Dancing for de Basil: Letters to Her Parents from Rosemary Deveson, 1938-1940

Pauline Carey is the author of Magic and What’s in a Name?

In 1938, in Vancouver, two young girls not yet out of high school were
hired as dancers by Colonel de Basil’s Ballet Russe. For two years
they traveled the world together and lived the life of dancing gypsies.

Rosemary Deveson’s letters to her parents chronicle her travels to
Berlin, Paris, London, Bombay, and Sydney, and her work with such stars
as David Lichine (the company’s choreographer and principal dancer),
Irina Baronova, and Anton Dolin. Although Rosemary, who was only 16 when
she left home, lacked the colossal confidence that a solo artist needs,
her letters show her persevering in the hard world of performance and
never completely losing faith in her own ability. As she travels to the
other side of the world, she reveals a growing maturity and
self-awareness, coupled with a personal charm and common sense that
would stand her in good stead in her later career. At 19, she left the
Russian ballet and opened a dancing school in Vancouver; Lynn Seymour
and Lois Smith were among her pupils.

Leland Windreich’s introduction helps to clarify the confusing
history of Russian ballet in the post-Diaghilev era. There are
photographs and drawings by the late Grant Macdonald. The book’s value
as a reference tool is undermined by the absence of an index.