Woman July 7 1956 Page 69

Woman's MIRROR continued on page 70

Woman’s MIRROR * True stories of real people

THE MAGIC was still there FOR JOY

Joy thought her dancing days were over, then suddenly into her

CAN I really go through with it?" Forty-three year old Joy Newton stood in the dimness of the wings at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for the first time in ten years. In a moment she must dance on to the brightly lit stage.
She bit her lip, and smoothed her costume nervously. Out there, beyond the glare of the footlights, was an eager, enthusiastic audience. Only five seconds to go.
Then, as she heard the opening phrases of her music, Joy felt the old magic return across the years. Almost without realizing it, she went easily and naturally into the mime and movements of the ballet. It was just as it had always been.
She matched her steps with those of Robert Helpmann and was lost in the perfection of dancing with him. She felt the warm response of the audience and the thrill of knowing she was dancing as well as ever.
The ballet came to its close. The curtain fell and rose again as the audience applauded excitedly.
A huge bouquet of white roses and , a bottle of champagne were handed to Joy.
They were from the man for whom she had changed her life, her husband, Walter, three thousand miles away in Bauchi, Nigeria.
Later, Joy Newton talked with me in the Green Room of the Opera House.
She told me how she, a colonial officer's wife in Africa, had returned for one glamorous night to the ballet that had once been her whole life
Round us willow-slim ballet dancers in brief practice dress mingled with solidly built, vividly costumed opera singers, snatching a cup of coffee hurriedly during rehearsals.
"Oh, I literally lived in this for so long, glamour and hard work and no time for the world outside. It's like coming home." Joy had to raise her voice above the clamour of loud, speakers transmitting the rehearsal taking place on the stage.
One day last year, an invitation from Dame Ninette de Valois, director of the Sadler's Wells Ballet Company, arrived at Joy's sun-drenched bungalow in Nigeria. 

Would Joy, who had danced in the ballet company's first performance twenty-five, years before, fly to London to appear in the gala celebrating the silver jubilee?

"I was completely taken by surprise. It was a tremendous honour, but I didn't know if I could do it."
For years, Joy had done nothing but bask in the African sun, order her household, tend her . garden, play tennis and enjoy the social round of the small European community.
"I hadn't danced, or even thought of it, for so long. It seemed incredible to appear at Covent Garden again. Then Walter said: . ‘Of course you must go,’ and that decided me."
Part she created
Joy flew to England to dance again as the Ballad Singer in Rake's Progress, a part she had created twenty years ago.
But her dancing years had begun long before that. As a child, she went to dancing classes near her home in Wimbledon. At thirteen, she joined a new ballet school opened by Ninette de Valois.
Then, in 1931, a new ballet company was formed under Ninette de Valois, and on May 5 of that year gave its first full length performance At seventeen, Joy was a real ballet dancer, earning the mangificant salary of twenty-five shillings a week.  
"Those were wonderful days, but so busy. We went to the theatre for rehearsal at ten in the morning and didn't leave until after the performance at night. I had no time for boy friends or parties. My head was full of ballet and I wanted to dedicate my life to dancing."
Joy was soon creating character parts. She continued to dance them when in 1941 she became ballet mistress of Sadler's Wells. Here was her chance to pass on to a younger generation her skill and enthusiasm.
Six years later, Joy left Sadler's Wells to start a ballet school in Turkey. There she met Walter, the man who changed her life.
They were married in 1949. When Walter was sent to Nigeria, Joy went with him to their new home, a mud hut with a thatched roof. She went without regrets, surprised to find how easily she adapted herself to the leisurely life.
Joy thought she had left the ballet for ever, until the letter from Dame Ninette arrived.
Incredibly, Mrs. Walter Postlethwaite of Bauchi, Nigeria, found herself greeted again by the stage doorkeeper as Miss Newton of Sadler's Wells. She sat again before the mirror in number one dressing-room at Covent Garden, applying the grotesque make-up of the Ballad Singer. She danced once more with Robert Helpmann.

Left: In her old dressing-room at Covent Garden, Joy tries on a head-dress. With her is Svetlana Beriosova, the lovely ballerina

Life had come full circle.
When it was all over, she said: "I wouldn't have missed it for anything, but I shall go back to Africa quite content. I never practise my dancing out there. I don't want to. Besides it's too hot. I'm absolutely happy doing nothing." ----  MARGARET CLEMENTS

Above: In Africa, Joy with Walter and a pet fawn

--------- No need for words----------------------

dog in waiting

FRIENDS of mine were motoring through North Island, New Zealand, when their dog, Kelpie, asked to be let out of the car.
He bounced off into the bush, but he didn't return.
They called, and searched frantically through the thick bush, but in the end they had to give Kelpie up for lost.
Nine months later they traveled over the same desert road. There was Kelpie, sitting wistfully by the side of the road, at the very point where he had been lost so long ago.
What prevented, him from returning in time to rejoin his owners on, their first trip we shall never know. But it seems that he did get back, even if too late, and kept patient vigil throughout the weary months. 
We learned, this from an old Maori, who lived in a hut nearby and who had fed the dog whenever he was hungry during his long wait.
Mrs. A. N. McKellar of Auckland, New Zealand
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It was a real family birthday for May! See story on next page of Woman's MIRROR
 

sun-drenched, leisurely world came a surprising letter