Laurel Martyn

Laurel Martyn
Helmut Newton's 1952 portrait of Laurel Martyn, National Library of Australia
Born	Laurel Gill 1916 Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
Occupation	Ballet dancer
Spouse	Lloyd Lawton (1945-)

Laurel Martyn in Vltava, Borovansky Ballet, 1940, National Library of Australia

Laurel Martyn (born Laurel Gill, 1916, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia) was an Australian ballerina. She studied under Kathleen Hamilton in Toowoomba, Marjorie Hollinshed in Brisbane, and Phyllis Bedells in London. In 1934 Martyn won a choreographic scholarship from the Association of Operatic Dancing (later the Royal Academy of Dance) for her first composition Exile. In 1935, she became the second Australian to win the Adeline Genee gold medal. Martyn joined the Vic-Wells Ballet (later Sadler's Wells Ballet) in December 1935 as the first Australian woman to be accepted into the company. By 1938 she was a soloist. In 1938 she returned to Australia and became a dancing teacher. In 1940 she joined Edouard Borovansky's Borovansky Ballet. Martyn left the Borovansky Ballet after her marriage to Lloyd Lawton in 1945.

Works

After leaving the Borovansky Ballet in 1945 Martyn went on to create some of her own attempts at 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 as at the time of production, many choreographers were being inspired by Australian themes. The Sentimental Bloke used Australian literature for inspiration, maybe for the first time in Australian dance; and her Mathinna, way ahead of its time, looked at the political, social and racial implications of relationships between Aborigines and white colonial settlers. It was about an Aboriginal girl adopted into white society, most likely as a result of the stolen generation.

References

• Making Australian Dance: Themes and Variations, By Michelle Potter

External links

• Laurel Martyn Collection at the Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre, Melbourne