In Memoriam

Jocelyn Terell Allen

A Personal Homage from Veronica Tennant

It is deeply saddening to hear of Jocelyn Terell Allen’s passing. She stands tall, as someone whom I have looked up to in the succession of her remarkable life-phases since I was ten. Jocey is to be heralded, with enormous respect and deepest appreciation for her intelligence, indomitable courage and determination for all her achievements, surely crowned by the extraordinary culmination of her life’s work in publishing, EARLY DAYS, EARLY DANCERS: Early Years of The National Ballet of Canada.

This was a massive undertaking – truly her passion project - persisted over years, under overwhelming personal odds, and I was honoured to be invited by her, to join in the process and to write the Afterword. As I wrote then, and as a ballet child of the late ‘50s (one of Betty Oliphant’s Sherbourne Street students), I can remember vividly how Miss O would hold Jocey up to us as the personification of balletic lyricism and beauty. She would enjoin us to watch Jocey closely and we did, (albeit from that top balcony of the Royal Alex) and I can close my eyes even now, and see her poignant performances in Winter Night, Lilac Garden, Death and the Maiden. She was a truly beautiful dancer!

Jocey was also the personification of generosity. When at the halfway mark in my 25 year career I was forced away from the stage for over a year due to a knee injury, she was a constant in supporting my hopes of returning. The daughter of Dr. Botterell - who’d been a colleague of the esteemed orthopaedic surgeon Dr. David Macintosh performing the pioneer anterior cruciate surgery on my left knee, Jocey was there for me throughout the lengthy rehabilitation. And she and Peter gave a wonderful dinner party when I returned to the stage 14 months later.

Jocelyn Terell Allen was indeed a Giver - and her exceptional and multiple legacies will live on in her beautiful memory, touching us all. Bless you Jocey— and Thank you!

Veronica Tennant, C.C.