The Kirsova Ballet was the first professional Australian ballet company. It was founded by prima ballerina Hélène Kirsova in 1941. Initially the leading performers were dancers who had stayed in Australia following the 1938/1939 tour of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet, but they were supported by talented young Australian dancers promoted from Kirsova's ballet school in Sydney. These local performers soon led the troupe and appeared in several seasons in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. The company also supported Australian composers, musicians, artists and designers in producing new ballets choreographed by Kirsova. Struggling under wartime restrictions, unable to tour abroad, and later suffering creative differences with the country's main theatre owners, the company's prominence was brief. It closed in 1945 having been the pioneer of a genuine Australian ballet tradition. Its influence on Australian ballet was significant.

Background and beginnings

Hélène Kirsova, c1941

Hélène Kirsova, an acclaimed Danish prima ballerina with the post-Sergei Diaghilev Ballets Russes, toured Australia and New Zealand in its first Australasian tour in 1936 and 1937.^[1] She remained in Australia after her marriage in 1938 and in 1940 opened a ballet school in Sydney.^[2] Known as the Hélène Kirsova School of Russian Ballet in the Diaghilev Tradition, it attracted many pupils, including several who aspired to be professionals. Kirsova brought to a younger generation of talented Australian dancers the traditions of Russian ballet and the influences of the great European teachers, like Michel Fokine, Olga Preobrajenska, Lyubov Yegorova, Léonide Massine, George Balanchine, and Bronislava Nijinska.^[3]

With foreign ballet companies unable to visit during World War II, the way was clear for Australian ballet troupes to establish a new era of ballet in the country. Kirsova had long held an ambition to open her own company, using Australian dancers and Australian musicians, composers, designers and artists. One commentator, interviewing her a few days after she opened the school, reported that "Kirsova is convinced that in the not too distant future Australia will have its own ballet dancers, choreographers, decor designers, in fact an Australian ballet company." He continued: "For this she will work ...There is none other better prepared ... to be the founder of an Australian ballet tradition of our own."^[3] In 1941, within a year of starting her school, she realised she had enough talent within the ranks of her pupils and available from elsewhere in Australia to start the country's first professional ballet company.^[4]

Backers and supporters

Funds for opening the ballet company were easy to find. Kirsova had married the Danish Vice-Consul in Australia, which, combined with her famous name, elevated her to a leading position in Sydney society. Private backing was readily available. She had two particular patrons: the impresario and theatre owner Edward Tait, and the newspaper and magazine publisher, Warwick Oswald Fairfax, who were both "entranced" by Kirsova.^[5][6][7] She also had influential support from Peter Bellew, "a respected art critic ... and passionate defender of the contemporary arts".^[8]

Wartime difficulties

The problems to be faced in setting up a professional company in the early years of the Second World War were many. One of Kirsova's associates (and later her second husband), Peter Bellew, the editor of the magazine Art in Australia and Secretary of the Contemporary Art Society of Australia in New South Wales, wrote about the obstacles that had to be surmounted. "The half-dozen legitimate theatres existing in the Commonwealth [of Australia] are placed in capital cities from 600 to 700 miles apart. Electricians, stage hands and other essential technicians are almost unprocurable. In 1940 properly trained and experienced dancers were even rarer – a strange condition in a country which boasted numerous dancing 'academies' in every city and large town."^[9]

Male dancers of any experience were difficult to come by because most had been called up for the services and there was a constant threat of those already in the company being enlisted. Movement around the country was strictly controlled and trains had no space to transport stage scenery when military personnel and supplies took precedence.

