New Zealand’s prima ballerina Rowena Jackson, 98, has been remembered for her “virtuoso technique, energy and ability”. 

Jackson died of natural causes at her Gold Coast home in Australia last Thursday. 

Born in Invercargill, Jackson attended Epsom Girls’ Grammar School in Auckland and in 1941 won the first Royal Academy of Dancing Scholarship in the country. 

The Royal Ballet, a ballet company based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, said they were saddened by the death Jackson, who was a former Sadler’s Wells Ballet Principal dancer “famous for her fast, brilliant fouettés”. 

Director Kevin O’Hare said Jackson was an integral part of the blossoming of the company, and “inspired everyone with her virtuoso technique, energy and agility”. 

“We have fond memories of welcoming Rowena and (husband) Philip as special guests on tour in Brisbane in 2017, both as vibrant as they were as performers and filled with enthusiasm about the performance they watched,” he said. 

“As her dance fans in New Zealand and on the Gold Coast would attest, we were fortunate to have Rowena’s artistry grace our international stages.” 

In 1940, Jackson set a world record for the number of fast turns performed in a row, 121. 

New Zealand ballerina Rowena Jackson, pictured here in 1953, has died, aged 98. Photo / File 

Jackson moved to England in 1946 to attend Sadler’s Wells Ballet School and in 1947 won the Gold Medal in the Adeline Genée International Ballet Competition. 

She became a member of Sadler’s Wells Ballet, later The Royal Ballet, the same year. 

Her roles for the Company included Odette/Odile in Petipa and Ivanov’s Swan Lake, the title role of Perrot in Petipa and Coralli’s Giselle, which she performed with her husband Philip Chatfield as Albrecht in 1958, Blue Bird and Aurora in Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty, and The Fairy Autumn in Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella. 

Ashton wrote solos for her in Variations on a Theme of Purcell and Birthday Offering. 

Jackson married fellow Royal Ballet Principal Philip Chatfield in 1958, and the couple retired from The Royal Ballet in 1959 and returned to New Zealand. 

There Jackson became the Artistic Director of New Zealand Ballet Company. 

Later, she and Chatfield were co-directors of the New Zealand School of Dance, formerly the National Ballet School. 

In 1993 the couple moved to the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, where they taught at Ransley Ballet and Dance Centre. 

Jackson was made an MBE in 1961. 

Ben Tomsett is a Multimedia Journalist for the New Zealand Herald, based in Dunedin.