Generous donation takes centre stage at Red Shoes Festival
A large donation of memorabilia of Moira Shearer, once one of the world’s most famous ballerinas and who was born in Dunfermline, will form part of an ongoing OnFife centenary celebration of her life’s achievements this month.
Books, concert tickets, photographs, theatre programmes and much more from Ms Shearer are all included in the display at the Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries and will play a major role in the day-long Dunfermline Red Shoes Festival: Remembering Moira Shearer on Saturday (26 September).
Moira Shearer was born in Dunfermline in 1926 and is best known for playing the role of Victoria in the 1948 film The Red Shoes, putting ballet firmly in the Hollywood domain.
However, despite her Hollywood fame, she remained firmly committed to ballet and later wrote and lectured on the subject. She also served on the Scottish Arts Council. She married journalist and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy in 1950 and they had four children.
The collection of artefacts has been donated by Dai Williams from Horsham, West Sussex, whose mother Cecilia Porter was a huge fan of ballet and in particular Moira Shearer, who she watched dance at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre on numerous occasions.
Dai (85) grew up with his mother’s obsession and remembers her taking him to see The Red Shoes when he was only seven or eight years old.
“I was probably too young to be allowed to see this and my mother probably didn’t know what to expect but I remember the glorious Technicolour of the film,” he explained.
After recording his mother’s oral history around 2006 when she was 90, and hearing of her all-consuming enjoyment of Shearer’s dancing, his interest was piqued and he continued his mother’s collection after her death in 2010 when he began to dig a little deeper.
He explained: “When I started, I had no intention of getting seriously involved but I’m a curious person and I’ve spent most of my life in research. So, like Topsy, it just grew.
“The donation to the museum grew out of the realisation that there is not yet a logical single location for an archive of Moira Shearer materials.”
Mr Williams’ items will form the centrepiece of the festival which will include a talk, Memories of Our Mother, from her children Ailsa and Alistair Kennedy; a dance display by local children; a song entitled The Red Shoes from a Fife College student and a talk from OnFife’s Sharron McColl on how Moira’s uncle James Shearer designed the Canmore Room, the 1920s Dunfermline Carnegie library extension.
Sharron, who is the Local Studies Supervisor at DCLG, added: “We are so pleased that this amazing donation of 72 items including programmes and photographs has come to the Local History Collection. It has completely transformed the small amount of Moria Shearer items we had in the collection and I am positive that, due to her popularity, many requests to come and view the collection will be received.
“We are really looking forward to the event on Saturday and we are very grateful to Mr Williams for donating these items from his collection to us here in Moria Shearer’s hometown.”
The items will continue to be on display in the museum until Friday 23 October.
The event is free and tickets can be booked through www.onfife.com
Images:
Dai Williams, who has donated part of his Shearer collection to Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries, outside the Royal Opera House Covent Garden on the 100th anniversary of the dancer’s birth.
The display of memorabilia at Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries. (Picture OnFife)
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For further information contact Sheona Small, Press & Communications Manager, 07809 727 989 or email sheona.small@onfife.com
Notes to editors:
OnFife is a registered charity and manages and operates theatres, libraries, museums and galleries and cultural partnerships on behalf of Fife Council for people living, working and visiting Fife. Further information can be found at www.onfife.com