PETAL, Miss. (AP) — Henry Danton, who had an international career as a ballet dancer and teacher before moving to Mississippi late in life and continuing to teach even as he passed his 100th birthday, died Feb. 9, a funeral home said. He was 102.
A celebration of Danton’s life will be held March 20 at South Mississippi Ballet Theatre in Hattiesburg.
Born as Henry David Boileau Down in Bedford, England, he took Danton as a stage name. He began his dance career in 1940. According to London’s Royal Opera House, he appeared regularly during and after World War II with Sadler’s Wells Ballet, which later became The Royal Ballet. He danced in the original production of Frederick Ashton’s “Symphonic Variations” with the company in 1946.
Danton danced with touring ensembles across Europe, Australia, Asia and South America, and appeared with companies including Paris Opera Ballet and the National Ballet of Australia.
He worked with national ballet companies in Venezuela and Colombia, and taught in several places, including Sarah Lawrence College, the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance and the Juilliard School in New York.
The Hattiesburg American reported Danton moved to Petal, Mississippi, in the 1990s because he enjoyed the slower-paced lifestyle. He taught ballet in Hattiesburg, Petal, Columbia and Laurel and occasionally at Belhaven College in Jackson.
In 2020, the Mississippi Art’s Commission awarded him the Governor’s Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance.
Danton said he fell in love with ballet when he saw the last performance of a Russian company in London’s Covent Garden before the start of World War II. During the war, professional dancers stranded in London started the small Allied Ballet on a shoestring and it lasted only weeks, Danton said. Sadler’s Wells Ballet and The International Ballet were also starting and Danton plunged in.
“It was absolutely ridiculous. I had 18 months behind me of training and I was dancing principal roles with a leading ballerina,” Danton told the Hattiesburg American in 2019.
When he was 100, Danton flew back to England and received the Genée International Ballet Competition silver medal he had won in 1942.
“During the war, there was no silver available. It was all being used for the munitions and the war effort, so there was nothing available,” Danton told the BBC in 2019. “When I won it, they sent me a note saying, ‘You will get the medal when metal is available.’ And I’ve had to wait all this time for it.”
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