Kirsova also had to face the scathing views of the major theatre owner J. C. Williamson's, run by the Tait family. "The creation of a full sized Russian Ballet Company upon a proper professional and commercial basis," Bellew wrote, "was considered impossible by theatrical entrepreneurs who gave three main reasons – lack of public, lack of properly trained dancers and lack of theatres."^[9] Kirsova could do nothing about the lack of theatres, but she knew the public was ready and eager for ballet and that she could provide the properly trained dancers.^[10]

Dancers

The troupe Kirsova formed, initially with 25 members, was dominated at first by leading dancers who had stayed on in Australia after the Covent Garden Russian Ballet tour of 1938–39, wary of returning to their European bases with war imminent, among them Tamara Tchinarova, Raissa Koussnetsova, Valeri Shaievsky, and Edouard Sobichevsky. Similar European "refugees" Serge Bousloff and Valentin Zeglovsky joined subsequently, as did Thadée Slavinsky in 1942,^[6][11] and Mischa Burlakov.^[12]

Kirsova also promoted a number of Australian soloists from her school. Prominent among them were Rachel Cameron, "a dancer of rare musical sensitivity and intelligence" who had been expelled from Edouard Borovansky's ballet school in Melbourne after performing publicly without first seeking his permission; Strelsa Heckelman, the "baby" of the company who came to Kirsova when she was only 14; Helene ffrance, who arrived at the studio in 1942 as "an awkward novice" but blossomed rapidly into a soloist "with unusual grace and purity of line"; June Newstead, an "arresting" stage personality; Henry Legerton, who had trained for a year in England and whose appearances with Kirsova were limited by his duties with the Australian Army; and later, Paul Hammond (then working under the name Clementin), a dancer of exceptional elevation and a master of "some quite startling technical tricks".^{[5][6][9][13][14]} She also took on Peggy Sager from New Zealand who was deemed "perfect in every possible technical feat".^[5][9] These young dancers were unknowns, but within a short time under Kirsova's training and influence – and once the older Russian Ballet dancers had left the troupe – they were to be amongst the pioneers of a genuine Australian ballet tradition.

The corps de ballet consisted mainly of Australian dancers who had been studying at Kirsova's school and included John Seymour, Victoria Forth, Helen Black, Trafford Whitelock, Jean Shearer, Bettina Brown, Marie Malloy, Joy Palmer and Peggy Chauncey.^[13] Joan Gadsdon, another Australian, joined the company later.^[15]

Kirsova paid all her dancers theatrical award salaries, the lowest sum remitted to any performer being £5.2s.0d. a week, more than that paid to many dancers in overseas companies who had toured Australia. She also paid all her dancers' Actors Equity of Australia union fees herself, which registered them as professional performers and ensured that her troupe was the first theatrical company in the country to be composed entirely of Equity members and the first professional ballet company in Australia.^[9]

She could not pay the dancers for rehearsals and they still had to pay for their classes, so Kirsova advanced them £2 a week while they were rehearsing and paid them £3.2s.0d. a week when performing. Because the dancers all had day jobs when not performing, all rehearsals were held in the evenings and at weekends. After a few years Kirsova paid Rachel Cameron, Strelsa Heckelman, and Peggy Sager to teach the junior pupils at the school.^[6]

Kirsova had "a policy of originality" and "proved to be a sensitive creative artist and... had the power to inspire".^[14] She choreographed specifically for her dancers, "exploiting what abilities they had ... She extended their techniques by making demands on them which in the beginning seemed impossible, but which, by virtue of her talent at recognising a dancer's potential, emerged as choreography that was exciting to watch".^[5]

Designers and composers

As well as wanting young Australian dancers to form her company, Kirsova (an enthusiastic collector of modern art) also wanted young Australian practitioners of the visual arts to be involved as well. She considered ballet "should be a balanced combination of décor, music and dancing."^[6] Rachel Cameron remembered that "Kirsova remained true to the Diaghilev principles, aiming for the synthesis of dance, music and stage design."^[16] Kirsova welcomed visual artists to visit the studio and "it became a meeting place where they shared their ideas, stimulating their creativity." Artists frequently visiting the studio were Sali Herman, Arthur Boyd, William Dobell, Loudon Sainthill, Wolfgang Cardamatis, and Amy Kingston. She asked the more talented of the visiting artists to design scenery and costumes.^[6]

