Dame Margaret Scott AC DBE 1922

Among Scott’s many innovations were Australia’s first orthopaedic and physiotherapy clinic specialising in dance injuries, the introduction of the Benesh notation system, and a project to record and notate Aboriginal dance. She appointed a counsellor to the school, a radical concept in its day, but one soon followed by other major dance institutions overseas. She also ensured that the school developed students’ knowledge and understanding of other disciplines, including music and drama. She was instrumental having the Australian Ballet School diploma accepted by the Commonwealth Office of Education, thus officially recognising dance as a career.

Scott’s later choreographic work included Classical Suite (Verdi) and Sonata Classique (Rossini) for the Australian Ballet School in 1967 and 1971 respectively, and Recollections of a Beloved Place (Tchaikovsky) for Ballet Victoria in 1975. Somewhat more bizarre was the pas de deux she choreographed for her students Eleanor Martin and Gary Norman to dance in the controversial 1970 film The Naked Bunyip.

Margaret Scott’s standing was reflected in invitations to serve on the jury of two International Ballet Competitions at the Bolshoi in Moscow. In the mid 1970s, on behalf of the Ministry of External Affairs, she led a group to teach at the Beijing Ballet and School and the Shanghai Ballet. She made a similar trip in 1985. In 1974-75 she was a member of the Dance Panel for the Theatre Board at the Australia Council. She was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1977 and was made a Dame in 1981.

The Australian Ballet debuted on 2 November 1962. Van Praagh appointed Margaret Scott to head the associated schoolTwo years later, however, she made a triumphant return to the stage as Clara the Elder in Graeme Murphy’s spectacular reworking of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker for the Australian Ballet. Murphy created the role with her in mind: he had been one of her pupils. Scott repeated the role in 1994 and 2000.

To complement decades of industry experience, Dame Margaret enrolled part-time in the Graduate Diploma in Visual and Performing Arts at RMIT University. She graduated in 2000.Dame Margaret enrolled part-time in the Graduate Diploma in Visual and Performing Arts at RMIT University. A studio at the Australian Ballet School is named in her honour and the Australian Ballet Society supports The Dame Margaret Scott Chair of Classical Ballet.

Dame Margaret Scott received Live Performance Australia’s James Cassius Williamson Award in 2007.

Frank Van Straten, 2007