Marilyn Jones has been described as 'the greatest classical dancer Australia has produced'. She studied at the London Royal Ballet School and danced with the Royal Ballet from 1957-1958 before joining the Australian Ballet on its formation in 1962. In 1963 she married fellow principal dancer Garth Welch and they had two sons, Stanton and Damien, who also became dancers. She danced with the Australian Ballet until 1978, when she took up the position of artistic director of the Company from 1979 until 1982. In 1991 she founded the Australian Institute of Classical Dance and became its artistic director. Other appointments have included director of the National Theatre Youth Ballet from 1996-1998 and director of the National Theatre Ballet School, Melbourne, from 1995-1998. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1972 for her services to Australian ballet.
View the full record at
Australian Women's Register
Marilyn Jones studied dance with Tessa
Maunder in her hometown of Newcastle
and then with Lorraine Norton in Sydney
before leaving Australia, the recipient
of an
Australian Women's Weekly
scholarship, to study at the Royal Ballet
School in London. Her first professional
engagements were with companies in England
and Europe. Returning to Australia she
danced with Robert Pomie's short-lived
company at Ballet Theatre Le Francais
in Sydney in early 1959. She was billed
on the Pomie program as 'presenting her
debut as a prima ballerina'. She joined
the Borovansky Ballet in that same year.
It was there that her acclaimed partnership
with Garth Welch began.
Jones joined the Australian Ballet as
a principal dancer for the company's
inaugural season of 1962 and danced all
the major roles in the company's repertoire.
She was artistic director of the Australian
Ballet between 1979 and 1981 and during
that time founded the Dancers Company.
This company offers performing and touring
experience to senior students at the
Australian Ballet School and provides
opportunities for younger dancers in
the Australian Ballet to gain experience
in principal roles.
In 1990 Jones was the recipient of a
Creative Artists Fellowship from the
Australian Government and during her
tenure of that award set up the Australian
Institute of Classical Dance. The Institute
is a non-profit organisation with branches
in Victoria, Western Australia, South
Australia and New South Wales and a board
composed of eminent members of the dance
profession. It was set up with the intention
of establishing an Australian teaching
syllabus, and aims to oversee and encourage
the development of Australian classical
ballet. It acts as an assessment body,
initiates workshops, runs summer schools,
conventions and seminars, arranges visits
by distinguished guest teachers and offers
scholarships to dancers. Since 1996,
the AICD has held its Dance Creation
choreographic competition every second
year in Melbourne. Beyond her involvement
with the AICD, Jones has taught and coached
extensively and prior to her retirement
in 2005 was lecturer in classical dance
at the Western Australian Academy of
Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University,
Perth.
Regarded by many as Australia's finest
ballerina, Jones's finely proportioned
body was in the true classical mould
and she excelled in the traditional classics.
In addition to her outstanding partnership
with Welch, to whom she was married for
a number of years, in the 1970s she also
established a highly regarded partnership
with John Meehan. Her two sons, Stanton
and Damien Welch have carved out dance
careers in their own right, Damien as
a dancer with the Australian Ballet and
Stanton as a choreographer for many companies
around the world and currently as artistic
director of Houston Ballet.
Jones received the 2009 Green Room lifetime
achievement award. She also returned
to the stage in 2009 as Clara the Elder
in Graeme Murphy's revival of his
Nutcracker - the Story of Clara
for the Australian Ballet.
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