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B 1916 D 2009

At 168¿ª½±¹ÙÍø’s 1926-1933

Dorothy Stevenson (married name Rumsey) was a well-known international ballerina who was an early star of the Borovansky Ballet and an artist described as hastening the emergence of fully professional Australian dance companies.

Dorothy’s dance education began in Brisbane under the tutelage of Peggy Chauncey. She also studied in England with a number of teachers including Pruzina and returned to Australia in 1938 dancing on tour with de Basil’s Convent Garden Russian Ballet under the name of Katia Assenkova.

Dorothy was a principal dancer with the Borovansky Ballet in the first years of the 1940s and was especially lauded for her roles in Borovansky’s Fantasy on Grieg’s Concerto in A minor and in his Spanish-inspired ballet L’Amour ridiciule.

The threat of war brought Dorothy home to Australia where Edouard Borovansky, a former soloist with the Pavolva and de Basil companies, was looking to form an Australian ballet company. Dorothy and her lifelong friend, Laurel Martyn, became a ballerina duo that would inspire the fledgling company through a repertoire that extended from the romaniticism of Les Sylphides to the burlesques of l’Amour Ridicule and a Le Beau Danube.

Dorothy was also an accomplished choreographer producing works including Sea Legend which premiered at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre during a season by the Borovansky Ballet in 1943.

Dorothy married an English doctor, Aldridge Rumsey, in 1946 and the pair had a daughter. She moved to England where she danced with the International Ballet and restaged Sea Legend. She returned for the Borovansky Ballet’s season of 1951 dancing leading roles in a number of ballets including Borovansky’s full length The Sleeping Princess. That same year she also produced her own Chiaroscuro for the Borovansky Ballet.

Literary scholar and dance historian Robin Grove described Dorothy in her obituary: “Stevenson was essentially a lyric/dramatic dancer with eloquent hands, rich epaulement and a rare gift of repose. When she danced a phrase, it stayed danced, holding its shape in the mind’s eye.”