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Vale Athol Willoughby O.A.M

Vale Mr Athol Willoughby who sadly passed away July 19th 2020. He started Essendon Academy of Ballet in the 60’s and Michela took over in 1998 but he would still come and guest teach often up until 2016. He was a man of immense wealth of knowledge. My memory is he could recall dates of when ballet’s first premiered long ago. He also had a passion for Art and Opera. He started the Cecchetti Scholars classes in Victoria in the 80’s, which continue to this day. He was a most respected examiner and teacher of the Cecchetti society. He was awarded an OAM in 2001 and the Australian Dance Award in 2018 for his gracious contribution to dance in Australia.

Many students would remember walking up the lane and up the back staircase to the first floor of what was the dance studio. Nowadays not a very big dance studio, but to us it was home. It had a beautiful arched window at the end of it with a tiny section that opened to let in air. There was a big fan up on the wall when I arrived back to take over but if you ever put it on it would drown out the music it was so noisy. When I started as a student the walls were predominately pale blue but the paint was peeling off. There was a small hole in a section of the brick wall that I would often play with as more mortar would fall out. During the late 70’s or early 80’s, under the indoor staircase a stray cat had kittens. The toilet outside had a chain to flush it and the door was green. While waiting for Mr Willoughby to arrive, we would etch our names into the cement wall which when I came back and took over I could see they were still there. I should have taken a photo but it never occurred to me. Sometime in the early 80’s , the wool board did a photo shoot in there and the walls were painted Pumpkin and new mirrors where put up on one section of side wall. During my time, Mr Willoughby would walk around teaching with smoke in hand. As I got older the smoking was only done by the tape deck and many a TicTac or lifesaver was popped. There was a tape with a cat meowing during one of the exercise songs (a cat from under the staircase). To this day if I hear that music a cat meowing comes to mind. Back in the day, the only way to re record onto another tape was to do it in silence as all the background noise could be heard.

Mr Willoughby always made time for me when I popped in to say hello when I came home from Uni in Adelaide or when I lived in Brisbane for 7 years. When I came home in 1998 to take over the school, he still took senior classes. I loved it as he was a wealth of information. We would often go to theatre productions and ballets together. He was family to me and will be greatly missed.