History

Sarah Nicholson was a première danseuse at Covent Garden.

She trained at the National Training School for Dancing at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane before joining the corps de ballet of Thompson’s troupe at Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1882.

Her first featured rôle came in the 1885 revival of Coppelia. The danseuse cast in the rôle of Dawn in the third act Divertissement became injured and could no longer perform the rôle. Although Nicholson was not the understudy of the rôle (she had been understudying the rôles of Swanhilda’s friends and the corps of L’Hymen – Noce Villageoise) she put herself forward for the rôle. Thompson permitted her to do so, and she impressed with her performances. As a result, Thompson gave her some performances in the Pas des Paysans of Giselle (also revived in 1885) which she successfully danced with Rafael Caravetti.

The end of the 1885 season brought a promotion to coryphée and larger rôles, culminating in her 1887 promotion to sujet and finally her 1890 promotion to première danseuse. Nicholson went on to enjoy a long and successful career as première danseuse, in which she created the rôle of Léonor in Thompson‘s magnum opus The Swords of Toledo (1896). She retired in 1903 and for her benefit she requested that The Peri should be revived, a rôle she had debuted in 1892 with Rafael Caravetti as her Achmet.

Throughout her career she was praised for her lightness, finesse and lyricism, and so was well suited to rôles in which she portrayed fairies, spirits or ingénues. She was also praised for her technical skill, being at times considered a virtuosa. 

Today, Nicholson is perhaps best remembered for two reasons: her rivalry with Marta Draeger and her temper. Both attributions, though nominally grounded in historical fidelity, fail to tell the full story.

It is often repeated that Nicholson’s rivalry with Draeger was one sided; as Draeger was easy, uncomplicated and devoted to her art whereas Nicholson was demanding, capricious and jealous of Draeger’s superiority. Though this narrative was pushed by the newspapers at the time, it does not appear to accurately reflect reality. 

Firstly, Nicholson and Draeger were fundamentally different dancers. Draeger was the “Italian” of the two: fast, expansive, articulate and with a great command of the stage. Nicholson was the more “French” of the two: light, refined, precise and with the ability more to float than soar. This difference was exemplified in the 1890 revival of The Wayward Daughter where both danseuses portrayed the rôle of Lise; Draeger portrayed Lise as spirited, mischievous and vivacious while Nicholson portrayed Lise as feminine, coquettish and effervescent. Critics of the time noted that both portrayals ought to be seen to obtain the complete view of the range of the rôle, though naturally most had opinions as to which portrayal they believed was finer. 

Secondly, Nicholson may have had plausible reasons for her dislike of Draeger. It seems that her dislike of Draeger can be traced back to 1889, when Draeger took the rôle of Héléna from her in the revival of Roberto il Diavolo. This historic and coveted rôle had initially been assigned to Nicholson by Thompson, but upon Draeger’s intervention the rôle went to her instead, with Nicholson demoted to Draeger’s alternate. 

This incident would have been interpreted as a display of Thompson’s favouritism toward Draeger, something that was well known at Covent Garden at the time. Thompson considered Draeger his primary muse, creating the ballets Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1890) and Pygmalion (1893) for her. Nicholson was not pleased by the open display of favouritism, especially since Thompson was very vocal to the newspapers about building and promoting British ballet. It would be plausible then, that Nicholson might have chaffed at the incongruity of Thompson verbally promoting British ballet whilst elevating a German (Draeger) and sidelining an Englishwoman (herself). As such, Nicholson may have felt like she needed to fight harder and more visibly for her demands due to Draeger’s demands being much more likely to be accommodated by Thompson without fuss. This would have had the result of making Draeger look like she did not ask for much and making Nicholson unecessarily unreasonable, obscuring the true reality of the situation.

Thirdly, Nicholson herself was technically gifted, so it seems odd that she would have resented Draeger for her technique. We can ascertain this from the ballets revised for her, the notations of The Peri, The Buccaneers and The Swords of Toledo (the former two revised by Thompson for Nicholson and the third created for her) are technically demanding in different ways to the ballets created or revised for Draeger, but no less challenging. It would be difficult to argue that the majority of the technical demands were added after Nicholson left the rôle, thus we must conclude that at least some of the difficult passages in the notations must have been created for her. 

Finally, had Nicholson been as difficult as both later writers and writers of the time tried to claim, Thompson would not have continued to cast her in rôles. One might try to argue that he was institutionally bound (as between 1895 and 1896 Nicholson was the only première at Covent Garden) but this claim is difficult to support considering that Thompson could have very easily elevated any one of the sujets to the rank of première. Thompson continued to revise ballets for Nicholson, giving her ballets suited to her “Romantic” strengths. The Peri (1892) marked the first of his so-called “Romantic Revisions” for her, but Thompson continued with The Fairies’ Goddaughter (1893), The Sylph (1895), Coppelia (1895) and choreographed his magnum opus The Swords of Toledo (1896) for her.

Thus, it would seem that while there was some truth to the Nicholson-Draeger rivalry and the extent of Nicholson’s temper (there are certainly recorded instances of her moods playing out backstage), it appears to have reflected more of an exaggeration of the press than actual backstage reality. It would have been easy and perhaps even beneficial for the press to typecast the two danseuses into the roles of “model artist” and “capricious diva,” sensationalising the reviews for the public. However, modern scholars note that this oft repeated position is difficult to justify given the historical context, and even more difficult to claim as the objective truth. 

Rôles

• Dawn in Coppelia (1885)
• Pas des Paysans in Giselle (1885)
• Hydrola in Ondine (1887)
• Myrtha in Giselle (1888)
• Pas de Trois in The Fairy of the Forest (1888)
• Gulnare in The Corsair (1889)
• The Spirit of Wrath and Friend of Martha in Faust (1889*)
• The Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1890)
• Lise in The Wayward Daughter (1890)
• Julie in The Beauty of Ghent (1891*)
• The Peri/Leïla in The Peri (1892*)
• The Rose in Pygmalion (1893)
• Ysaure in The Fairies’ Goddaughter (1893)
• Fleur de Lys in Esmeralda (1894)
• The Comtesse in The Devil to Pay (1894)
• Swanhilda in Coppelia (1895)
• The Sylph in The Sylph (1895*)
• Jovita in The Buccaneers (1896)
• Léonor in The Swords of Toledo (1896)
• Béatrix in The Beauty of Ghent (1897)
• Gourouli in The Two Pigeons (1898*)
• Giselle in Giselle (1898)
• Galatée in Pygmalion (1899)
• Mazourka in The Devil to Pay (1900)
• Ondine in Ondine (1901)
• Esmeralda in Esmeralda (1901)
• Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1902)
• Britannia in Fairest Isle (1902)
• Yseult in Tristan and Yseult (1903)

Created rôle in new ballet

First London revival, new production*