Photo Gallery: 50 Years of the Ballet, By Colin Jones

Rudy and Margot do intensely serious barre in an Italian garden, Lynn Seymour enjoys a "Loyal Ballet" poster on a 1962 Japanese tour, in Glasgow two ballet girls snatch some rest in uncomfortable chairs. The real world of ballet, as shot by the insider who became a world photographer, Colin Jones. Read the interview with him, describing the friendships and tragic dramas behind the exhibition of 50 years of his ballet pictures at Proud Chelsea Gallery - events as turbulent as anything onstage.

All photographs © Colin Jones/Arenapal.com. Click on an image to enter full view and slideshow.

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1. 1962: Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev doing a class before performing Swan Lake at the Nervi Festival, Italy
2. 1961: Ballerina Lynn Seymour on the Royal Ballet tour in Tokyo
3. 1961: Ballet dancers waiting during rehearsals
4. 1961: Shirley Grahame of the Royal Ballet Touring Company in Newcastle
5. 1962: Performance
6. 1962: Royal Ballet, Leeds
7. 1961: Final curtain call in Tokyo for the Royal Ballet
8. 1962: Royal Ballet Touring Company, Glasgow
9. 1991: Northern Ballet Theatre, Leeds
10. 1999: English National Ballet, Hong Kong

• Fifty Years of the Ballet by Colin Jones is at the Proud Chelsea gallery 13 January-6 March
• Read theartsdesk interview with Jones
  
• Colin Jones's website