Rowena Jackson Chatfield MBE, 1926 – 2024

Early footage and photographs show the talented young ballet student and her rise to fame with the Royal Ballet Company in Britain. Contemporary footage shows her work at the National School of Ballet in Wellington where she is co-director with her husband, Philip Chatfield. Dancer Russell Kerr comments on her career and early retirement from the stage.

Read here.

Today Show video about Rowena and Phillip Chatfield. Watch here.

Early footage and photographs show the talented young ballet student and her rise to fame with the Royal Ballet Company in Britain. Contemporary footage shows her work at the National School of Ballet in Wellington where she is co-director with her husband, Philip Chatfield. Dancer Russell Kerr comments on her career and early retirement from the stage.

Watch here

It was early 1947 now and Bryan Ashbridge had also arrived in London from New Zealand. The Adeline Genée International Ballet Competition, which is world renowned as the-pinnacle of achievement for holders of the higher major RAD examinations, was due shortly to be held in London. The Director of the RAD called both Bryan and me to her office and insisted that we enter for this and start preparing. News of this competition hadn’t reached us in NZ, but we agreed and started enquiring as to what was required of an entrant.

In those days one had to attend a class, perform a given written solo and a demi character dance of one’s own choice. Nowadays it is quite different! I soon began to realise that all this had its difficulties. The class and the written solo was not a problem, but I didn’t have a local teacher I could learn a dance from and what could I wear for a costume?I decided to do a solo as a street dancer thinking it wise to include some fouettes and turns. I managed to find the music of the ‘Trish Trash Polka’ and set to work. Choreography is not a strong point of mine, but I eventually finished it and it seemed adequate. I was permitted to practise in one of the theatre’s small studios.

The next the real problem was finding a costume. I was discussing this with my friends from classes and they told me that there was a shop in Leicester Square where one could hire theatrical costumes. So off I went to see what they had. Well, all I could come up with was a brown taffeta maids dress with a full flared skirt which had the necessary net frills sewn underneath it (similar to a can-can dancer’s costume), but it had puffed sleeves and a peter pan collar There was no other dress that came near this one, so that had to be it, puffed sleeves, peter pan collar and all!Ballet dresses with frills underneath especially those used for can-can work had to have matching frilly pantees worn with them because they would be seen when the skirt was lifted up. I, of course, didn’t own a pair.

One or two of my friends were dancing as extras in Les Sylphides with the 1st Company at the Royal Opera House and they excitedly said that it was possible for them to get a pair of ‘frillies’, as they were called, from the full box of them that was passed around in the dressing room for the girls to take a pair each. These were always laundered after each performance and reissued for the next one. So they whipped a pair for me! (After all these years I give my apologies to the Royal Ballet).

Now these were made of white net. My costume was brown with beige coloured frills. Beige with white would not have been right at all. The only thought I could come up with was to dip them in a coffee solution. No Nescafe in those days, just ground coffee. So I bought a few ounces and boiled them with water in my little saucepan until the colour looked right. The next problem was, I didn’t have a strainer. Oh well, just have to put the pantees in with the grounds and all! I squeezed them out and hung them up to dry and then just shook all the grounds out. They were perfect!

The day of the Competition soon arrived and Bryan and I were ready. Bryan was dancing a Spanish solo where his imaginary sweetheart was on a balcony (he had brought his costume from home). A rose had to be thrown to him as if from the lady, so I had to get up on a chair in the wings and reach as high as I could and toss that to him. After the class we both duly performed our dances and neither of us had any hope of winning any of the medals. There was gold, silver and a bronze to be awarded, and only if the judges felt they had been earned. Often during the past years the gold was not given at all. I have no recollection of the applause at all on that day; I was just so relieved to have finished without any problems.

The famous Madame Adeline Genée herself, who was not a young woman then, graciously came’ onto the stage and addressed the audience with a speech finishing by saying that she had the great pleasure this year to be able to award both Gold medals and to also S!IY that the winners of these medals were both New Zealanders! Bryan and I could hardly believe it and were absolutely ecstatic.