Deanne Bergsma (1941-). South-African born ballerina

Deanne Bergsma was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1941. Showing early promise in dance, she came to The Royal Ballet School in 1957 and joined The Royal Ballet in 1959. Bergsma showed her gift for comedy as early as 1960 in One In Five, a workshop piece created by Ray Powell. She was a tall, elegant dancer in the classics, notably as Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty and Myrtha in Giselle. She also appeared in works by Kenneth MacMillan and created the role of Lady Mary Lygon in Frederick Ashton’s Enigma Variations. During her career as a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet she also worked with George Balanchine and Bronislava Nijinska. In 1970 she took a leading role in Glen Tetley’s Field Figures, and in 1973 was chosen by Benjamin Britten to take the non-singing role of the Polish Mother in his opera Death in Venice. Deanne Bergsma retired as a full-time ballerina in 1975, but occasionally returned as a guest artist, most notably as the Wife in The Concert, the Tsarevna in The Firebird, Berta in Ondine, and the Queen in Swan Lake. She also coached for The Royal Ballet and served for eight years as a governor to the company.