- One of the rare centenarians who achieved the feat of living in 3 centuries: the 19th, the 20th, and by 67 days, the 21st.
- She was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1947 King's New Year Honours List and the DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1951 King's New Year Honours List for her services to ballet.
- She was a major influence in creating the national ballets of Canada, Turkey and Iran.
- She was awarded the Companion of Honour (CH) in the 1982 Queen's New Year Honours List for her services to ballet.
- She was awarded the Erasmus Prize from the Dutch government in 1954.
- She was awarded the Royal Society's Albert Medal in 1964 for her services to dance.
- She was awarded Chevalier of the French Legion d'Honneur in 1950 by the French Government for her services to Ballet.
- She was awarded honorary degree of Doctor of Music from the University of London in 1947 and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland in 1957.
- She was awarded the OM (Order of Merit) in November 1992 for her services to Ballet.
- She was awarded an honorary DLitt from the Universities of Reading in 1951 in Berkshire, Oxford University in 1955 in Oxfordshire, and the University of Ulster in 1979.
- She was awarded honorary degrees of LLD from the University of Aberdeen in 1958 in Scotland and the University of Sussex in 1975.
- She was awarded an honorary degree of DMus from the University of Sheffield in South Yorkshire in 1955 and the University of Durham in 1982 in England.
- She continued to make public appearances until her death in London at the age of 102.
- Most notably, she danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, later establishing the Royal Ballet, one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century and one of the leading ballet companies in the world.
- She received the Critics' Circle Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts in 1989 and the Society of London Theatre Laurence Olivier Award Special Award in 1992.
- A member of a gentry family, she was the second daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Stannus DSO, a British Army officer, and Elizabeth Graydon Smith, a glassmaker known as "Lilith Stannus".
- Through her mother she was also the great grandniece of Sir John Peter Grant and a first cousin twice removed of Lady Strachey.
- In 1991 de Valois appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. Her chosen book was a collection of poems and her luxury item was an everlasting bottle of sleeping pills.
- De Valois had two step-sons, including Dr David Blackall Connell (born 1930), who, in 1955, married Susan Jean Carnegie, a daughter of John Carnegie, 12th Earl of Northesk.
- At the age of thirteen Edris Stannus began her professional training at the Lila Field Academy for Children. It was at this time that she changed her name to Ninette de Valois and made her professional debut as a principal dancer in pantomime at the Lyceum Theatre in the West End.
- De Valois kept her private life very distinct from her professional, making only the briefest of references to her marriage in her autobiographical writings.
- She is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of ballet and as the "godmother" of English and Irish ballet.
- In 1905 she moved to England, to live with her grandmother in Kent.
- In 1923, de Valois joined the Ballets Russes, a renowned ballet company founded by the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev. She remained with the company for three years, performing around Europe and being promoted to the rank of Soloist, and creating roles in some of the company's most famous ballets, including Les biches and Le Train Bleu. During this time, she was also mentor to Alicia Markova who was only a child at the time, but would eventually be recognised as a Prima Ballerina Assoluta and one of the most famous English dancers of all time.
- In 1919, at the age of 21, she was appointed principal dancer of the Beecham Opera, which was then the resident opera company at the Royal Opera House. She continued to study ballet with notable teachers, including Edouard Espinosa, Enrico Cecchetti and Nicholas Legat.
- She was born as Edris Stannus on 6 June 1898 at Baltyboys House, an 18th-century manor house near the town of Blessington, County Wicklow, Ireland, then still part of the United Kingdom.
- She was the maternal great-granddaughter of the diarist Elizabeth Grant Smith and the maternal great-great granddaughter of Scottish politician John Peter Grant.
- She started attending ballet lessons in 1908, at the age of ten.
- In 1935, at Windsor, she married Dr Arthur Blackall Connell (1902-1987), a physician and surgeon from Wandsworth, who worked as a general practitioner in Barnes, London, where they lived, and later Sunningdale, Berkshire. She was his second wife; the union was childless.
- She established the Royal Ballet School and the touring company which became the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
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