Some careers are carefully planned. Others begin with an instinct so strong that it seems impossible to ignore. For Frederic Franklin, dance was part of life almost from the beginning. Long before he became one of the defining figures associated with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, he was a young boy in Liverpool who moved whenever he heard music and treated dancing as naturally as other children treated play.
That early enthusiasm soon found its way onto a stage. At just six years old, Franklin made his first public appearance at a large Christmas children’s event in Liverpool, performing a dance dressed as a rabbit. His nerves disappeared once the performance began and the applause that followed left a lasting impression. From that moment, the idea of becoming a dancer was no longer simply childhood entertainment. It had become an ambition.
The path ahead, however, was far from effortless. Franklin trained seriously, competed, performed wherever opportunities arose and spent years developing the versatility that would later define his career. He was often the only boy in his ballet classes and his commitment sometimes placed him at odds with expectations about what a young man should pursue. His father repeatedly questioned whether dancing could provide a sensible future, while his mother remained one of his strongest supporters.
At seventeen, Franklin decided Liverpool could no longer contain his ambitions. He left for London in search of professional work, carrying limited resources but enormous determination. Remarkably, he found an opportunity within his first week. That job eventually took him to Paris and the Casino de Paris, where the young dancer suddenly found himself surrounded by international entertainment stars. He performed in the same theatrical world as Josephine Baker and later Mistinguett, an astonishing transition for someone who had only recently left home.
Yet Franklin’s greatest chapter was still ahead.
After joining the Markova-Dolin Company in 1935, his development as a serious ballet artist accelerated. Then, with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Franklin entered the period that would transform him into a major figure in dance history. He partnered legendary ballerinas including Alicia Markova and Alexandra Danilova and worked with influential choreographers such as Léonide Massine, George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Michel Fokine and Bronislava Nijinska.
His life with the company was anything but glamorous all the time. Franklin experienced exhausting rehearsals, relentless touring, wartime uncertainty, last-minute substitutions, injuries, difficult travel and performances held together by discipline and sheer determination. During one extraordinary wartime New York opening, members of the company arrived so late that they had only one rehearsal before performing at the Metropolitan Opera House. Franklin remembered finishing the evening almost entirely through willpower.
Eventually, Franklin became more than a celebrated performer. His remarkable memory for choreography and repertory made him an invaluable teacher and mentor. Colleagues increasingly turned to him when steps, characters or staging details needed to be remembered and he gradually assumed greater responsibility for preserving the company’s work.
Frederic Franklin: An Early Memoir of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and His Career, compiled and edited by Patrick Casey, captures this extraordinary journey with the intimacy of lived experience. It is not simply the story of a great dancer. It is a personal doorway into a remarkable era of ballet filled with legendary artists, backstage chaos, artistic breakthroughs, hard work, humor, travel and unforgettable performances.
For ballet lovers, dance historians and readers fascinated by lives shaped by relentless passion, Frederic Franklin’s story offers a rare chance to step behind the curtain and experience ballet history from someone who helped create it.
Read the book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0idlHsyy