Kirsova commissioned Loudon Sainthill, then still in his early twenties, and whom she had met in Melbourne in 1937, to design the costumes and décor for her productions of Faust, A Dream – and a Fairytale and Vieux Paris. Amie Kingston handled the settings and costumes for later Kirsova ballets Hansel and Gretel and Harlequin, while Alice Danciger won plaudits for her costumes for Capriccio and the décor for Jeunesse. Wolfgang Cardamatis and Wallace Thornton adapted their successful two-dimensional painting techniques to the three-dimensional requirements of the stage,^[9] Cardamatis being responsible for the huge sets for Kirsova's Revolution of the Umbrellas, assisted by Jean Bellette and Paul Haefliger.^[17]

Kirsova's choreography was perceived as "minimalist", influenced by modern art,^[2] and "original and innovative".^[18] She encouraged her dancers to study contemporary art, bringing books from her home for them to borrow. She claimed that "if they understood modern art, they could understand what she was aiming for with her choreography". When Kirsova was choreographing her ballet Harlequin she told Paul Clementin to study Pablo Picasso's Pink and Blue period paintings so he could understand what she was after.^[18]

As well as enthusing over modern art Kirsova also loved contemporary music^[18] and encouraged musicians and composers like Charles Mackerras, Frank Hutchens, Lindley Evans and the young pianist Henry Krips to visit the studio.^[2][6] Krips (an Austrian refugee from the Nazis who had made Australia his home since 1938) wrote the music for both of Kirsova's three-act ballets, Faust and Revolution of the Umbrellas.^[9] Krips also served as Kirsova's music director, being resident composer and music arranger. Rather than use theatre orchestras, which she distrusted, Kirsova also employed a pool of talented pianists to provide the music for her ballets, usually on two grand pianos. The pianists included Krips, Marcel Lorber (another refugee from the Nazis), Richard Spirk, the young New Zealand prodigy Richard Farrell, and occasionally the teenage Charles Mackerras.^[8]

First performances

Rachel Cameron and Henry Legerton dance in the Kirsova Les Sylphides. (Photographer Max Dupain)

The Kirsova Ballet (though still publicly unnamed at this point) gave its first performance on 8 July 1941 at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, an auditorium with a small stage and poor facilities for stage lighting, at the start of a short Red Cross charity ballet season which raised more than £950.^[19] The company danced three ballets: a restaging of Léonide Massine's Les Matelots about sailors and their girlfriends, with settings and costumes by Loudon Sainthill after Pedro Pruna, and two new works choreographed by Kirsova. A Dream – and a Fairy Tale, was Kirsova's first choreographic work, with music by Frédéric Chopin, and based on a Danish fairytale about dolls who come to life. In the premiere Tamara Tchinarova played the Fairy Queen, Raissa Kousnetsova the Shepherdess, Valeri Shaevsky the Chimney Sweep, Edourard Sobichevsky the Evil Spirit, Strelsa Heckelman The Child, and Henry Legerton The Faun.^[9] The second, Vieux Paris, was set in the 1890s with music by Jacques Offenbach and Johann Strauss II and settings and costumes once again by Sainthill. For the premiere Valeri Shaevsky was Rudolphe, Tamara Tchinarova was Louise, Strelsa Heckelman was the Principal Maid, Henry Legerton was the Snob, and Peggy Chauncey was the Opera Singer.^[9]

Another charity season for the Red Cross was held shortly afterwards with performances of A Dream – and a Fairy Tale, Les Matelots, and Vieux Paris. This was followed by a third charity event from the 4–6 October 1941: three days in an elegant home in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, where the troupe gave Les Sylphides with Rachel Cameron and Henry Legerton,^[9] and Vieux Paris.^[8]

Minerva Theatre, Sydney

The first major appearance by the then newly named Kirsova Ballet, now enlarged to about 40 artists,^[9][14] was a six-week season at the Minerva Theatre in Sydney, opening on 22 November 1941.^[20] The newspapers reported that "tumultuous applause" arose at the final curtain of the first gala performance.^[21] The ballet critic of the Sydney Morning Herald welcomed the performances: "The dancing was so clean and smooth that it was difficult to believe that the young Australians dancing were not artists with years of experience behind them".^[22] Writers were also enthusiastic about the presentation, settings, costumes, and choreography. One declared they were "comparable with programmes we have seen presented by visiting European companies".^[22]

