GIRL DANCER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23273, 16 February 1939, Page 15

GIRL DANCER

AUCKLAND DISCOVERY TUITION ABROAD SUGGESTED BALLET LEADER'S INTEREST The discovery in Auckland of a 12-year-old dancer possessing brilliant talent has been made by Mr. Anton Dolin, one of the principal dancers in the Covent Garden Russian Ballet. Mr. Dolin has been so impressed with the young dancer's ability that he is eager that she should be sent to England and the Continent to have training by the leading ballet teachers. The girl who has made such an impression on one of the acknowledged leaders in ballet is Rowena Jackson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. Jackson, of Clonbern Road, Remuera. Last year she was noticed by a London teacher of dancing who was visiting New Zealand to conduct examinations, and when the Covent Garden Ballet Company arrived in Auckland about three weeks ago the opportunity was taken to enable Mr. Dolin, who is an executive member of the Royal Academy of Dancing, London, to see the girl danco. "Rowena has brilliant talent and I am willing to do everything I can in Europe to further her career," Mr. Dolin said when interviewed last

night. "I realise the risk in sending a child of that age to Europe. It is difficult to judge from the tender age of 12 how a child will develop, but from my experience of dancers I consider that she has very great possibilities, a great deal more so than the majority of students of that age or older.

"The New Zealand branch of the Australasian Society of Operatic Dancing has guaranteed the sum of £IOO a year for two years toward the girl's tuition in Europe. Although that is a good start and a fine gesture on the part of the society, it is not nearly enough for the purpose," Mr. Dolin said. He added that he would guarantee her at least one year's training in Europe and would obtain for her one of the great teachers in Paris. He did not propose to teach her himself as he would bo travelling too much, but he would give her instruction when he was in London and would be responsible for guiding her career. "If Rowena develops as she should, in two or three years she will find her own place and be independent of other people," he said. He appealed for generous support in sending the girl to Europe and said that her rise into the first rank of dancers would reflect great credit on New Zealand.