Laurel Martyn wanted everyone to have a glass of champagne at her funeral. So that’s exactly what a large group of her friends, relatives and colleagues did at a memorial gathering on Saturday.
Held at the home in North Balwyn in Melbourne where she had lived for 65 years, the memorial brought together about a hundred people, many of them prominent figures in dance. Former Borovansky figures were in the mix, as were former artistic directors, dancers and students. The occasion was deliberately cheerful – a celebration rather than a wake.
Helen Adam, Laurel's niece, gave a loving speech, in which she described Laurel’s “great love, enduring friendships, achievements and sense of fun”. “She always wanted to know where you came from inside yourself, the person who was really you,” she said. While Laurel’s capacity for tactlessness and a “withering turn of phrase” was described, so was her love of teaching and sharing the joy of dance with children, and her ability to perfectly judge “the right time to scold and right time to praise”.
In addition, Jane Andrewartha, her colleague at the Movement and Dance Education Centre (which Laurel established) presented a slide show which showed Laurel at various stages in her life. These included some beautiful photos of her in costume for the solo with which she became the first Australian to win a gold medal at the RAD Adeline Genee competition. Others, by photographer Athol Shmith, showed her in leading roles when she was a dancer with the Borovansky Ballet (in full false horsehair eyelashes). Another showed her as director of Ballet Victoria, taking a bow with guest artists Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova.
Andrewartha has established a foundation in Laurel Martyn’s name, and will be happy to hear from anyone with memories of her, including photos or other ephemera. She can be contacted on jane@laurelmartyndance.com.
For her full obituary, see here