During this season at the Minerva a three-act Faust, in which the devil was female and called Mephistophela, choreographed by Kirsova to Henry Krips' music, appeared in the programme. It was a major production with more than an hour of dancing.^[6] For the premiere Young Faust was danced by Valeri Shaevsky but he was replaced by Henry Legerton after an injury. Raissa Kousnetzova played Mephistophela, replaced by Rachel Cameron, and Tamara Tchinarova was Satana. Loudon Sainthill was again responsible for the settings and the costumes.^[9] Critics described it as "brilliant" and "colourful" and it was reported that Kirsova had received so many requests from audiences for it to continue to be seen that it was retained in the programme for the final week.^[23] It ran for 25 consecutive performances, establishing a world record for an individual ballet. Other ballets seen in the season included A Dream – and a Fairy Tale, Les Matelots, and Vieux Paris. The season was a big success, with full houses throughout. Kirsova hoped that the Minerva would become the "home" of her company for many seasons to come, but she fell out with the company managing the theatre.^[7]

She also fell out with the Musicians' Union which was angered that she was using two pianists of Austrian origin – "enemy aliens" – rather than Australian musicians. Kirsova was resolute in her refusal to use "amateurish" orchestras.^[7] Australia and New Zealand had a shortage of experienced, high-quality orchestral players available for theatres, a problem exacerbated by the recent expansion of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). Few players had any ensemble experience.^[24] As a result, Kirsova used pianists rather than orchestras throughout her company's existence.

A permanent Australian ballet company?

Even before the company's first performance, Kirsova was hinting that her troupe might become the kernel of a permanent Australian ballet company. In the programme for her first season, she wrote: "It seems anomalous that Australia, which, through the visits of Adelina Genée, Pavlova, Spessiva, the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo, and Colonel de Basil's two most recent companies, has proved itself to be the most truly ballet-conscious country in the world today, has never had its own permanent company."^[25]

At the close of the Minerva season on 2 January 1942, Kirsova returned to her idea that she would like to form a permanent Australian ballet company. "Our season at the Minerva has proved that the Sydney public is willing to support a permanent ballet," she said. "If the encouragement in the other States proves as great as here we will be able to look forward to regular seasons in all capital cities and other important centres".^[26] She was even more optimistic in an interview with Melbourne's The Argus newspaper in January 1942, stating: "With foreign companies unable to encroach on this field, it is Australia's moment to prove that a regular ballet can be maintained here. We are trying to do it at the most difficult time, and under difficult conditions, but I am confident that we can succeed, and if we can succeed now, then I am sure that after the war a great future lies before us, and I want to see an all-Australian company travelling abroad to compete with companies of other nationalities."^[27]

She was to return to this ambition on numerous occasions over the following years, developing the idea further even after the Kirsova Ballet had closed, but she was never to see its realisation. She died a few months before the official 1962 formation of The Australian Ballet.^[2][28]

His Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne

The first trial to see if the company would be accepted in other States came quickly with a season booked to open at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne on 31 January 1942. The young dancers arrived by train from Sydney on 29 January, excited to be on tour for the first time and to be dancing on a larger stage than any previously at their disposal.^[29] Kirsova refused to use the theatre orchestra, but the band had to be paid because of her theatre rental agreement, so they received their wages, but she once again used her own pianists.

