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Australia's Outback Ballet Company Goes Global With Salome
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13219 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1987 |
1,653 Words |
| Author
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David Wheatley
David Wheatley is a free-lance journalist whose work has
appeared in leading Australian magazines. He specializes in
the
arts, especially dance and opera |
Twenty-five years ago Queensland, Australia, was virtually a cultural desert. There was no professional opera, ballet, or drama, not even a music conservatory. Today, thanks to the initiative of a former Sadler's Wells dancer, Queensland can boast of a dance company acclaimed by international dance critics as "Australia's most vibrant classical ballet company."
The Sadler's Wells dancer, Charles Lisner, had an O.B.E. (Order of the British Empire) conferred by the Queen for his services to ballet in Australia. When he retired as artistic director in 1975, he left a strong, disciplined ballet company. His successor, Harry Haythorne, coming to the company with vast European experience, was responsible for presenting classical ballet such as Les Sylphides and Swan Lake.
Most regional dance companies tend to stay close to home, the expense of touring being beyond their meager budgets. Not so the Queensland Ballet. This small company, based in Brisbane - a city with a population of 730,000 - has made a habit of crisscrossing the sparsely populated continent, creating new works and building a reputation for excellence noted internationally. The troupe makes at least two major tours in Australia, taking the dancers more than a thousand miles from home. They enjoy enthusiastic support, but this is not enough to obviate the need to operate on a shoestring budget.
Hard Work Pay-off
This is one of three major companies in Australia with a repertoire based on the classical style - the others are the national company - the Australian Ballet - and the state
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