Joy Newton

Joy Newton (May 1913 – 4 April 1996) was an English ballet dancer and teacher. She was one of the six young women who became the first members of the opera ballet at The Old Vic theatre and was a minor soloist and character dancer. Newton was the first teacher and principal of the National Turkish Ballet School from 1947 to 1951 and taught at the Royal Ballet School between 1963 and 1969.

Biography Newton was born in Wimbledon, London in May 1913. She was a child dancer as Will-o'-the-Wisp in Where the Rainbow Ends and became pupil of Ninette de Valois's Academy of Choreographic Art school (today the Royal Ballet School) from approximately 1927. Newton was one of the six young women who became the first members of the opera ballet at The Old Vic theatre in 1929, making her company debut in The Picnic ballet to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams. she had a cameo appearance as the Ballad Singer in The Rake's Progress, which de Valois had created for her when the ballet premiered in 1935. By the start of the Second World War, she was the only remaining dancer from the original team still with the company, Newton later retired, and The Nutcracker in December 1977. She also ran a small antique shop in Kent. The last revival Newton worked on was de Valois's production of Job: A Masque for Dancing in Birmingham in 1993.

Personal life and death She married Walter Postlethwaite in 1949. Newton died suddenly while working in her garden on 4 April 1996.

Legacy The Joy Newton Collection is held by the Royal Ballet School Special Collections. It includes five boxes of letters of correspondence, hand-written choreographic notes, music scores and photographs.