The Melbourne season's programme included four Kirsova-created ballets: A Dream – and a Fairy Tale, Faust, Vieux Paris, and Les Matelots. Les Sylphides also made an appearance, together with L'Oiseau Bleu (The Blue Bird) and Manuel de Falla's Ritual Fire Dance. When the season opened there were packed audiences with people queuing from 6 am every day to buy tickets.^[30] The season broke war-time audience records.^[19]

However, there was disagreement in Melbourne when three of Kirsova's leading dancers, Kouznetsova, Shaievsky and Sobichevsky, announced five minutes before the curtain went up before a packed audience that they would refuse to perform unless their wages were quadrupled and their names billed before Kirsova's. The curtain-up was delayed for an hour, but eventually Kirsova had to give in to their demands for more money.^[7] Kouznetsova and Shaievsky left at the end of the Melbourne run to reconvene their Polish-Australian Ballet. Tchinarova also left, fearing that another sizeable season was unlikely in the near future.^[31][6]

A pause in Sydney

(l to r) Paul Clementin (Hammond), Rachel Cameron, and Strelsa Heckelman, c1943

Building on her successes at the Minerva in Sydney and His Majesty's in Melbourne, Kirsova was able to stage a short season at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music from 25 April to 2 May 1942. The company gave the ever-popular Les Sylphides and brought back the three-act Faust.^[32]

At this point, at the same time as losing three of her principal former Russian Ballet dancers, most of Kirsova's remaining male dancers were conscripted into the services or war industries. In particular, her promising dancer Henry Legerton, for whom Kirsova had predicted a spectacular career, was called up and within weeks was serving in New Guinea.^[33] Edouard Sobishevsky was conscripted as well but was later able to secure exemption.^[6][7] Kirsova's music director and composer, Henry Krips, was also called up. Kirsova did not have enough dancers, other creatives, and technical crew left to continue regular performances. Those she still had were forced to go back to working at their various jobs. Rachel Cameron, for instance, worked in a bookshop in Sydney when not dancing, while Peggy Sager served in a milk bar. All the dancers continued to take classes and rehearsed in their free time.^[5]

Kirsova spent the next 12 months finding and training new dancers. It was at this point that the 19-year-old Paul Clementin joined the company as a principal and soloist. His real surname was Hammond, but Kirsova persuaded him to adapt his middle name of Clement for his stage surname.^[6] His talent was such that Kirsova began to choreograph many of her male parts for him.^[18]

Return to performance

By February 1943 the company was boosted enough to resume public performances. This year saw five seasons at the "unsatisfactory" Conservatorium, a hall described as having a "chill atmosphere",^[34] but all of the seasons played to packed houses.^[18]

The first, from 9–14 February, in aid of the Red Cross and the Legacy War Orphans Appeal, saw Les Sylphides once again, and the world premiere of Kirsova's new ballet Revolution of the Umbrellas, a story of social injustice and inequality, with music by Henry Krips and settings and costumes designed by Wolfgang Cardamatis. For the premiere Rachel Cameron played Little Anna and Peggy Sager the Spirit of the Lost Umbrella.^[9] The Sydney Morning Herald welcomed the "mobility and drama, and some moments of memorable beauty" and praised the "singularly fine work" of Cameron and Sager.^[35]

From 15 to 20 March the company was back with Revolution of the Umbrellas, and the premiere of another Kirsova ballet, Hansel and Gretel with music by Engelbert Humperdinck. In this, Hansel was danced by Paul Clementin and Gretel by Strelsa Heckelman. June Newstead was The Witch and Peggy Sager was The Dawn Fairy. The settings and costumes were by Amie Kingston. Again, the Red Cross and the War Orphans Appeal benefitted from the season.

The company's return to the Conservatorium was from 20 to 24 July, now with 45 dancers. Francis Poulenc's Jeunesse was a world premiere, with Rachel Cameron, Strelsa Heckelman and Paul Clementin dancing. The costumes were by Alice Danziger. Capriccio, to the music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, premiered as well, with Kirsova choreographing. Faust made another appearance. The usual charities benefitted.

