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National Library of Australia News 'Ba{{et Ramhert Creates a Sp{asli From the 1920s in 1982, her achievements and ideals performances and appeared in are still being celebrated. Now with a Adelaide, Brisbane, Broken Hill, Marie Rambert, founder contemporary brief and a name Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. It also of Ballet Rambert, nurtured change to Rambert Dance Company, undertook a tour to New Zealand in the creation of new the enterprise she founded performs May 1948. regularly in London where, in the Ballet Rambert maximised its choreography. Michelle footsteps of its founder, it continues opportunities to create a splash Potter explores her ongoing to nurture new work. in Australia. Marie Rambert herself In the late 1940s, in association was tiny in size-not much more influence on the development with the British Council and under than one and a half metres in of dance in this country the auspices of the entrepreneur height-but big in personality. D.O. O'Connor, Marie Rambert led a long and remarkable tour to arieRambert was fond of Australia. The 15-month season, turning cartwheels. She which had originally been planned to Mcartwheeled into a liberated last only six months, began in Berlin in 1945, and even into old Melbourne in Ocrober 1947 and age this form of physical activity concluded in Perth in January 1949. continued to be something of a The company gave over 500 Rambert signature. This adventurous, Polish-born woman began her dance training in Paris, studied with Jacques Dalcroze, inventor of eurhythmics, worked with Vaslav Nijinsky on some of his most spectacular ballets, and eventually came to London where she married the playwright Ashley Dukes. With Dukes she founded the Mercury Theatre and Ballet Rambert, a small ballet company that gave its first performances in the 1920s. Rambert nurtured the creation of new choreography and, although she died Clippings from Australian newspapers of visitors; both local and overseas constantly refer to her as a dynamic artists would call in [and] the mix of and vibrant woman, and she made creative people at Merioola often led to many public appearances during interdisciplinary activities. The dancers the Rambert season. Nor was she would pose for [Arthur] Fleischmann averse to being photographed with or Alec Murray. The artists would her sponsors and supporters. One make sets for theatrical activities. And clipping, from a scrapbook held in Harry [Tatlock Miller] and Loudon the National Library's Geoffrey [Sainthill] and Alec [Murray] would Ingram Archive of Australian Ballet, combine their talents as editor, designer shows her being supported in a and photographer for Ballet Rambert balletic pose by entrepreneur Sir and Old Vic programs. Benjamin Fuller. He, somewhat portly, looks decidedly bemused and Ballet and modern dance were not slightly embarrassed, while she is unknown quantities to Australian clearly in her element. audiences when the Rambert She had glamorous and charismatic dancers in her company too, and newspapersmade much of their charm. Leading dancer, Sally Gilmour, an acclaimed interpreter of Giselle, was a favouritewith the press,as wasScottish- born principal Walter Gore. The dancers also threw themselves into the social and creative life of the cities they visited. When in Sydney they frequented Merioola, the largeboarding house in Wollahara that was home to a dynamic if somewhat bohemian colony of artistic colleagues, including photographers, visual artists, scenic designers and composers. In a company arrived. Three Ballets Russes tours to Australia between 1936 and 1940 had been hugely successful, and had done much to establish audiences for ballet. Edouard Borovansky and Helene Kirsova built on the successesof these many also had designs by English tours and both established Australian scenic designers. Ballet Rambert ballet companies in the early 1940s. introduced Australian audiences to At the same time modern dancers, the work of English choreographers, such as Gertrud Bodenwieser such as Frederick Ashton, Frank Staff, in Sydney and Sonia Revid in Walter Gore, Andree Howard, Melbourne, were bringing the new, Antony Tudor and Ninette de Valois, European expressionist dance to and to new, young English designers, Australian audiences. including Nadia Benois, Harry But Ballet Rambert was different. It Cordwell, Sophie Fedorovitch and National Library seminar on the work was an English company and as such Hugh Stevenson. of artist Donald Friend, held in 2001, presented Australian audiences with a In addition to presenting a new, curator Christine France described very different repertoire from what