Garth Welch, AM (1936–2025)

Garth Welch, extraordinary dancer with a range of companies in Australia and elsewhere, has died at the age of 89. I clearly recall a brilliant performance he gave decades ago as Albrecht in Giselle with the Borovansky Ballet. What a thrill it gave me as a young student, and there were many more exceptional performances to come.

In 1990, after watching his career unfold over the years, and while pursuing my own varied dance activities, I had the huge pleasure of interviewing him for the National Library of Australia’s Esso Performing Arts and Oral History Archive Project. The interview is open for research purposes but is not yet available online: Welch asked that written permission be sought before it was made available for public purposes. The restriction was to last until his death so I am hoping that it might be made available online in the near future. In the meantime, the catalogue summary of the content of the interview gives an idea of the depth of the discussion. Here is a link to the information from the NLA catalogue—Garth Welch interviewed by Michelle Potter in the Esso Performing Arts collection [sound recording]—and, as a taster, below is the summary of the content as extracted from the catalogue entry.

Welch talks about his family background and childhood in Brisbane; his early experience of dance and dance education with Phyllis Danaher; early acting experience; joining the Borovansky Ballet Company in 1954; other ballet artists he worked with and performances with Borovansky. He discusses performing in London and the value of living overseas. He also speaks about working as principal dancer in the Australian Ballet Company and under Robert Helpmann’s choreography; his Harkness Fellowship; beginning as a choreographer; contact with Rudolf Nureyev; moving to Ballet Victoria and on to West Australia Ballet Company as artistic director; his role as Zac in “A Chorus Line”; and his sons who have both become dancers. He speaks about dancing again in “After Venice” with Sydney Dance Company; directing “Othello” in Manila; his current work “In Praise of Folly” and his views on the future of Australian dance. 

The National Library’s dance material also contains images of Welch in various roles including some rare shots of a rehearsal in Canberra where, as seen in the two images below taken by the Australian News and Information Bureau, he partnered Margot Fonteyn in Swan Lake in October 1970.*

Garth Welch, AM, 14 April 1936–02 September 2025

Vale!

Michelle Potter, 5 September 2025

Featured image: Garth Welch and Kathleen Gorham in Yugen (detail). The Australian Ballet, 1965. Photo: © Australian News and Information Bureau/National Archives of Australia

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*The photos are dated 1971 on the websites of the National Archives of Australia and the National Library of Australia (and elsewhere on various internet sites). But it is clear from programs held in Libraries ACT that Fonteyn and Welch appeared as ‘guest stars’ in Canberra in a program that began in late October 1970. The year 1970 is also given by Edward Pask in his Ballet in Australia. The second act 1940-1980, p. 154.

Below is the information extracted from the website of Libraries ACT:

Serenade, Gayaneh, Les Patineurs & Swan Lake:Australian Ballet ’70:Program 3
Australian Ballet (Margot Fonteyn & Garth Welch guest stars)
22-Oct-1970 – 27-Oct-1970   Canberra Theatre
1.program 2.flyer 3. local cast insert