ROWENA JACKSON . Biography

(B. 1926)
Royal Ballet

BIOGRAPHY

Rowena Jackson was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, in 1926. After having won a scholarship from the Royal Academy of Dancing she came to England in 1946 to study with the Sadler's Wells Ballet School. In 1947 she won the Adeleine Genée Gold Medal and joined Sadler's Wells Ballet at Covent Garden. Her technical brilliance was stunning. She first attracted attention with her fouttés en tournant in Ashton's Les Patineurs and later with her technical firework in Scènes de Ballet and Ballet Imperial. Among her other big roles were Odette/Odile in Swan Lake and Aurora and Princess Florine in Sleeping Beauty, Giselle in Giselle and Swanilda in Coppelia. She married Philip Chatfield in 1958, who was a dancer of the Royal Ballet and her frequent dancing partner. They returned to New Zealand in 1959 and now live in Australia.

Awards: M.B.E. 1961