fresh, English repertoire, the Ballet the atmosphere at Merioola: they were used to. Of course the tried Rambert tour had a lasting impact on and true classics were there-Giselle, the development of dance in In post-war Sydney, Merioola was Swan Lake, and Les Sylphides-no Australia. The company engaged probably the most exciting place to company would dream of touring several Australian dancers for its live. Justin O'Brien said, 'I've never without them. But out of a repertoire Australian tour, notably Kathleen laughed so much, not at people but of just over 30 ballets, 26 were Gorham, who danced under the with people.' Merioola was always full contemporary English creations, and name Ann Somers, and Charles Boyd, of the first full-length version of Swan Lake to be performed in Australia. For her part, Scott was a signatory to the submission to the Australia Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1960 that eventually led to the formation of the Australian Ballet. She went on to become founding artistic director of the Australian Ballet School, a position she held from 1964 to 1990. Scott returned to the stage in the 1990s as Clara the Elder, in the Australianised Nutcracker, choreographed by Graeme Murphy, whom she had taught at the Australian BalletSchool. The Ballet Rambert tour to Australia, and its importance, has received little recognition in Australia, having been eclipsed by the attention given to the glamotous and well- documented Ballets Russes tours of 1936-1940. While the full impact of the company in Australia is yet to be assessed, there is little doubt that Marie Rambert's dynamism and determination, and her interest in new initiatives, have had an ongoing influence on the development of dance in this country. friend's house, and as a result invited The National Library's material him to work on Winter Night. It was relating to Ballet Rambert's Australian Rowell's first professional commission tour crosses all its collecting areas. for a dance company, and perhaps his There is a significant collection of first major successin what would be a photographs in the W.F. Stringer who had performed with the Rambert long and illustrious career as a scenic Collection, and a smaller one in company in London in the early designer. the Geoffrey Ingram Archive of 1940s. Gorham was given many When the artists of Ballet Rambert Australian Ballet. Oral history opportunities with the Rambert left Fremantle for London in January interviews with Margaret Scott, company, including the chance, at the 1949 aboard the 55 Arawa, Gorham Charles Boyd, Kenneth Rowell and age of 16, to dance the lead in Swan and Bates were on board hoping to Rex Reid all touch, to a greater or Lake Act II. Both Gorham and Boyd continue their careers overseas. But a lesser extent, on the influence of subsequently had significant careers number of Rambert dancers stayed Marie Rambert and her ballet with the Borovansky Ballet, and behind. They included Margaret Scott company. The papers of Cecil Bates, Gorham with the Australian Ballet and Joyce Graeme whose subsequent Charles Boyd and Geoffrey Ingram during its early years. contributions to dance in Australia contain manuscript items and There was also one world premiere were of major significance. Graeme photographs relating to the Rambert during the Rambert tour, which had became the inaugural artistic director tour. There is also a comprehensive a strong Australian element in of the Melbourne-based National electronic finding aid to the National its production and performance. Theatre Ballet, which staged its Library's holdings of programs for Walter Gore's tenth ballet, Winter first production in 1949. Over the Ballet Rambert's Australian and New Night, opened in Melbourne on period of her directorship Graeme Zealand tour, which includes a list of 19 November 1948. Its corps de commissioned a range of original repertoire as well as a chronology of ballet consisted largely of Australian ballets from Australian choreographers, the tour. dancers, including Cecil Bates and including works from Kira Bousloff, twins Joan and Monica Halliday, and Laurel Martyn, Joanne Priest and Rex it was designed by Kenneth Rowell, Reid. Her directorship was also MICHELLEPOTTERis the Library's then aged 28. In an oral history distinguished by the premiere of Curator of Dance. Her book, interview recorded for the National Corroboree,a ballet choreographed by A Collector's Book of Australian Library in 1989, Rowell recalled that Reid to the music of John Antill in Dance, was recently published by the Gore saw one of his designs in a 1950, and in 1951 by the production National Library.
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