Her brother, Earl Monteith Whyman, has written a book about Mrs Whyman-Welton's extraordinary dance career, called Devoted To Dance.
When she joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet [then known as the New Zealand Ballet], there were just nine dancers in the company, who did everything. Mrs Whyman-Welton was a talented seamstress so, as well as being principal dancer, she helped make the costumes. Other dancers sewed ballet shoes or assembled the sets.
The company toured every small town in New Zealand, where they were billeted among the locals.
"There wasn't a lot of money then, so we didn't get paid a lot, and we had to provide things like our own make-up."
The company's founder and director, Poul Gnatt, originally from Denmark, expected an extremely high standard from his dancers, and the company worked hard.
"It was a hard life, and you had to be completely dedicated. But we were living our dream - we were dancing."
Mrs Whyman-Welton began dancing at 6 in her mother's dance classes in the kitchen of the family's Ohakune home. It wasn't until several years later that she discovered ballet, when she went to a performance of Peter And The Wolf.
"I was mesmerised. I loved the wolf, and wanted to dance just like that."
When Mrs Whyman-Welton was just about to start secondary school, her family moved to Wanganui, and it was then that her serious love of ballet began.
She attended ballet classes at the Trevor Hunter Ballet School in Victoria Ave, but because she did not have a foundation in ballet, she was put in a beginner's class.
"I felt like the ugly duckling, because I was put in a class with six-year-olds and there I was, coming up to high school. If anything was going to put me off dance, it was that.
"But within six months, I had caught up with my age group. I was just so determined to dance."
After nine years of dancing with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Mrs Whyman-Welton retired, but took up teaching dance. Over the years she has taught in Feilding, Wanganui and Hamilton.
She was also a ballet examiner, and was involved in developing the New Zealand jazz dance syllabus.
She and her brother decided to write Devoted To Dance as a way of capturing Mrs Whyman-Welton's dance career.
"I had a lot of photos and articles - all the essence of my life with the ballet company - and I wanted to put it into some sort of cohesive form."
Mrs Whyman-Welton no longer dances but she is still active, having discovered a love of tai chi.
She credits ballet with giving her a "wonderful life".
"I've had great fun. I'd do it all over again."
If you are interested in buying Valerie Whyman-Welton's book, for $25 per copy, please contact her at v.a.whywel@xtra.co.nz.
