Laurel Martyn (; 23 July 1916 – 16 October 2013) was an Australian

ballerina A ballet dancer is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet. They rely on years of extensive training and proper technique to become a part of a professional ballet company. Ballet dancer ...

.Obituary
theaustralian.com.au; Retrieved 26 December 2013. In 1933, she left Australia for England and studied with Phyllis Bedells. In 1934 she won a choreographic scholarship from the Association of Operatic Dancing (later the

Royal Academy of Dance The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) is a UK-based examination board specialising in dance education and training, with an emphasis on classical ballet. The RAD was founded in London, England in 1920 as the Association of Teachers of Operatic Danci ...

) for ''Exile'', her first composition. In 1935 she became the first Australian to win the

Adeline Genée Dame Adeline Genée Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, DBE (born Anina Kirstina Margarete Petra Jensen; 6 January 1878 – 23 April 1970) was a Danish-British ballet dancer. Early years Anina Kirstina Margarete Petra Jens ...

Gold Medal. Martyn joined the Vic-Wells Ballet (later

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a London performing arts venue, located in Rosebery Avenue, Islington. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site. Sadler's Wells grew out of a late 17th-century pleasure garden and was opened as a theatre buil ...

) in December 1935, the first Australian woman to be accepted into the company. By 1938, she was a soloist. That same year, she returned to Australia and became a dance teacher. She joined

Edouard Borovansky Edouard Borovansky (24 February 1902 – 18 December 1959) was a Czechoslovakia, Czech-born Australian ballet dancer, choreographer and director. After touring with Anna Pavlova's company, he and his wife, Xenia Borovansky, Xenia, settled in Aus ...

's eponymous ballet corps in 1940 and remained until her marriage to Lloyd Lawton in 1945. she then continued dancing and died at the age of 97 in the 2013

Works

After leaving the Borovansky Ballet in 1945, Martyn began creating her own dance works. These included ''The Sentimental Bloke Who Couldn't Be a Man'' in 1952 and ''Mathinna'' in 1954. These works were inspired by Australian themes. ''The Sentimental Bloke'' used Australian literature for inspiration and ''Mathinna'', concerning an

Aboriginal Tasmanian The Aboriginal Tasmanians (palawa kani: ''Palawa'' or ''Pakana'') are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. At the time of European contact, Aboriginal Tasmanians were divided into a numb ...

girl adopted into white society, explored the political, social and racial implications of relationships between

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

and colonial settlers.Laurel Martyn (1916-2013) profile
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Later years

She also was instrumental in forming the Young Dancers' Theatre, for which she choreographed several works in the 1980s, and the Classical Dance Teachers Australia Inc, which provided in-service training for dance teachers.

References

External links

Laurel Martyn Collection
at the

Australian Performing Arts Collection The Australian Performing Arts Collection at Arts Centre Melbourne, formerly known as Performing Arts Museum (PAM), is the largest specialist performing arts collection in Australia, with over 780,000 items relating to the history of circus, danc ...

Arts Centre Melbourne Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central M ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martyn, Laurel 1916 births 2013 deaths Australian ballerinas Dancers of The Royal Ballet People from Toowoomba Place of death missing Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom