankowitz's Expresso Bongo (Saville Theatre with Paul Scofield - 1958)^[7]
• Frank Loesser's Where's Charley? (Palace Theatre, London - 1958/59)^[9]
• On The Avenue (revue) (Globe Theatre Beryl Reid and George Rose - 1961)^[7]
• Passion Flower Hotel
  (Ambassador) 1965
• George Farquhar's The Beaux' Stratagem (Chichester Festival Theatre - 1967).^[10]
• The West End revival of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden (Theatre Royal Haymarket, London with Gladys Cooper and Joan Greenwood - 1971)^[7]

Libretto and production

• The Violins of Saint-Jacques (1966)^[11]

Cinema

Chappell played the part of the court painter Titorelli in Orson Welles' The Trial (1962 film), based on the Kafka novel of the same name (along with many of the other actors in the film, his voice was dubbed by Welles himself).

Military service

At the outbreak of war in 1939, he was the first male dancer to join, spending the duration of the war as a second lieutenant and entertaining the troops.^[5]

In his book Studies in Ballet he describes an occasion in North Africa when his company had no transport and had to march to their destination about eighteen miles away. He used this story to illustrate the benefit of ballet training to legs and feet, allowing a middle-aged man to arrive fresher than men nearly half his age, who had only received the routine Army physical training. He also emphasised the importance of a long unbroken tradition and continuity in the training of male dancers. He was of the opinion that the war was a factor that had caused chaos in the Sadler's Wells Company and rendered valueless years of work. He contrasted the treatment of the ballet in England and in Russia, where male dancers were considered important enough in their work to be kept in it.

Personal life

He was invited by writer and lecturer on dance Peter Brinson to take part in a series of eight lectures on 'The Ballet in Britain' at Oxford University where he entertained an academic audience with his thoughts on problems of ballet design. Other speakers included Dame Ninette de Valois director of the Royal Ballet, Marie Rambert, Arnold Haskell, William Cole and Douglas Kennedy^[12]

He retired to his home in Rye, East Sussex and died there after a long illness.^[5]

Filmography

• Nijinsky (1980) - restaging: of "L'Après-midi d'un faune" (as William Chapell)^[13]
• The Trial (1962) - as the painter Titorelli^[14]
• Expresso Bongo with Paul Scofield (BBC recording of Saville Theatre, London production, 1958) - Director^[13]
• The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) - dance arranger^[15]
• Moulin Rouge (1952) - dance director^[16]
• Flesh and Blood (1951) - Dancer (uncredited)^[13]
• Golden Arrow (1949) - costume designer^[13]
• The Winslow Boy (1948) - costume designer^[13][17][18]
• Le Lac des Cygnes with Margot Fonteyn, Robert Helpmann and the Vic-Wells Ballet Company on BBC Television (13 December 1937) - as Benno^{[13][19][20][21]}
• Job with Robert Helpmann, and the Vic-Wells Ballet Company (now The Royal Ballet) produced and choreographed by Ninette de Valois on BBC Television (11 November 1936) - as Elihu/The Three Messengers.†^[13][20][21]

† This was the second broadcast of ballet on British television following the official start of the BBC high definition television service on 2 November 1936.

Bibliography

• Studies in ballet, William Chappell, John Lehmann Ltd, London (1948)
  ISBN 978-1340914226
• Fonteyn: Impressions of a ballerina, William Chappell, Rockcliff Publishing Corporation Ltd, London (1951)
• Edward Burra: A painter remembered by his friend, William Chappell,
  ISBN 978-0233974507
• Well Dearie!: The Letters of Edward Burra, William Chappell,
  ISBN 978-0860920762

• List of people from Wolverhampton
• Edward Burra

References