Kirsova dances again

A somewhat longer season from 18 to 28 September brought back Jeunesse, Capriccio, Hansel and Gretel and the classic Le Lac des Cygnes with Marius Petipa's choreography, and to the delight of Sydney audiences, Hélène Kirsova herself was now dancing again, every night, for the first time since 1937. She told the newspapers that it had not been her intention to dance again because she wished to teach and develop young Australian ballerinas to enable them to dance all the roles. "The programme for the new season, however, is so exacting and will make such demands on the company", wrote one reporter, that Kirsova had decided "to ease the strain on the others by dancing a spectacular role, which has an important solo, in 'Capriccio'."^[36]

By the end of this season the Red Cross and the War Orphans had benefitted by £3,755 and funds were also being dedicated to a new charity, Kirsova's own, which was intent on establishing fully-equipped children's playgrounds in the deprived and congested area of Erskineville in Sydney.^[37] By September 1943 a proportion of profits went towards buying a block of land for the site of the first playground.^[36]

Programme for the Kirsova Ballet season opening 17 December 1943

A 3-week Christmas and New Year season opened at the Conservatorium on 17 December, to run through to 8 January 1944. Yet again, attempts to provide a good orchestra proved impossible. Although the Australian Broadcasting Commission was willing to make its players available for the season, the players themselves did not agree. As a result, Kirsova resorted again to her two grand pianos rather than dance to a scratch orchestra, and consequently had to forgo three new ballets she had planned, all of which required an orchestra: Minotaure, which was to have been performed to Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony; Waltzing Matilda, the music for which was composed by the young Sydney musician Charles Mackerras (the famous bush ballad tune being prominently positioned);^[38] and another ballet, not yet named, set to the César Franck Variations symphoniques.^[39]

There was, however, another premiere: Harlequin danced to the music of Maurice Ravel with Kirsova's choreography and settings and costumes by Amie Kingston. Rachel Cameron danced Columbine, June Newstead the Circus Girl, Helene ffrance the Moon, Paul Clementin Harlequin, Strelsa Heckelman the Rich Girl, and Thadée Slavinsky the troubadour.^[9] The season also saw Les Sylphides, Hansel and Gretel, Capriccio, Le Lac des Cygnes and Vieux Paris. The critics praised a number of the dancers: "conspicuously good performances from Thadée Slavinsky, Rachel Cameron, Strelsa Heckelman, and Trafford Whitelock ... there was increasing evidence of the improving technique of the Australian male dancer, Paul Clementin, who is showing greater confidence and proficiency with every performance ... Helen Ffrance, one of the most attractive 'natural' dancers Sydney has seen for a long time". Also coming in for praise were "the delicious Sainthill decor, the florid costumes and sumptuous ensembles".^[33]

The cover of this season's programme announced: "Proceeds from this season will be used to continue the work of establishing a series of fully equipped playgrounds throughout the congested areas of Sydney. The full proceeds from the September season, amounting to £1,678, were sufficient to provide two grounds at Erskineville, and these are now under construction. Proceeds from this season, it is hoped, will be sufficient to complete the requirements in Erskineville and also extend the scheme to another municipality lacking proper playing facilities."^[40]

Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane

The Kirsova Ballet company changes trains at Albury railway station on their journey from Sydney to Melbourne in January 1944. Paul Clementin standing, right

The impresarios of J. C. Williamson's theatre group, who controlled most of the large theatres in Australia and were wanting to house a permanent ballet company on their circuit, had been watching Kirsova closely. Liking the packed houses and the early morning queues for tickets, and the widespread appreciation of the critics, J. C. Williamson's offered Kirsova a tour of Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, starting in January and ending in May 1944.

A problem arose at this point. In wartime Australia, the movement of people around the country, particularly between states, was strictly controlled. Permits for interstate travel were issued only for defence personnel and others involved in the war effort. Those employed in essential manufacturing were monitored closely. A complaint was lodged with the manpower authorities in New South Wales concerning the appearance of the Kirsova Ballet in Melbourne suggesting that if Kirsova and her dancers were doing essential war work permission should not be given for them to travel to Melbourne. It is thought the complaint may have come from Edouard Borovansky, who ran his ballet school in Melbourne, staged performances in the city and considered Melbourne to be "his" territory.^[5]

However, J. C. Williamson's confirmed that no member of the company was doing essential war work which they would have to leave to go to Melbourne and the manpower authorities stated that many of the dancers were outside the 21–35 age limit prescribed in the Manpower Act and that entertainment was necessary for troops on leave and to maintain public morale so they made no objection to the Melbourne season proceeding.^[6][41]

Advertising for the Kirsova Ballet in Melbourne, January 1944

A few days after closing at the Conservatorium the company left for Melbourne to open at His Majesty's Theatre on 15 January 1944 for a three-week season. Special matinée performance were also staged at the smaller Comedy Theatre. The first season included Le Lac des Cygnes, Jeunesse, Harlequin, and Vieux Paris in which Melbourne audiences were able to see Kirsova dancing in their city for the first time in nearly seven years. The Argus newspaper reported that she received "a tremendous ovation".^[42] The second week added Hansel and Gretel, Harlequin, Les Sylphides, and Kirsova dancing once again in Revolution of the Umbrellas. In the third week Capriccio was added.

Three days after closing in Melbourne, the company opened in Adelaide at the Theatre Royal, presenting a three-week season of Les Sylphides, Hansel and Gretel, Harlequin, Vieux Paris, Revolution of the Umbrellas, Le Lac des Cygnes, Capriccio, and Jeunesse. Once again, the houses were packed and fans queued for two days to buy tickets.^[6]

There was then a long journey to Brisbane, where the Kirsova Ballet opened on 8 April at His Majesty's Theatre. The same ballets reappeared, to the huge enthusiasm of the Brisbane audience, with as usual every performance booked out. Brisbane was a popular location for American and Australian servicemen on leave, who helped to pack the house every night. Kirsova offered to take her company to New Guinea to entertain the Australian troops there if the Army would supply the means of getting there and back. The Army declined the offer.^[6] However, the company did perform at an Army convalescent hospital. Sergeant Henry Legerton was one of the soldiers on leave in Brisbane and joined the troupe for this performance.^[6]

The season, and the tour, ended on 6 May, with plans laid for a season in Sydney in September.

The success of this tour was palpable. It had seen Kirsova's young protégées, Rachel Cameron, Strelsa Heckelman, Peggy Sager and Paul Clementin, become world class performers and the future of the company seemed assured.^[18] Cameron reported in an interview towards the end of her life, recalling her days with the Kirsova Ballet, that "Kirsova used to say that if she could take us to Europe we would cause a sensation."^[16]

Hélène Kirsova had proved that Australia could support its own indigenous ballet company, and that the talent was there for it to be world class, not just in dancers, but in composers, set and costume designers, and librettists.

Kirsova versus Borovansky

The potential was great, but Kirsova had to rely on J. C. Williamson's for her future tours. The company, run by the Tait family, knew that the time was right for them to take a permanent Australian ballet company under their wing. But the Taits considered Kirsova "unmanageable, totally individualistic" and were concerned that she insisted on performing new ballets, rather than the standard classics they felt the Australian public preferred.^[5]

The Taits knew that Kirsova's was not the only ballet company in the field. Edouard Borovansky, from his Melbourne base, had been building his own company in much same way as Kirsova: with a school and setting up his troupe with former Russian Ballet dancers and new young Australians whom he paid when they were performing. But he would be prepared to bow to the Tait's wishes and not attempt to present anything they might consider to be too "new".^[5]

The two companies were in competition and this was exacerbated by a split in J. C. Williamson's attitude to them. Edward Tait, who ran the Sydney branch of "The Firm", as it was widely known, and was one of Kirsova's financial backers, obviously favoured Kirsova. He was an enthusiastic ballet lover and considered himself one of Kirsova's greatest admirers. His brothers, John and Frank, who ran the Melbourne head office, preferred Borovansky.^[5][6] However, a choice was made and J. C. Williamson's offered Kirsova their backing, wanting to make her a salaried producer-director.^[2] She and all her dancers would be on a regular salary, but she would have to present the popular ballets from the Ballets Russes rather than her own ballets, and she would have to use the resident theatre bands and J. C. Williamson's scenery and costumes.

