Elizabeth Triegaardt

Elizabeth Triegaardt
Born	Pretoria, South Africa
Occupation	Ballet dancer

Elizabeth Triegaardt (born 28 September 1946) is a South African ballet dancer, now retired. She is professor emerita of the University of Cape Town School of Dance and an honorary executive director of the Cape Town City Ballet.

Elizabeth Eva Triegaardt was born in Pretoria (now Tshwane), the executive capital of South Africa, located in the northern province of Transvaal (now Gauteng). Her parents were descendants of the Voortrekkers who left the Cape Colony in the 1830s and 1840s and moved northeastward in the Great Trek to settle lands in the interior of southern Africa. The Boer republic established on the Highveld across the Vaal River was called Transvaal, which became a province of South Africa in 1910.

Elizabeth was raised to be bilingual in Afrikaans and English. In 1950, at age 3½, she began her dance training in a class for toddlers in Pretoria. Later, in nearby Johannesburg, she trained with the leading dance teachers in the city, studying ballet with Ivy Conmee and Marjorie Sturman and Spanish dance with Mercedes Molina. She matriculated at Hyde Park High School in Johannesburg and graduated from the University of Cape Town, with a bachelor of science degree in pure mathematics, in 1966. That same year she was awarded a Solo Seal by examiners from the Royal Academy of Dancing. She was then 20 years old. In addition to her concentration on ballet, she was an active member of the Spanish Dance Society and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance (Greek).

In 1967, Triegaardt joined CAPAB Ballet, named for the Cape Performing Arts Board and formerly known as the University of Cape Town Ballet. She became a principal dancer and later, in 1971, ballet mistress of the company. With it, she toured extensively to major cities in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia). Among the many roles she performed until her retirement from the stage in 1990 are the following.

In 1986, while still performing with CAPAB Ballet, Triegaardt was appointed director of the University of Cape Town School of Dance. In addition to strengthening the program of training in classical ballet, she introduced contemporary dance and African dance majors to reflect the diversity of theatrical dance forms that had emerged in cities and towns around the country. The degree program offered under her aegis was the first one recognized in South Africa. From 1997 to 2004, as the executive chairman of the Cape Town City Ballet, she was an effective advocate for preserving the classical repertory and for encouraging the work of South African choreographers. In 2011, she retired from her post as head of the university dance department but continued to host a weekly program on Fine Music Radio. Called Invitation to the Dance, it was for many years a popular Sunday program with radio listeners in Cape Town.

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