June Greenhalgh, a fellow ballet dancer whom Russell Kerr married while in the U.K., died in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 29 October 2018.
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June danced in the celebrated United Ballet seasons of 1959–1960, but then became the mother of two children.
Her contribution to ballet In New Zealand may not have been as publicly visible as her husband’s but it was just as real, and she was with him every step of the way.
June Kerr, nee Greenhalgh, was born in 1932, in Southend-on-Sea, England, the youngest of three children.
Her father had started his seafaring career on sailing ships and later became a merchant navy captain while her mother held the home fires during his extended periods of time away at sea.
As a child June attended the Cone-Ripman school where the curriculum combined general education with ballet and related theatre-arts training. Originally based in London but relocated during WWII to Hertfordshire, it later became known as Arts Educational School.
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Russell Kerr has been the treasured father of ballet in New Zealand since 1957.
His directorship of New Zealand Ballet in 1960s was a visionary and courageous one and his loyal contribution has continued in all the years since.
In 1953, Russell Kerr, joined Festival Ballet. He and June held hands, but he explained to her they’d better not get too serious because he would at some stage be returning to New Zealand, feeling a moral obligation to do that on account of the Government bursary he had been awarded. ‘Not a problem. I’d come too,’ replied June, and so they were married without delay.
Festival Ballet, under the Polish impresario Julian Braunsweg, toured and performed in UK, Europe, Canada and US with memorable programs, and the likes of Igor Stravinsky conducting in the pit.
In 1957 the Kerrs left all that behind and came to settle in New Zealand.
June would accompany Russell to Wellington whenever he was engaged by Royal New Zealand Ballet to stage a production on the company.
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