{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1719493"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1719493/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PK3498/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PK3498/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PK3498","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1719493","accessionNumber":"S.65-2023","objectType":"Costume design","titles":[{"title":"La Valse","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Costume design by Sylvia Green, for a dancer in Molly Lake's ballet <i>La Valse</i>, first performed by the Ballet Guild at a 2.45pm matinee at the Garrick Theatre, London, on Sunday, 22 November 1942. \n\n<i>La Valse</i>, to music by Maurice Ravel, was set in the corner of a ballroom. The programme note reads: ‘The house is at rest. The past dances again’. The ballet was described as ‘a pleasant, if not very original or exciting kaleidoscope’.\n\nThe design is annotated as 'La Valse Blue', which suggests that the costume was worn by one of the soloist women: Margaret Sear, Gillian Lynne, June Toll, Monica Boam or Johanna Barrett. The corps de ballet wore 'dull brown and green'. However, the faint pencil annotation, lower right, reads 'Costume for Molly Lake', so this could have been the costume worn by Lake herself.\n\nSylvia Green graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1938. During the Second World War she designed costumes for dance companies, including the Arts Theatre Ballet, the Ballet Guild and its successors, the Embassy Ballet (founded in 1945) and the Continental Ballet. She became a children’s book illustrator and taught art in schools. From about 1960 she chose to focus on the practising and teaching of ecclesiastical embroidery. She died in 2004.\n\nGreen is an example of the growing participation of women in stage design in 20th-century Britain. She worked primarily with small-scale touring companies, whose contribution to the growth of interest in ballet outside London is often overlooked: the history of the development of ballet in Britain is dominated by the emphasis on The Royal Ballet. \r\n\n\r\n\r\n","physicalDescription":"Costume design for a female dancer. She wears a knee-length, blue-white dress with a fitted bodice, and a flared, layered skirt decorated with attached white swags. She has a white headdress. The design is drawn on green paper. Unsigned.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Green, Sylvia","id":"A4704"},"association":{"text":"costume designers","id":"AAT163428"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"sugar paper","id":"x39836"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting (image-making)","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour on sugar paper","categories":[{"text":"Dance","id":"THES252984"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"},{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2025PK3498"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES402719"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"costume design","id":"AAT163423"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1942","earliest":"1942-01-01","latest":"1942-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the Beryl Dean Education Trust","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"27.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"18.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Costume for / Molly Lake' ","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Annotation in pencil, lower right hand corner."},{"content":"'La Valse / BLUE'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Annotation in white paint, lower right hand corner."}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Costume design by Sylvia Green for a Woman in Blue in Molly Lake's ballet <i>La Valse</i>, danced by the Ballet Guild, 1942","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.65-2023"],"accessionNumberNum":"65","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2023,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-10-02","recordCreationDate":"2022-05-24","availableToBook":false}}