Maria Fay

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

MARIA FAY was born in Hungary where she trained in classical ballet, character dance and modern dance. Hungarian teachers included Nadasi, Berczik and Kallai while from the first group of teachers trained in the Vaqanova School of Russian Ballet.

Fay studied with Messerer, Vainonen, Zakharov and Armasevskaya.After graduation she joined the Budapest state Theatre Ballet Company where she became leading dancer as well as choreographer. 

Maria Fay came to England in 1956. She started to teach at the Royal Ballet School, the Royal Academy of Dancing and opened her own studio. Since then she has been a teacher, coach and choreographer for many internationally acclaimed companies. 

The Royal Ballet, London Festival Ballet, Ballet Rambert, London contemporary Dance Theatre, London City Ballet, Northern Dance Theatre , the Covent Garden Opera Ballet and Ballet For All are some of the British companies for which she has worked, while in Scandinavia she has taught the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet and the Norwegian National Ballet. 

Elsewhere in Europe she has worked with the Grand Ballet du Harquis  de Cuevas, Paris Ballet Festival, Ballet der Lage Landen, Werkcentrum Dans and the Dutch National Ballet, the Ballet of the Vienna State Opera and the National Ballet of Spain. 

North American companies have included Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens . In recent years, Hme. Fay has worked with the Central Ballet of China in Peking. 

Haria Fay has produced many choreographic works for a number of these companies, for London's Royal Opera as well as for film and television. Her Four Romantic Pieces is in the repertoire of the Central Ballet of China and was performed on the occasion of that company's 1986 British debut at Sadler's Wells Theatre. 

Fay is a renowned teacher who has taught at many distinguished schools of ballet In London, Copenhagen, Cologne, Berlin, Amsterdam, The Hague, Athens, Banff, Winnipeg, Montpellier, Buxton and other venues.

She composed syllabuses for the Royal Academy of Dancing which is used by the Royal Ballet School. 

One of her greatest joys is to watch the progress of her many former students who have become leading international dancers, teachers or choreographers, including Dame Merle Park, Eva Evdokimova, Galina Samsova , Doreen Wells, Vyvyan Lorrayne, Wayne Sleep, Christopher Bruce, Christopher Gable, Piers Beaumont, Bryan Ashbridqe, Simon Mottram. 

Maria Fay is in demand all over the world as a lecture and she has written several publications, connected with ballet classes and education. She is an examiner at the Royal Ballet School Teacher Training Course. 

Fay is also exploring the uses of the video cassette as a means of disseminating her ideas to a wider audience of dancers, teachers as well as the general public. Her first analytical video The Balett Class has been a worldwide success with praise from the Americas, Australia, South Africa as well as Europe.

Not only did she conceive the idea and structure of the video but scripted and edited it as well.

The next two video's after the "Ballet Class" are "Faults Corrections Perfections" with Eva Evdokimova/Patrick Armand and "Maria Fay’s Floor Barre" with Christina Beskou demonstrating the three sample classes.

She has written two books, Mind Over Body: The Development of the Dancer - the Role of the Teacher and Maria Fay's Floor Barre.

Testimonial

This is to testify that Miss Christina Beskou studied classical ballet several years with me, first as a vocational student and later as a professional dancer.

Becides her classical studies she excelled also in the “FLOOR BAR”, a specific training system I have devised and taught for professional dancers and pupils. Her remarkable achievements and her great interest in this subject led her to further pedagogical studies with me to enable her to teach this system with special understanding and knowledge.

During the past years – since she has been teaching this method in various countries and to numerous dancers and students – I had several opportunities to consult and exchange ideas with her enthusiastic approach, with her courage to experiment with new ideas of her own, which she included in her daily teaching, and with the remarkable results she has achieved with her followers.

As I an convinced that Miss Beskou is teaching the “FLOOR BAR” system I created in the best possible manner and her work is true to my ideas and teachings, she became the only person in the profession to whom I gave permission to teach it and to experiment with it.
  

Maria Fay,

9th October 1993

Highgate - London

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