Person

Howes, Dulcie

1908-1993

Dulcie Howes was born in 1908 at Little Brak River near Mossel Bay, where the family spent their summer holidays. Her father, Justice Reed Howes, came to South Africa at the end of the Anglo Boer War. While he was the headmaster of Oudtshoorn Boys High School he married Muriel Alice Lind. After their marriage they settled in Cape Town, where Justice Howes practised as an advocate. Dulcie Howes was one of the first pupils at Herschel School in Rondebosch when it opened in 1922. She maintained her interest in the school for many years as a ballet teacher there, and also as a member of the school council. Both her daughters, Amelia and Victoria attended Herschel. As a child she took dancing lessons with Helen Webb. These classes concentrated more on deportment and what was known then as “fancy dancing”. She later took ballet instruction from Helen White, who had studied with Cecchetti. In 1925 Dulcie Howes saw her first professional ballet performance when Anna Pavlova’s Company toured South Africa. Possibly as a result of this she decided to travel abroad to England in 1926 to study ballet, as ballet in South Africa was then in its infancy. She spent three and a half years in England studying different aspects of dance such as pas-des deux, ballroom, mime, Spanish, Greek, tap and modern dance as well as anatomy and art. At the end of her studies in England she managed to secure a small part with Anna Pavlova’s company when they toured Europe. When Dulcie Howes returned to South Africa in 1930, inspired with ideas, methods and techniques, she opened a ballet school in Rondebosch, where she taught ballet, ballroom and Spanish dancing. Her school had grown from 3 pupils to 60 when Prof. W Bell , Head of the College of Music at UCT, suggested that Dulcie Howes move her school to the College of Music. This led to the founding of the UCT Ballet School in 1932. This was a major development in ballet in South Africa and was also a realization of her vision of having ballet and related subjects taught “under one roof”, and the organisation of ballet on a professional and educational level. Between 1932 and 1952 Dulcie Howes choreographed 30 original ballets such as La Famille, Vlei Legend, Bach Suite and The Enchanted Well. In 1935 Dulcie Howes was appointed Director of the Little Theatre (the first woman to hold this position). The UCT Ballet Company was established in the same year. It was separate from but complementary to, the UCT Ballet School, as its dancers were drawn from the ballet school. The ballet company quickly grew and from 1941 did several tours throughout Southern Africa. In 1950 the Dulcie Howes Ballet Trust Fund was established. Its aims were to promote ballet in South Africa, to help dancers go abroad and to sponsor guest artists to come to South Africa. The Fund was the brain child of Guy Cronwright. In 1963 the UCT Ballet Company became fully professional, and in 1965 it became a part of CAPAB (Cape Performing Arts Board) with Dulcie Howes as its Artistic Director. She retired as Artistic Director in 1969. Although employed by CAPAB her ideal was the establishment of a National Ballet Company in order to develop an “indigenous and characteristic ballet”. This was one of her goals which was never realised. After 1972 when Dulcie Howes retired as principal of the Ballet School, she remained active in ballet and its development. Together with Mignon Furman and David Poole she drew up the syllabus for the Education Dept. in 1974 when ballet was first recognised as a subject in schools. She was also the first inspector of ballet in the Dept. of Coloured Affairs and a moderator for Stds. 8 & 10. During her career she received many awards and honours such as the Cape Tercentenary Foundation Award in 1953, Cecchetti Gold Medal in 1969, the SA Academy for Arts and Sciences gold medal in 1970 and an Honorary Doctorate in Music by UCT in 1976. She married Guy Cronwright in London in 1937 and had two daughters, Amelia and Victoria.

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