Australia Dancing - Beaver, Moya (1918

Beaver, Moya (1918 - )

Photographer unknown: Portrait of Moya Beaver as featured on the cover of 'Woman' magazine, 25 February, 1937

Moya Beaver trained in Sydney at the Lightfoot-Burlakov School. She danced leading roles in the productions staged by Louise Lightfoot and Mischa Burlakov for their First Australian Ballet including the Ballerina in the first ever production of Petrouchka in Australia in 1936. She established a strong partnership with Gordon Hamilton and notably performed Columbine to his Harlequin in the First Australian Ballet's production Le Carnaval in 1937. She also danced for the J. C. Williamson organisation in musicals, including Funny Side Up in 1940, and with the Polish-Australian Ballet and Leon Kellaway's Ballet Nationale. Beaver also studied and danced overseas. In Paris she studied with Lubov Egorova and joined and toured to Denmark with Ballets de la jeunesse.

Beaver began teaching in the 1930s at the Lightfoot Burlakov School, which she ran during absences overseas by the school's principals. Later she established her own school in Sydney and continued to teach after retiring from professional dancing. She was still teaching into her eighties.

Some aspects of Moya Beaver's career are discussed briefly in 'As light as air: decorative dancing' , National Library of Australia News, February 2004.

Research Materials

Manuscript | Oral history | Picture | All

Other resources

Find more about Beaver, Moya in:

Internet - Google
Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia