Monica Parker F.I.Chor
Manon (staging)
Monica Parker was born in Axminster, Devonshire, England and started dancing
at the age of ten in a school in Exeter. Six years later she entered The Royal
Ballet Upper School where she studied for two years. During this time she became
particularly interested in Benesh Dance Notation, which she was studying with
Joan Benesh, the wife of Rudolf Benesh who invented the system, and in the
second year of her studies at The Royal Ballet School she began to teach notation.
Four years after her graduation, in 1965, Miss Parker was invited to assist
Joan Benesh in
the setting up of the Institute of Choreology, where she worked for two years
before joining Kenneth
MacMillan
at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin as Principal Dance Notator. When Sir Kenneth was
appointed Director of The
Royal Ballet in 1970, he invited her to transfer to that company where she
has since been based, as Principal Dance Notator. She has recorded and reconstructed
numerous works for the company during this period, with a concentration on
those by Sir Kenneth, and has also reconstructed works for a host of major
dance companies around the world.
Following the death of Rudolf Benesh in 1975, Miss Parker was appointed Principal
of the Institute of Choreology and subsequently Director. She continues to
work as Notator with The Royal Ballet, mainly on the MacMillan ballets. She
has worked all over the world, restaging works from The Royal Ballet's repertoire
for other companies: Manon in Stockholm for the Royal Swedish Ballet; Concerto for
American Ballet Theatre, Peter Wright's production of Giselle for
the Houston Ballet, Concerto and Anastasia, Act III for
the Stuttgart Ballet, Voluntaries for the Royal Danish Ballet, The Four Seasons
for the Paris Opera Ballet, Elite
Syncopations for the National Ballet of Canada, and excerpts from Giselle and
The Sleeping Beauty in Shanghai.
Her work for the Institute has included the teaching of and lectures on the
Benesh Movement Notation in Australia, Canada, China and Hong Kong, and she
has also represented the Institute at major conferences around the world. She
has co-authored two books on dance notation: Dance Notation for Beginners and "Benesh:
the Notation of Dance" IMAGES AND UNDERSTANDING.
Copyright 2003 Ballet Theatre Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved