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Amy Bowring
Richard and Marion Errington contributed significantly to London, Ontario’s cultural life in the mid-twentieth century through their school and ballet company. Marion Stark (later Errington) founded a school in 1917, teaching Scottish dancing and later ballet, drawing on her training in London and with various teachers in the United States. In 1938 she developed an examination syllabus - The Western Ontario Conservatory of Ballet - in association with the University of Western Ontario’s music conservatory. She founded the London Ballet Company in 1939 with Richard Errington as the leading male dancer. The company disbanded during World War II and Stark and Errington staged performances for soldiers stationed on Southwestern Ontario military bases.
A year after their marriage in 1947, the Erringtons’ ballet company was granted a civic charter, becoming the London Civic Ballet Theatre. While Marion Errington focussed on choreography, Richard Errington handled most of the teaching. Following the 1949 Canadian Ballet Festival, the Canadian Dance Teachers’ Association (CDTA) was formed by participating teachers, who realized there was a need to unite, communicate and monitor teaching standards. The Erringtons were charter members of the CDTA and founded its Western Ontario Branch in 1952. Richard Errington died in 1974, and Marion Errington in 1978, but the school, now over eighty years old, continues to operate under the direction of her daughter-in-law and former Civic Ballet member Liliane Marleau Graham.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bowring, Amy. "Errington, Marion," The Encyclopedia of Theatre Dance in Canada/Encyclopédie de la danse théâtrale au Canada, edited by Susan Macpherson. Dance Collection Danse Press/es: Toronto, 2000.
Bowring, Amy. "From Kilts to Companies: Marion Stark Errington's Contribution to London, Ontario's Cultural History," Canadian Dance Studies, Vol. 1., edited by Selma Odom and Mary Jane Warner. York University Graduate Programme in Dance, Toronto, 1994.
Bowring, Amy. "Marion Stark: One of Those Rare People," Dance Collection Danse, The News, Dance Collection Danse Press/es: Toronto, 1993. No. 35.
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Photo: The Erringtons
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