Photograph by Brendan Bell

Maina Gielgud
Daughter of Lewis, Niece of John, Second cousin to Kate and Piers

Maina, niece of Sir John, danced with a wide range of companies including Maurice Bejart's Ballet du XXe Siecle, German Opera Ballet Berlin, London Festival Ballet and Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet. She also visited Australia on several occasions during her performing career. In the mid 1970s she danced the lead in Australian Ballet productions of The Sleeping Beauty, La Fille mal gardee and Romeo and Juliet and also performed her Bejart-choreographed solo Forme et ligne (Squeaky Door) with the company in 1974. In the 1970s and 1980s she choreographed several of her own works, including the well known Steps, Notes and Squeaks of 1978, which subsequently toured to Australia. She was the Australian Ballet's artistic director from 1983 to 1996 and is that company's longest serving director to date. For the Australian Ballet she staged her own productions of The Sleeping Beauty (1984) and Giselle (1986).

Gielgud left the Australian Ballet at the end of 1996 after which she became Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Ballet between 1997 and 1999. Following her departure from Copenhagen she worked as a freelance director and guest repetiteur and returned to the stage in 2002 in a Bejart production, L'Heure exquise, partnered by Martyn Fleming. In July 2003, at the invitation of Stanton Welch, she took up the position of artistic associate at Houston Ballet where until mid 2005 she advised on artistic issues, staged productions, and coached the company's dancers. She has since returned to freelance work.