Frederick Ashton created the leading fenale role in 'Les Rendezvous' for Alicia Markova, declaring that the ballet was simply a vehicle for her and her partner, the brilliant former Diaghilev dancer, Stanislas Idzikowsky. Markova alone danced the leading female role until she left the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1935. Although she never danced the complete ballet again after this date, she included the solo in her concert performances in South Africa in 1948 and in England in 1949. For these performances a new dress was made following exactly the 1933 designs. There was evidently a certain amount of consternation when Chappell originally produced the designs in 1933, as grey was an almost unheard of colour for a ballerina to wear, and Chappell recalled later that no one except himself cared for mauve, the colour of one of the other costumes.

Chappell redesigned 'Les Rendezvous' in 1937, creating much simpler white dresses edged with pink, blue or white ribbons; the ballet as presented today by the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet follows these designs. In 1947, when the ballet was first mounted on the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, he produced new designs, but the costume for the leading girl was based upon the 1933 costume, eventually the company took over the 1937 designs. The ballet was not presented by the Sadler's Wells Ballet at Covent Garden until 1959, when Chappell redesigned it again, elaborating the designs to suit the larger stage, but as so often, a ballet created for Sadler's Wells Theatre refused to transfer to the wider spaces of the Opera House, and apart from a section performed at the Gala in Tribute to Sir Frederick Ashton in 1970, it has not been seen there since 1963.

Sarah Woodcock & Philip Dyer