OBITUARY: Roy Wallisch, who lit up Sea Point’s shopping strip, dies of a broken heart

Roy Wallisch made Balletique impossible to miss. Its pavement mannequins wore bright bikinis and speedos, while tiny fairies, disco balls and flashing red-and-green lights filled the colourful shop on Sea Point’s Regent Road.

For decades, Wallisch was one of the Atlantic Seaboard’s most flamboyant, beloved, disliked and unconventional business figures. He joined Balletique in 1979 with his mother, dance instructor Freda Fernandez. The shop became known not only for ballet shoes, leotards, tutus and swimwear, but also for Wallisch himself: his stories, his instinct for knowing what customers wanted and his ability to connect with children, parents and older residents who came in simply to talk.

That world began to disappear when the building, constructed in 1929, was sold for redevelopment. Wallisch was told to leave more than a year before his death. Balletique was among several long-established Sea Point businesses displaced by new construction, including The Corner Bar, the Cafda bookshop, the Seven Spur and Harry’s Supermarket.

He tried to revive the business in Hout Bay, but found that its market and customers differed from those on Regent Road. A return to Sea Point proved impossible because rents had become too high. His final attempt, in a small Three Anchor Bay premises, could not recreate the old shop’s energy. Wallisch said his mental and physical health had deteriorated after leaving the original location. He suffered from severe depression, financial stress and heart palpitations. Shortly afterward, a sheriff arrived to attach everything in the shop. Wallisch died of a heart attack in a Cape Town central business district shop. He would have turned 70 on September 26.

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As the owner of Balletique, his little shop became so much more than a place to buy swimwear and ballet clothing. It was a welcoming space where generations of danc