Before there was a Royal Winnipeg Ballet, there was the Winnipeg Ballet. Or the Winnipeg Ballet Club, now reborn as a support group for the Company. It was formed in 1939 by Gweneth Lloyd and Betty Hey, sponsored a Command Performance for the visiting British Royalty in 1940 (who didn't attend) and were finally recognized as "Royal" in 1953 by Queen Elizabeth.

"working hard on those November nights was David Adams ... leaning against the barre, and expression of bored seriousness on his face, is Adams, the very image of crewcut pre-teen nonchalance. He was small but Gweneth used that to advatange, re-choreographic a role in the English pub sequence of Triple Alliance to accommodate him (a bookmaker was transfored into a jockey). He was game for anything they could throw at him."

-Max Wyman,
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet: The First Fourty Years
Doubleday, 1978


Ballet Russe Tour: 1941


RAD Examination results: 1946


Queen of Hearts


Production 1


Canada tour: 1945