Frederick Ashton retirement in 1963, in the company known successively as the Vic-Wells Ballet, the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Royal Ballet. He succeeded de Valois as director of the company, serving until his own retirement in 1970. Ashton is widely credited with the creation of a specifically English genre of ballet. Among his best-known works are "Façade" (1931), "Symphonic Variations" (1946), "Cinderella" (1948), "La fille mal gardée" (1960), "Monotones" I and II (1965), "Enigma Variations" (1968) and the feature film ballet "The Tales of Beatrix Potter" (1970). Ashton was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the fourth of the five children of George
Rhapsody (Ashton) Rhapsody (Ashton) Rhapsody is a one act ballet by Sir Frederick Ashton, based on Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini". The ballet premiered on 4 August 1980 at The Royal Ballet, and was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. It has been revived three times since its 1980 premiere, in 1995, 2011, and most recently, 2016. "Rhapsody" was created ten years after Ashton's official retirement, and has been described as a "pièce d'occasion" for the 80th birthday of the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother was a friend of Ashton's. The 1980 premiere was the last of Mikhail