Vicki Karras: Ballet visionary who inspired hundreds of young dancers
1941-2017
VICKI Karras, who has died in Johannesburg at the age of 75, was a legendary South African ballet dancer and teacher.
She taught and inspired a generation of South African dancers who went on to achieve international success
A former soloist with the Royal Ballet, Karras was head of the Tshwane University of Technology dance and musical theatre department for 20 years, during which time she transformed it into the leading ballet training academy in the country.
She taught and mentored hundreds of young dancers. Hardly a musical is staged in South Africa that does not feature an impressive majority of dancers she trained, inspired and supported.
Not for nothing did most of them consider her a second mother.
Something of a visionary, she saw the need in the 1980s to open the department to all races long before it became a requirement.
She actively sought out young black talent and arranged bursaries for students from the townships. The list of brilliant black dancers from around the country who trace their success to her is a long one.
She brought leading professionals from the local industry to TUT and forged links with companies and training institutions abroad, which gave her students direct access to international best practice and expertise.
Her former students grace stages from the West End to Kuala Lumpur, Broadway to Singapore and Seoul.
She restaged many ballets and contemporary works, which gave students the chance to hone their classical skills. In 2003 she founded the Tshwane Dance Theatre with Mandla Mcunu as artistic director.
She gave many of the great local names in choreography the chance to flex their muscles, including Robyn Orlin, Sonje Mayo, Ntsikelelo “Boyzie” Cekwana, Vincent Mantsoe as well as Debbie Rakusin and David Matamela, who initiated the blockbuster African Footprint with many of her former students.
Apart from performers, dancers and choreographers, her students are also to be found in every sphere of the entertainment industry, from stage and artist management to events, TV, editing and production, in South Africa and abroad.
The middle daughter of Greek parents, Karras was born in Pretoria on April 6 1941. She began dancing at the age of six. Her early years of training were mainly with Gwen Ashton.
When she was 16, she went to London for what her parents thought would be a six-month visit. She had other ideas.
Her first job was with the Edinburgh International Festival Ballet, directed by Peggy van Praagh. A few months later she joined the Sadler’s SECOND MOTHER: Vicki Karras conducting a dance class at Tshwane University of Technology, where she headed the dance and musical theatre department, in 2006 Wells Opera Ballet.
At the age of 17 she won the Adeline Genée bronze medal in London. She was joined there by Hendrik Davel, who she had first met at the age of nine at an eisteddfod in Pretoria. He became her husband in 1960.
She danced with London’s Festival Ballet, Walter Gore’s London Ballet as a principal, and Jack Carter’s London Dance Theatre.
In 1964 she and Davel joined the Royal Ballet, where she became a soloist four years later. As a soloist with the Royal Ballet she worked with teachers and choreographers such as Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, Norman Morrice and Glen Tetley.
A highlight of her career was dancing one of the Three Daughters in Ninette de Valois’s revival of her ballet Job at Covent Garden in 1970, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.
Karras and her husband returned to South Africa in 1972 when she became pregnant. They wanted their daughter born in South Africa and also, at the age of 32, Karras felt her days as a leading dancer in the dance capital of the world were behind her.
Her daughter, Anitra, was born in 1973 and Karras became a full-time mother.
In 1982 she joined the Technikon Pretoria (which became TUT in 2004) dance and musical theatre department as a part-time lecturer. In 1988, she became head of the department for the next 20 years.
She died three years after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer caused by asbestos poisoning, which she believed was a legacy of the years she spent under old asbestos ceilings at the technikon. She was given six months to live.
She is survived by her husband and daughter. — Chris Barron