Laurel Martyn

Who is Laurel Martyn?

Laurel Martyn was an Australian ballerina.

In 1933, she left Australia for England and studied with Phyllis Bedells. In 1934 she won a choreographic scholarship from the Association of Operatic Dancing for Exile, her first composition. In 1935 she became the second Australian to win the Adeline Genée Gold Medal. Martyn joined the Vic-Wells Ballet in December 1935, the first Australian woman to be accepted into the company. By 1938, she was a soloist. That same year, she returned to Australia and became a dance teacher. She joined Edouard Borovansky's eponymous ballet corps in 1940 and remained until her marriage to Lloyd Lawton in 1945.