Dulcie Howes (31 December 1908 – 19 March 1993) was a South African ballet dancer, teacher, choreographer, and company director.
[3] She received more substantial dance training from Helen White, an assistant at Webb's studio who had studied abroad with the Italian maestro Enrico Cecchetti.
In 1922, at age fourteen, she became one of the first pupils of the Hershel Girls School, but in 1925, after seeing a performance by Anna Pavlova's company at the Old Opera House in Cape Town, she decided on ballet as her chosen career.
She studied the Cecchetti method of ballet training with Margaret Craske, mime technique with Tamara Karsavina, national and character dances with Friderica Derra de Morada, and Spanish dance with Elsa Brunelleschi, all the while missing no opportunity to learn about the production of stage works.
[7] For a few years after her return to South Africa, Howes taught at private studios in Rondebosch, a suburb of Cape Town, and in Johannesburg, which was then located in the northern province of Transvaal.
Howes was both principal dancer and chief choreographer of the company for many years, as well as administrator, ballet mistress, wardrobe supervisor, and stagehand on occasion.
Among those who made names for themselves as dancers, choreographers, producers, and teachers in companies and schools overseas were David Poole, John Cranko, Alfred Rodrigues, Johaar Mosaval, Petrus Bosman, and Desmond Doyle.
From the profits generated by performances of the UCT Ballet, Howes established the Dulcie Howes Trust Fund in 1950, which offered bursaries for dancers to study abroad and provided funds to cover fees for guest artists to come to dance in South Africa.
In February 1976, she was named Patron of the local Balletomanes Society, and in June of that year, she was granted an honorary doctorate of music from the University of Cape Town.
[12] In London in 1937, Howes married newspaperman Guy Cronwright, managing director of The Cape Times, with whom she had two daughters, Amelia and Victoria.