STEPPING ON STAGE AT 5 YEARS OLD

I made my stage debut at the tender age of 5.

Mother sent me off to the local calisthenics club where I learnt marching, exercises, clubs, rods and dance routines.  Whilst I enjoyed the classes I particularly liked the dance routines.

Each year the club, made up of sub-juniors, juniors, intermediates and seniors would perform a concert at the Adelaide Town Hall.  At the end of my first year, the routine for the sub-juniors was ‘Run, Rabbit Run’.  Our costumes were very cute with long ears and a fluffy bob-tail.  My role was to hop across to the other side of the stage, stop and look around for the farmer with his gun then hop back to where I entered and beckon the rest of the bunnies on stage because the coast was clear. 

My dream was to become a ballerina when I grew up so I started ballet classes with the Thargoh School of Ballet with Eileen Hogarth.

 I was in heaven!!! 

Yes, it was demanding.  I learned the discipline of holding my body correctly and the repetition necessary to master the steps.

Each year Miss Hogarth would present a pantomine performed by her pupils.  A great deal of time and work went into the dances, rehearsals, costumes etc.  Alice in Wonderland was probably my favourite.  I was cast as the Mad Hatter which was great fun. 



Not my most attractive moment







The March Hare, Door Mouse and
the Madhatter

I also danced in a beautiful yellow chiffon costume. I believe we represented wheat blowing in the wind.

  A very graceful dance.

FROM THE BOROVANSKY BALLET TO THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET

History of the Australian Ballet.

The roots of the Australian Ballet can be found in the Borovansky Ballet, a company founded in 1940 by the Czech dancer Edouard Borovansky. Borovansky had been a dancer in the touring ballet company of the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova and, after visiting Australia on tour with the Covent Garden Russian Ballet, he decided to remain in Australia, establishing a ballet school in Melbourne in 1939, out of which he developed a performance group which became the Borovansky Ballet. The company was supported and funded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd from 1944. Following Borovansky's death in 1959, the English dancer and administrator Dame Peggy van Praagh was invited to become artistic director of the company. J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd decided to disband the Borovansky Ballet in 1961.


In 1961, J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust received federal subsidies towards the establishment of a national ballet company. These organisations established the Australian Ballet Foundation to assist with the establishment of a new company, which in 1962 became the Australian Ballet. Peggy van Praagh, who had been kept on a retainer by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd through the intervening year between the disbanding of the Borovansky Ballet and the establishment of the Australian Ballet, was invited to become the founding artistic director of the company. The majority of the dancers employed by the fledgling company were drawn from former members of the Borovansky Ballet.

The first performance by the Australian Ballet was Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, staged at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney on 2 November 1962. The principal dancers in the first season were Kathleen Gorham, Marilyn Jones and Garth Welch. Van Praagh also invited the Royal Ballet's Ray Powell to temporarily became the company's first Ballet Master, with Leon Kellaway (brother of Cecil Kellaway), a former dancer with the Covent Garden Russian Ballet, as the company's first ballet teacher. In 1967 van Praagh established the Australian Ballet School, which was formed specially to train dancers for the company and remains the company's associate school to this day.

INTRODUCTION TO THE DANCE

My Love of dance started at an early age.  I will always be grateful to my late Mother who introduced me to the world of ballet.  As a small child I can recall watching the magical performances of the Borovansky Ballet Company.  My favourites were Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, Giselle and many more. I was fortunate to receive an invitation to go backstage after a performance and to meet Kathy Gorham who was the Prima Ballerina of the Company at that time. 

Her dressing room was overflowing with costumes, (tu tu's) and it seemed like hundreds of pairs of new and worn pointe shoes strewn everywhere.
This petite dancer was absolutely charming to me, despite my being over-awed by the experience.  I was surprised that she chain smoked while we were in her dressing room.  I could'nt believe it, because I had been taught that ballet dancers didn't smoke because they can quickly become out of breath whilst on stage.



Kathleen Gorham



I was still walking on air when I arrived home, and I immediately sat down and wrote her a fan letter expressing my excitement at meeting her and that I wanted to become a ballerina just like her one day.

I raced to the letterbox every day for weeks, but alas, I did not receive a reply.

When I was older and more independent, I would sneak into the Theatre Royal, crouch down behind the seats and watch their rehearsals. 

MY DANCING JOURNEY

My main purpose for creating this blog is to share my love of dancing with other like-minded people. Mmmm.... I believe there are people who can learn to dance and others who are born to dance. I particularly admire the great dancers of the world like Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Margot Fonteyn Rudolph Nureyev and many many more. I particularly enjoy watching Youtube clips of the dancers from the great MGM Musical era.
 
I hope you enjoy the performance.....