The Lady Retires

June Roper's students continued to impress those who were informed concerning dancing and her pupils found work in a variety of productions. However, her life wasn't all work. In 1940, she became engaged to a prominent Vancouver businessman, Duncan Crux. She was thirty-three years old and decided to give up her career for marriage. She began to make a practical transition from her intense programme of teaching and productions.

Dorothy Wilson, from Victoria, agreed to take over the B.C. School of Dancing in 1940. Wilson had toured Europe extensively as a teacher of ballet. Dorothy agreed to begin her tenure in the spring. June continued to coach her special students and collaborated with Wilson on the Stars of Tomorrow revue for that year.

Wilson brought in Princess Sylvia Arfa, a Cecchetti disciple and daughter of the Persian Ambassador to the Russian Imperial Court to be her partner.

Following her marriage in 194, June gradually loosened her ties to the school. And article in the 1945 issue of Dance Magazine, written by Montreal dance writer, Francis Coleman, recognized June's contribution to the dance world, calling her a "ballet starmaker". The following year, June was one of the founding members of the Vancouver Ballet Society. After a time, June made her home in Palm Springs, California though she did maintain an apartment in Vancouver for some years.

June's first born daughter, Elizabeth, became an expert ballet teacher and used many of June's training techniques in her studios in Santa Cruz, California and West Vancouver, B.C. as well as Scottsdale, Arizona. Lauren, June's second daughter is a psychotherapist in Santa Cruz, California.

Leland Windreich, the author of the book June Roper, Ballet Starmaker, where I am getting my information, spoke with June Roper in the late 1970s when she came to Vancouver. Windreich attended a reception at her apartment where former students of June's were in attendance. They graciously supplied Windreich with some of the information he used for the book.

In 1978, the Dance in Canada Association honoured June at it's annual meeting at the University of British Columbia. She was recognized for her outstanding role as a pioneer in the development of ballet in Canada. 

June was plagued by bad health in her final years. She had Alzheimer's disease and died on November 21, 1991. Her legacy will live on forever - the dancers she trained have gone on to influence others and the stars she trained will remain in the hearts of dance followers forever.

 This photo is of June Roper - now Mrs. A.G. Duncan Crux, with a baby on her lap. Taken in August of 1942. I got it from the City of Vancouver archives 

I took this photo of a photo of June Roper when I toured the Orpheum theatre.

Another photo of a photo from the Orpheum theatre. This one of June Roper's dancers.

I hope you enjoyed my look at this fabulous woman. One thing about writing this blog that I love is some of the people I get to 'meet'.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

The Launch of a Ballet Star

I'm not going to talk about all of June Roper's students who went on to stardom but I want to mention one incident in 1938.

Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russia announced they were returning to Vancouver in February of 1938. June started preparing her three most promising ballet students for an audition. She had spent three years working with Canadian youth and she realised an intense training programme can produce a finished dancer in that time. Another advantage was location. Her students were far enough away from Broadway or the motion picture industry so they wouldn't stop their training for high-paying, potentially glamorous jobs.

Three girls, Pat Meyers, Rosemary Deveson and Rosemary Sankey, were taken under June's wing. They were taught, among other things, fouettes in all conceivable combinations and they gained strength and ease in their execution. By the end of 1937, June was ready to put her work on the line and face the judgement of the revered Russians.

The de Basil troupe was performing in Seattle before coming to Vancouver. So June made a trip south of the border to talk to Colonel de Basil and his management team about arranging an audition for her girls when the troupe was in Vancouver.

The new resident choreographer, David Lichine, agreed to see June's pupils in the theatre an hour before curtain call on closing night. So at 7:00 pm on February 3, 1938 June took her three prize students to the Beacon Theatre in Vancouver where the girls went through some basic demonstrations on an empty stage. Lichine and the Colonel watched impassively for a few moments then conferred about what they had seen. The Colonel wanted to see the girls in another setting so he suggested an audition at the Roper studios after the performance.

June asked her office manager, Hope Brealey who was in the audience, to call their pianist and prepare the studio for visitors after the show. Brealey and her companion, both in elegant evening wear, left the theatre for the school. When they got there, the women found a cleaning crew washing the studio floor. There was only a few hours before the guests would arrive so they turned on the heat, opened the doors, hiked up their fancy skirts and got on their hands and knees to dry the floor with towels.

It was shortly after midnight when the esteemed guest arrived. David Lichine and his wife, Tatiana Riabouchinska; Colonel de Basil and Olga Morosova; principal dancer, Yurek Shabelevsky and a few curious dancers relaxed in the studio and watched the three young dancers demonstrate their broad range of skills. The audition went on for two hours. 

Once the demonstration was finished, Colonel de Basil praised June Roper. "Never before have I seen such excellent training Madame. I take my hat off to you." Other company principals who watched the audition said, "We have never seen anything like it from girls so young."

Colonel de Basil insisted contracts be drawn up before he left Vancouver and it wasn't until 5 o'clock in the morning before they were approved and signed by the parents of the girls. (Only two of the girls were accepted. Rosemary Sankey was not considered because of her height.)

This was a big deal. The press covered the story on February 4 and June Roper's fame as a ballet teacher began to spread throughout the profession.

Can you imagine how exciting that night, and the following days, must have been for June and her students? Sankey must have been severely disappointed and my heart goes out to her. But I rejoice in the accomplishments of June and all her students.

This information is coming from the book June Roper, Ballet Starmaker by Leland Windreich.

Have a happy - and safe - Halloween. I hope you find the beauty around you.