Topsy Sinden
 | This article is actively undergoing a major edit for a little while. To help avoid edit conflicts, please do not edit this page while this message is displayed. This page was last edited at 00:52, 7 August 2010 (UTC) (14 years ago) – this estimate is cached, . Please remove this template if this page hasn't been edited for a significant time. If you are the editor who added this template, please be sure to remove it or replace it with {{Under construction}} between editing sessions. |
Harriet Augusta Sinden (1878–1951), better known as Topsy Sinden was an English dancer, actress and singer. She was best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and pantomime, both in London and on tour. Sinden was an accomplished tap dancer and skirt dancer.
Life and career
Sinden's brother was the actor and dancer Bert Sinden (1877-1911).
Sinden began to perform as a small child in entertainments at St. James's Hall and made her professional debut at age six, in 1884, in a pantomime of Dick Whittington at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She studied dance with M. Leprez, an Italian dancing master, and then the Viennese dancer Katti Lanner. She was given early roles included in a revival of Pepita at Toole's Theatre[1][2] and The Old Guard in 1888.[3] In 1889, she played the title role in a pantomime of Cinderella at Covent Garden. She then was engaged at the Empire Theatre.[3] At the invitation of Augustus Harris, Sinden then danced in grand operas at Covent Garden.[1]
She soon joined the company of George Edwardes where, in 1894, she appeared in the burlesque Don Juan at the Gaiety Theatre.[4]
She played Miss Carruthers in A Country Girl at Daly's Theatre, in 1902,[2] Violet Deveney in The Shop Girl in 1894[5] and Jane in The Beauty of Bath at the Aldwych Theatre, 1906[6] In 1908 she appeared at the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square, as Stella Dare, the principal dancer, in a revised version of C. Wilhelm's ballet divertissement The Belle of the Ball in the role created by Adeline Genée [2]
In 1927, after some years' away from the stage, she appeared in a production of Dick Whittington at the Elephant and Castle Theatre, south London. She continued working until at least 1930.[2]
According to one of her contemporaries, Sinden "excelled in a light and easy kind of tap-dancing ... and in skirt dancing, which was very popular in the musical comedies of the period."[7]
Notes
- ^ a b Interview of Sinden in Mainly About People, 31 August 1907, p. 237
- ^ a b c d Culme, John. "Topsy Sinden". Footlight Notes, 6 March 2004, accessed 5 August 2010
- ^ a b "Topsey Sinden" [sic] in "On and off: 35 actresses interviewed by "The Call Boy"", p. 36, G. Dalziel, 1894, accessed 5 August 2010
- ^ "An Objectionable Sultan; Play of Don Juan Expurgated to Please the Turkish minister". The New York Times, 3 November 1893, p. 9
- ^ Macqueen-Pope, W. "Enter Musical Comedy" at the British Musical Theatre site, accessed 5 August, 2010
- ^ Gillan, Don. "The Beauty of Bath". StageBeauty.net, accessed 5 August 2010
- ^ Bedells, Phyllis. My Dancing Days, Phoenix House Ltd., London, 1954, p. 27
External links
- Photos of Sinden in Aladdin, 1908
- Photo of Sinden skirt dancing
- Photo of Sinden