Remembering Phyllis Spira, exceptional dancer and human being

GILLIAN KLAWANSKY

From dancing on international stages to setting the South African dance world alight, Spira was a born ballerina. Visibly emotional when speaking about his late wife, Boyd delved into the beginnings of Spira’s career, their life together, and her tragic death in 2008 at the age of 64.

Spira attended her first ballet class on her fourth birthday, after her aunt spotted her potential.

At the age of 15, she was offered the chance to attend the Royal Ballet School in London.

“Coming from South Africa, I was very innocent and young. In the end, I stayed in a bedsitting room in High Street Kensington. It was terribly lonely. Often I’d cry at night because I missed my home and family. I didn’t know anybody in London, but eventually I made friends at the company which was very important.”

Her older brother, veteran business journalist John Spira, told the SA Jewish Report that her Jewish identity sometimes presented challenges, especially when it came to performing overseas, he recalls.

“As part of the Royal Ballet touring company, she travelled all over the world. But she had a problem because they also went to Middle Eastern countries including Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. You couldn’t be Jewish there at all, so she had to change her religion on her travel documents. That’s how she became Church of England for a short while,” he laughs.

Spira was not one to deny her heritage. Boyd recalled her telling him of a confrontation she had in the face of her early success. “She was standing with the other Royal Ballet students at the notice board looking at their results, and saw that she’d been promoted to the graduate class. Then, a dancer behind her said, ‘What do you expect from a rich South African Jew?’ Phyllis, who was very shy but completely shocked at this comment, turned around and said, ‘Firstly I am not rich, and secondly I am not a Jew, I am a Jewess.’

 “After four years of touring with the Royal Ballet, Phyllis was slowly being groomed to become an international star with the Royal Ballet,” said Boyd. Yet, when she was on the cusp of being promoted to principal dancer, she decided to return to South Africa.

“Phyllis began to hate the English weather, and was missing her family and home. With the company being so large, she realised that she wouldn’t dance as much as she’d done before.” So, in 1964, when the South African Performing Arts Councils were being established, Spira returned home and joined PACT (Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal) Ballet company for one year as principal dancer. There she danced with PACT Ballet Master Gary Burne. Together, they joined the CAPAB (Cape Performing Arts Board) Ballet in Cape Town in 1965.

“In 1984, Phyllis was named South Africa’s first prima ballerina assoluta by CAPAB Ballet Company Artistic Director Professor David Poole,” said Boyd. “Prima ballerina assoluta is a rare honour, traditionally reserved only for the most exceptional dancers of the generation.”

In 1974, Boyd entered the scene. “Our relationship was unusual. She was this legendary ballerina, she was a Jewess, and she was older,” recalled Boyd. “I was a Catholic, and a much younger dancer about to embark on a professional career. We immediately fell in love, and became the best of friends.”

After 35 years of dedicating her life and talent to what became known as Cape Town City Ballet, Spira decided to leave the company. She then devoted herself to teaching and coaching underprivileged children and youth with the organisation Boyd established, Dance for All.

After breaking her toe on a 2007 trip to London to see some of the organisation’s dancers who’d been selected to perform at the Royal Albert Hall, Spira’s health deteriorated. Back in South Africa, a surgeon found that the arteries in both her legs were completely blocked. She then had a bypass operation.

“The left leg healed immediately, but the right leg where this injury was, didn’t heal. She had to have a series of painful skin graft operations on her right ankle,” said Boyd. “After all these operations Phyllis’s little body just did not survive all this pain – her right leg never healed,” said Boyd.

“Tragically, in March 2008, Phyllis passed away at the young age of 64.

Boyd has since set up The Phyllis Spira Trust in honour and in memory of Spira. “It enables talented Dance for All students to further their dance training at a reputable dance institution,” he said.