Frederick Ashton, the chief choreographer of the company, is the complete antithesis of his colleague. Where de Valois is realistic, “Freddy” is sentimental. Where “Madame” may sometimes be rigid, Ashton is adaptable. Some of his work is “slick” and smooth. He is a romantic, but by that I do not necessarily mean a “neo-romantic.” Ashton was born in Ecuador, in 1909, which does not make him Ecuadorian, any more than the fact that he spent his childhood in Peru, makes him Peruvian. His British parents happened to be living there at the time. It is said that his interest in dance was first aroused upon seeing Anna Pavlova dance in far-off Peru. Moving to London with his parents, “Freddy” had the privilege of being exposed to performances of the Diaghileff Company, and he had his first ballet lessons from Leonide Massine. Massine turned him over to Marie Rambert when he left London. It was for Rambert that he staged his first work, _The Tragedy of Fashion_, for the Nigel Playfair revue, _Hammersmith Nights_, in 1926. An interim in Paris with Ida Rubenstein, Nijinska, and Massine, was followed by a long time with Marie Rambert and her Ballet Club. The Paris interlude with Nijinska and Massine affected him profoundly. He was a moving figure in the life of the Camargo Society, and in 1935 he joined the Vic-Wells (later to be known as the Sadler’s Wells Ballet), as resident choreographer. During the years between, Ashton has become England’s great creator. He is also a character dancer of wide variety, as witness his Carabosse in _The Sleeping Beauty_, his shy and wistful Ugly Sister in _Cinderella_. His contribution to ballet in England is tremendous. Nigh on to a dozen ballets for the Ballet Rambert; something between twenty-five and thirty for the Sadler’s Wells organization; _Devil’s Holiday_ for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a work which, because of the outbreak of the war, he was unable to complete, and which was never seen in this country with its creator’s full intentions; two works in New York for the New York City Ballet; and the original production of the Gertrude Stein-Virgil Thomson _Four Saints in Three Acts_, in New York. It is interesting to note the wide variety of his creative work by listing some of his many works, which, in addition to those mentioned above, include, among others, the following: For the Ballet Club of Marie Rambert: _Les Petits Riens_, _Leda and the Swan_, _Capriol Suite_, _The Lady of Shalott_, _La Peri_, _Foyer de Danse_, _Les Masques_, _Mephisto Valse_, and several others. For that founding society of contemporary British ballet, which I have mentioned before, the Camargo Society: _Pomona_, _Façade_, _The Lord of Burleigh_, _Rio Grande_ (originally known as _A Day In a Southern Port_), and other works.