Phyllis Spira (18 October 1943 – 11 March 2008) was a South African ballet dancer who began her career with the Royal Ballet in England. Upon returning to South Africa, she spent twenty-eight years as prima ballerina of CAPAB Ballet, a professional company in Cape Town named for the Cape Performing Arts Board. In 1984 she was named the first (and currently only) South African Prima Ballerina Assoluta.
Early life and training
Born in Johannesburg, Phyllis Bernice Spira was the first daughter and second child of Lazar and Fanny Pauline (Rosen) Spira, working-class parents who lived in a modest home in the pleasant suburb of Orange Grove. When she was 4 years old, little Phyllis was enrolled in ballet classes, where, even at that tender age, she showed talent for dancing. After attending a Hebrew nursery school, she was educated at Orange Grove Primary School and Waverly High School for Girls, where ballet classes and training for eisteddfods were extracurricular activities. When she was 15, her headmistress, recognizing her exceptional talent, obtained official permission for her to leave school at the end of the tenth grade to pursue her dance training. Soon thereafter, she was offered a chance to attend the Royal Ballet School in London. Despite her parents' concern at the prospect of their teenage daughter living alone in a great foreign city, she was allowed to take the chance.
Having arrived in London in May 1959, Spira began training at the Royal Ballet School when she was just 16. Her special qualities of movement soon caused favorable comment. Ninette de Valois, director of the school, referred to her as "a baby Markova," comparing her to the famous British ballerina Alicia Markova. Awarded a scholarship, Spira progressed quickly through the course of study. After only a few months, she made her debut in a performance of Swan Lake at Covent Garden, dancing in the pas de trois in act 1, as a cygnet in acts 2 and 4, and in the Neapolitan Dance in act 3. Thereupon she was invited to join the Royal Ballet touring company. She was 17 years old at the time.
Professional career
Thus was launched the career of a dancer who was much admired in England and who became "the undisputed queen of ballet in South Africa."
England
Spira remained with the touring group of the Royal Ballet for three years, from 1960 to 1963. Promoted to soloist in 1961, she danced in performances in the English provinces, continental Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East, and the Far East, making occasional appearances on television in England and Japan. Among the featured and leading roles in her repertory were the pas de trois in Frederick Ashton's Les Rendezvous and Kenneth MacMillan's Danses Concertantes, the title role in John Cranko's Pineapple Poll, and Phyllis in Alan Carter's Toccata, a role created especially for her in 1962. A promising future lay before her, but her longing for home made her decide to return to South Africa in 1964.
South Africa
In 1963, the South African government had established four professional ballet companies, one in each of the four provinces. The two most vigorous were PACT Ballet, named for the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal, in Johannesburg, and CAPAB Ballet, named for the Cape Performing Arts Board, in Cape Town. Upon returning to her home town, Spira joined PACT Ballet, under the direction of Faith de Villiers, soon after it was formed. During her brief tenure with this new, young company, she danced leading roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, Sylvia, and Casse Noisette (The Nutcracker). An unfortunate salary dispute led to her defection, along with her frequent partner Gary Burne, to the company in Cape Town.
Spira and Burne joined CAPAB Ballet as its principal dancers in 1965, leaving it temporarily in 1967-1968 and moving to Toronto to dance with the National Ballet of Canada, directed by Celia Franca. After touring North America with this company, they returned to South Africa at the end of 1968 and rejoined CAPAB Ballet. They performed as a popular partnership until Burne left the company in 1971. Thereafter, she formed another partnership with strikingly handsome Eduard Greyling, which lasted for some seventeen years, until she retired from the stage.