Mona Inglesby
	Mona Inglesby danced the great classic roles to audiences of thousands all over the country for 12 years during the 40s and early 50s; but she appeared as the star of her own company, International Ballet, rather than with the Sadler's Wells or Rambert companies, and both she and the company have long been almost forgotten. Born in London of Dutch/British parentage in 1918, Inglesby started dancing early, making her debut at the Scala Theatre as a Silver Bell, aged 5. She had to choose which of several talents she should concentrate on, and finally settled on ballet when she started training with Marie Rambert. She had additional lessons from Margaret Craske, and went to Paris to study with the great Russians, but it was with the Ballet Club that she made her first appearances, dancing in early works of Ashton and Andrée Howard among others and even understudying Markova in some of her roles. At 21 she made her first attempt at choreography, with Moira Shearer in the cast and costumes by no less than Sophie Fedorovitch. At the start of the war many companies closed down, and Inglesby opened her own studio and taught for a time; then in 1941, with family money to back her and still aged only 22, she opened her own company, designed to tour full-scale ballet and bring some beauty and colour to people deprived of both. At the start she alone had the technique and experience for ballerina roles, and often had to dance several nights running, giving rise to stories that she had only formed the company in order to form a background for herself. Later, when she managed to find others to share the leads with her, she was seen in better perspective. Ballet Today described her as having 'some remarkable qualities as a dancer; she is exceptionally light, swift and aerial with strong, beautiful feet'. International Ballet survived, with no government subsidy, until 1953, dancing the classics and new works (some by Inglesby herself) for audiences in huge arenas and in some more unexpected venues - Butlins holiday camps, for instance. Inglesby's talent as a dancer developed considerably during the company's life. Though no-one would ever claim that she was a great dancer, she had enough quality to bring life to the ballerina roles, and certainly enough to impress the great Russian ballet master Sergeyev, who left to her the priceless notations of the classics he brought to the West from the Maryinsky.
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