Basic Ballet

Joyce Mackie was born in 1920 and went to the City of London School. She started as a pupil at the Cone School of Dancing at the age of nine, and the Arts Educational School, as it is now called, was to command a large part of her life for more than 40 years. She briefly performed as a dancer, but her main contribution to the dancing profession was as a teacher, and she was on the staff of the Arts Educational School for 32 years, during the latter part of which she was also head of vocational studies. Mackie’ s knowledge of dance covered a wide range of techniques, but she held a unique position in the ballet world; she had passed the advanced teachers’ examination of the Royal Academy of Dancing and was a fellow of the Imperial Society Ballet Branch. Joyce Mackie died in 1978.