Elizabeth Richie obituary
My friend Elizabeth Richie, who has died aged 76 from a pulmonary embolism, had a career and life that encompassed success in dance, theatre administration, complementary medicine and art.
Initially a ballet dancer in Canada and the US, she later moved to the UK, where she worked at the Royal Court theatre in London, promoted authors at the Canadian embassy and founded two complementary health centres and an art gallery.
Born in Windsor, Ontario, Elizabeth was the daughter of Armand Richie, a factory worker, and Marguerite (nee Couture), a homemaker. She was one of six children and the only girl.
She started studying ballet at the age of six and showed great talent. After leaving high school, she worked as a secretary to pay for her classes and at the age of 19 was awarded a scholarship to study at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal. She went on to join the performing company and later joined the Detroit Civic Ballet. The intensity of her dancing career took its toll, and in 1967 she travelled to Britain with the intention of forging a career in theatre.
After temping for a while as a secretary, she found work as a costume assistant at the Royal Court, and moved up the ladder to become stage director. Following Arts Council training she worked in arts administration from 1971 at the Tyneside theatre company in Newcastle and the Phoenix theatre in Leicester, alongside the artistic director Michael Bogdanov.
Arriving at the Phoenix in 1973, she was given the task of running it as a young people’s theatre, so she quickly established contacts with schools, social and community workers. She arrived just as company and staff were moving out to take over the new Haymarket theatre, and everyone expected the Phoenix to close down. For the first six months she was doing everything from publicity to house management to finance as there was no money. However, the operation doubled in size during her tenure.
Elizabeth Richie as a ballet dancer in Montreal in 1965
In the late 70s Elizabeth became an Arts Council drama officer, assessing the artistic merits and management of subsidised theatres. And in 1979 she joined the Canadian embassy as its arts administrator and theatre consultant. Elizabeth promoted and organised staged play-readings and book launches for authors then little known in Britain, including Michel Tremblay, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, and Alice Munro.
An interest in complementary medicine led Elizabeth to pursue training in massage and traditional Chinese medicine, which she completed in 1988. She became a registered acupuncturist, working in this field with great skill and compassion. In 1990, she co-founded a complementary health centre, the Trinity Centre, in Colchester, Essex.
In the early 90s she met her partner, Ann Pengelly, a stained-glass artist and teacher, and they relocated to Devon, where in 1996 Elizabeth co-founded the Awareness complementary health centre in Axminster.
In later years she began to draw and paint, successfully exhibiting and selling her work, and as creative director co-founded Lyme Bay Arts, a gallery and shop in Symondsbury, Dorset.
She is survived by Ann and by her five brothers.