Jones, Alun, 1937-2019, and Helen Starr, 1940- Photograph Collection, ca. 1980s-2001
Held by The Filson Historical Society
Creator: Jones, Alun, 1937-2019, and Helen Starr, 1940-
Title: Photograph Collection, ca. 1980s-2001
Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.
Size of Collection: 1 box
Location Number: 023PC24
Scope and Content Note
This collection consists of photographs of Helen Starr, Alun Jones, and others while working for the Louisville Ballet. Images include ballet rehearsals and performances, costume and set designs, and miscellaneous events related to the Louisville Ballet.
Related Collections:
Louisville Ballet records [Mss. BB L888j]
Louisville Ballet Photograph Collection [024PC25]
Louisville Ballet Posters [024PR3]
Alun Jones papers [Mss. A J76b]
Jones, Alun and Helen Starr Louisville Ballet Poster Collection [023PR5]
Alun Jones and Helen Starr museum objects [2023.5]
Vincent Falardo papers [023×29]
Vincent Falardo Photograph Collection [023PC11]
Vincent Falardo museum objects [2023.18]
Joy Bell Williams papers [023×1]
Joy Bell Williams Photograph Collection [023PC4]
Nina Allen papers [024×35]
Melissa J. “Misty” Lee papers [023×57]
Biographical Note
Helen Starr
Helen Marguerite Starr was born on 19 May 1940 in Kent, England. She received her formal training at the Royal Academy of Dance and the Royal Ballet School in London, after which she joined the Royal Ballet Company and toured the world as a soloist and assistant ballet mistress. She later joined the London Festival Ballet as principal dancer, dancing leading roles across Europe and Asia, and was a founding member of the New London Ballet. She was a guest teacher in London, Scotland, Portugal, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, and staged classical ballets around the world.
In 1975, Starr and her husband, Alun Jones, came to Louisville to help found the Academy of the Louisville Ballet with dancers Richard Munro and Christina Stirling. Starr was a teacher at the Academy and a guest dancer for the Ballet. In 1978, Starr became principal dancer for the Ballet, a position she held for twenty-two seasons until her retirement in 1998. She was also the associate artistic director and repetiteur for the Louisville Ballet. In 1986, Starr was honored with the title of Kentucky Colonel.
Starr and Jones had two children, Hannah Elizabeth Thomas (1972-) and Gareth Thomas Jones (1975-).
Alun Jones
Alun Jones was born on 8 April 1937 in southern Wales, where he studied music in his early life. He obtained a degree in design from Monmouthshire College of Arts in Wales and received his formal training at the Rambert School of Ballet in London. He danced with the Welsh National Opera, London’s Festival Ballet, and Zurich Opera Ballet. He became a founding member of the New London Ballet and toured as technical director and stage manager.
In 1975, Jones and his wife, ballet dancer and instructor Helen Starr, came to Louisville to help found the Academy of the Louisville Ballet with dancers Richard Munro and Christina Stirling. Jones served as associate director of the Academy. In 1978, he became the Louisville Ballet’s artistic director, a position he held for twenty-four years until his retirement in 2002.
During his tenure, the Louisville Ballet presented seventy-eight world premieres and sixty-five Louisville premieres. Jones’s productions included Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Peter Pan, The Merry Widow, and Lucy, many of which have been performed across the U.S. and in other countries including Bermuda, England, Portugal, Spain, India, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Throughout his career, Jones not only produced, directed, and choreographed ballets and operas but also designed scenery and costumes and even danced character roles, including as one of the ugly stepsisters in a Louisville Ballet production of Cinderella.
Jones arranged for Mikhail Baryshnikov to perform with the Louisville Ballet in 1978 and 1979. He also evaluated dance companies for the National Endowment for the Arts, served as a juror for the European Stage Dance Union contest in Croatia, was a member of the International Dance Council in Greece, and was involved in many other regional, national, and international arts initiatives. In 1998, he received the Governor’s Milner Award for contributions to the arts through the Kentucky Arts Council, and in 2002 he received the Louisville Forum’s Fleur-de-Lis Award.
Jones and Starr had two children, Hannah Elizabeth Thomas (1972-) and Gareth Thomas Jones (1975-).
Sources:
65 Years: Making. Moving. Art. by the Louisville Ballet, 2016.
https://www.courier-journal.com/obituaries/lcj166882
https://www.louisvilleballet.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/About-Alun-Jones-1.pdf
Louisville Ballet season program 1979/1980 [Mss. A J76b folder 60]
Welcome to A Great Company program ca. 1982 [Mss. A J76b folder 61]
“1998-1999 Season at Penn State” program [Mss. A J76b folder 72]
Folder List
Box 1
Folder 1: Helen Starr, Erik Bruhn, and others at La Sylphide rehearsal, ca. 1980s
Folder 2: Ballet studio/rehearsals contact sheets and negatives, Jan. 1993
Folder 3: Backstage, ca. 1990s
Folder 4: Touring, ca. 1980s
Folder 5: Nutcracker, ca. 2000s
Folder 6: Louisville Ballet performances/posed promotional images, ca. 1980s
Folder 7: Events, ca. 1990s
Includes Brown-Forman Nutcracker announcement/press conference, groundbreaking for new building at 315 East Main Street, and unidentified ceremonies/ribbon cuttings
Folder 8: Costume shop and dancers modeling Nutcracker costumes, Oct.-Nov. 1995
Folder 9: Don Quixote set models and other material, Jan. 1999
Folder 10: Tiaras designed by Alun Jones, ca. 1992
Removed from album dated 1 Dec. 1992
Folder 11: Tiaras designed by Alun Jones, ca. 1990s
Folder 12: Two dancers posing in the woods, taken by Wade Bell, 2001
Folder 13: Alun Jones costume sketches, undated (digital files)
Subject Headings
Ballet dancers.
Bruhn, Erik, 1928-1986.
Jones, Alun, 1937-2019.
Performing arts.
Starr, Helen, 1940-