Dulcie Howes

Dulcie Howes (18*-19*) was a ballet dancer, choreographer and administrator.

Biography

She was the ballet mistress of a ballet school in Cape Town, known as the Cape Town Ballet Company. After the very successful opening of The Marriage of Figaro she was approached by professor William H. Bell to bring her ballet school under the wing of the College of Music, as the UCT Ballet School.

Contribution to South African theatre

March 1947: Sponsored by the Port Elizabeth Ballet Club, Dulcie Howes brought her Cape Town Ballet Company to the Port Elizabeth Opera House for four ballet performances. This was the first ever time a ballet company had performed in Port Elizabeth. Her accompanying dancers included ballet assistant Renee Feller and teacher Freida Smallhorne. All the other dancers were students and included Myrtle Martin an Mary-Jane Harris from East London, and Editha Mills from Queenstown.

December 1947: Sponsored by the Association of Arts, Dulcie Howes brought her Cape Town Ballet Company to King William's Town for one ballet performance and then moved to East London for three performances at the East London City Hall. Two of her accompanying students,Maurice Metliss and Renee Feller, the latter being one of the principal dancers, were from East London.

Through the recommendation of Bell, Howes also became the next Director of the Little Theatre in Cape Town.

In 1950 she became involved in setting up the Maynardville Open-Air Theatre, both as organizer and choreographer, doing St Valentine’s Night and Les Diversions the UCT Ballet Company as part of the opening production of the venue on 1-3 December 1950.

[FdV, TH]

1972 (?): Directed Eleanor Farjeon's musical fantasy The Silver Curlew and presented by the Port Elizabeth Children's Theatre at the Port Elizabeth Opera House as a fund raiser for the Port Elizabeth School Feeding Fund. Music by Clifton Parker with special arrangements by Felicia Lifson and Don Gallaway.

Sources

Saturday Post, March 29, 1947.

Saturday Post, October 4, 1947.

Donald Inskip 1972. Forty Little Years: The Story of a Theatre. Cape Town: Howard Timmins.

The Silver Curlew theatre programme, undated.

Donald Inskip 1976. The Maynardville Chronicle, 1956-1976. Epping: Printpak.

Karen Combrinck, 1997. Contents list of "The Dulcie Howes Papers", Manuscripts & Archives, University of Cape Town Libraries (donated by Victoria Cawood)[1]

Dulcie Howes: Pioneer of Ballet in South Africa. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau; 1996. ISBN 0-7981-3651-0.

Return to ESAT Personalities H

Return to South African Theatre Personalities

Return to Main Page