Alice Lethbridge

Alice Matilda Lethbridge (1866 – February 4, 1948) was an English music hall dancer and Gaiety Girl, best known for her "skirt dance" act.

Alice Lethbridge
Alice Lethbridge, from a 1912 publication.
Born
Alice Matilda Lethbridge

1866
Clerkenwell, London, England, UK
DiedFebruary 4, 1948 (aged 81 or 82)
NationalityBritish
Other namesAlice Turner
Alice St. Johnson
OccupationDancer

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
  1. St.-Johnston, Sir Reginald (1906). A History of Dancing. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Company. pp. 122–25.
  2. "A Chat, with Miss Alice Lethbridge". The Era. March 17, 1894. p. 11. Retrieved April 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Flitch, John Ernest Crawford (1912). Modern Dancing and Dancers. Grant, Richards, Limited. p. 81.
  4. Knowles, Mark (2002-05-20). Tap Roots: The Early History of Tap Dancing. McFarland. p. 154. ISBN 9780786412679.
  5. Bremser, Martha (1999). Fifty Contemporary Choreographers. Psychology Press. p. 2. ISBN 9780415103633.
  6. Albright, Ann Cooper (2007-09-04). Traces of Light: Absence and Presence in the Work of Loïe Fuller. Wesleyan University Press. p. 18. ISBN 9780819568434.
  7. Whizz (October 3, 1896). "Out and About". Pick-me-up. 17: 11.
  8. Whizz (January 16, 1897). "Out and About". Pick-me-up. 17: 251.
  9. Wearing, J.P. (2013-11-21). The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Scarecrow Press. pp. 70, 86, 230, 325. ISBN 9780810892828.
  10. Bernard Shaw, George (January 9, 1897). "A Musical Farce". Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art. 83: 38.
  11. H. W. O. H. (March 1, 1887). "Drama". The Artist. 8: 88–89. ISBN 9780819568434.
  12. "A Galaxy of Stars in a New Opera". Western Mail. April 16, 1895. p. 3. Retrieved April 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Tatham, David. "Dictionary of Falklands Biography". www.falklandsbiographies.org. Retrieved 2019-04-03.
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