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The Royal Ballet is saddened by the death of the British dancer Henry Danton on 10 February, aged 102.

Danton grew up in a military family, was educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and began his career as a Second Lieutenant and later Captain in the Royal Artillery. He was a reluctant soldier but a keen ice skater which led to him learning ballet. He studied dance privately with Judith Espinosa and Vera Volkova and passed the Royal Academy of Dance’s exams with honours, winning the Adeline Genée Silver Medal after just 18 months of classical ballet training. During and after World War II he appeared regularly with Sadler’s Wells Ballet, partnering dancers including Margot Fonteyn, Beryl Grey and Moira Shearer. In 1946 Sadler’s Wells Ballet relocated to Covent Garden (where it later became The Royal Ballet). Danton appeared in several ballets at Covent Garden that year, including Ashton’s Nocturne, Les Patineurs and Dante Sonata and Helpmann’s Miracle in the Gorbals. He also created a leading role in Ashton’s Symphonic Variations, partnering Moira Shearer. Danton resumed his ballet studies in 1946, when he worked in Paris with some of the leading Russian teachers and ballerinas of the day. He went on to appear with touring ensembles across the UK, Europe, Australasia and South America, and appeared with companies including Paris Opera Ballet, Ballet des Champs-Élysées and the National Ballet of Australia.

In his later years, Danton developed an international career as a teacher and ballet master. He worked with the national ballet companies in Caracas, Venezuela, and Bogotá, Colombia, and taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, the Fokine School of Ballet, Ballet Arts, Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School in New York City. He staged Fokine’s Les Sylphides at Belhaven University in 2013 and continued to teach into his centenary years in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He featured in several major documentary films about ballet and in 2011 was part of the Ninette de Valois: Adventurous Traditionalist Conference at The Royal Ballet School.

Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, said, ‘Henry was a fantastic personality of the ballet community. Right up until the pandemic, he visited London annually to celebrate his birthday, providing rich opportunity to hear first-hand tales and often frank and amusing anecdotes of the Company in its formative years. His passion for teaching was infectious, wonderfully summed up in an interview for the Royal Academy of Dance: “Life is a perpetual adventure and if you have that attitude you don’t grow old and you don’t get bored with what you’re doing. Being 100, I don’t feel any different. Dance is what I know best and what I like doing. It really is my life”.’

Sir Peter Wright, former Royal Ballet Associate Director and Birmingham Royal Ballet Director Laureate, commented, ‘Henry, my greatest and dearest friend, was a vital influence on dance. The most singular character, he was always driven by his own ideas and often at loggerheads with De Valois. The method of teaching he developed had a far-reaching impact on the international world of ballet. He was an inspiration to us all and will be sorely missed.’