Joan Lawson (1907 - 2002) was a British dancer, teacher and writer. She trained with Margaret Morris and Serafina Astafieva, later studying in Moscow and Leningrad (Lawson was fluent in Russian and French). She danced in Carl Rosa’s Opera Company, in revues, and with the Nemchinova-Dolin Ballet. Lawson was a teacher at The Royal Ballet School, 1963/4 - 1971, specialising in the classical training of younger dancers, in mime and folk dance, and in the history of ballet. She regularly contributed to The Dancing Times, and was the author of several books which included European Folk Dance (London, 1953), Dressing for Ballet, co-written with Peter Revitt (London, 1958), Classical Ballet, its Theory and Technique (London, 1960) and A History of Ballet and its Makers (London, 1964). Her influential manuals, Teaching of Classical Ballet: Common Faults in Young Dancers (London, 1973) and Teaching Young Dancers: Muscular Coordination in Classical Ballet (New York, 1975), examined how analysis of the dancer’s anatomy is fundamental to ballet training.
From the guide to the The Joan Lawson Collections, 1822-1980, (The Royal Ballet School, White Lodge Museum)
