Margaret Craske (1892–1990)

Margaret Craske was born in Norfolk, England, a daughter of Edmund and Hannah Craske. She began studying dance at age 16 and started her professional career dancing in music halls. She moved to London and studied with the renowned ballet master Enrico Cecchetti. In 1920, she was chosen to join the Ballets Russes by impresario Serge Diaghilev after he saw her in a class at Cecchetti’s. When Cecchetti retired to Italy in 1923, Margaret was asked to take over as ballet mistress of his studio, and she spent years teaching and developing the Cecchetti method. A follower of the spiritual leader Meher Baba, she lived in India from 1939 until 1946. In 1946, she moved to the USA and settled in New York City, where she resumed teaching, at first at American Ballet Theatre. From 1950 she taught at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School, and from 1968 until 1983 at the Manhattan School of Dance. Her students included many of the most prominent names in ballet, including Frederick Ashton, Margot Fonteyn, Cyril Beaumont, Robert Helpmann, Antony Tudor, Melissa Hayden, Hugh Laing, Nora Kaye, and Paul Taylor, among others. Margaret also published four books: The Theory and Practice or Allegro on Classical Ballet (1930), co-authored with Cyril Beaumont; The Theory and Practice or Advanced Allegro on Classical Ballet (1956), co-authored with Friderica Derra de Monda; The Dance or Love: My Life with Meher Baba (1980); and Still Dancing With Love: More Stories of Life Woth Meher Baba (1990).