LONDON (AP) - Dame Ninette de Valois, a pioneer of British dance and founder of the Royal Ballet, died Thursday. She was 102.
A small, formidable woman known throughout the ballet world as ``Madam,'' worked as a choreographer, teacher and director. Dame Ninette established ballet in a Britain that had no ballet tradition.
Her Royal Ballet School became the cradle of an English ballet style, and her dance company evolved into the renowned Royal Ballet of Covent Garden.
She was made a dame in 1951, and France made her a chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur in 1950. In 1980, Queen Elizabeth II made her a member of the exclusive Order of the Companions of Honor, for men and women who have done ``conspicuous national service.''
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