Kirsova was not one to make compromises. Peter Bellew reported that her "almost fanatical idealism and uncompromising determination that aesthetic values must always come first are qualities which fit most uneasily into the commercial side of theatre – particularly Australian theatre".^[9] She wished to work through the Tait's theatres independently rather than be under their management, and particularly had no desire to use their orchestras. She refused the offer as all she wanted was her independence and the use of the theatres.

The Taits instead turned to Borovansky, who was amenable to all the impresarios' demands, and the theatre owners formed a professional ballet company under his direction.^[2] As they could use only one ballet company, J. C. Williamson's had no further use for Kirsova.^[18] It has also been suggested that in considering the reasons for the demise of the Kirsova Ballet "the issue of gender-bias, conscious or unconscious, in the male-dominated world of theatrical management in Australia of the 1940s cannot be discounted."^[8]

As a result, Kirsova found herself at a disadvantage when trying to book theatres of any kind of scale in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. She also felt that J. C. Williamson's was trying to edge her out of contention. The planned Sydney season, due to open on 20 September at the Conservatorium, was postponed indefinitely, because – according to the Kirsova Ballet – the wartime Rationing Commission had refused them permission to buy costume materials. An angry statement by Kirsova's manager implied that this decision would deny Kirsova the opportunity to compete with Borovansky and said it would mean "the creation of a ballet monopoly in the hands of theatrical entrepreneurs who, until the field was pioneered by Madame Kirsova, made no attempt to create a ballet company."^[43]

A response the following day by the Rationing Commission, however, argued that the Kirsova Ballet had in fact been issued with material far in excess of that issued to any similar company or group in Australia.^[44]

It was possible that Kirsova's refusal to compromise was going to lead to the demise of her ballet company. She could not organise tours, and even single seasons would be difficult. As a result, she could not offer regular work to her dancers and so she gave them permission to join the Borovansky Ballet, which was looking for dancers.^[18]

Among those who went were Strelsa Heckelman, Helen ffrance, Joan Gadsdon, Judy Burgess, and Joan and Monica Halliday, all of whom now had much experience. Others loyally stayed, including Peggy Sager, Paul Clementin, and Rachel Cameron, who had had a falling out with Borovansky some years previously.^[5][6]

The Kirsova Ballet closes

With her depleted troupe, the Kirsova Ballet took part in a gala on 5 September 1944 in Sydney in a stage show supporting the premiere in Australia of the film Phantom of the Opera. 1945 saw the Kirsova Ballet's last performance, given for the servicemen and staff at the Yaralla Military Hospital in Sydney. The company was received with delight, and the final ballet, Vieux Paris, was danced for a second time as an encore.^[14]

Kirsova continued to plan hopefully for a further season and lined up a two-week booking at Brisbane City Hall in October 1945, where a new set of ballets would be performed. Among them was to be Mackerras' Waltzing Matilda. Unfortunately for Kirsova – and Mackerras – at the last moment the booking there was cancelled by the city's authorities in favour of entertainment for servicemen.^[18]

As well as Waltzing Matilda Kirsova had a number of other ballets ready or in preparation at this point. Among them were Minotaure, Symphonic Variations with music by César Franck, Peter and the Wolf, to be danced to Sergei Prokofiev's music, and another ballet based on the characters of the area of Kings Cross in Sydney to be danced to George Gershwin's An American in Paris. Designs for sets and costumes had already been provided for these future works.^[9]

When the Brisbane engagement was cancelled, Kirsova faced a bleak future for her company. She could not find suitable theatres in which to perform, many of her best dancers had left, and she no longer trusted her previously loyal patron, Edward Tait.^[6] She accepted the inevitable and closed the company. Peggy Sager and Paul Clementin (renaming himself Paul Hammond) joined the Borovansky company. Rachel Cameron, unwilling to do the same, remained with Kirsova for a time, teaching at the school. The Kirsova Ballet had lasted for just over four years from its first performance in July 1941.

The Kirsova Ballet legacy

The Kirsova Ballet is regarded as a pioneer in Australian ballet. It was exceptionally creative,^[16] and its impact was enormous.^[5] It produced talented professional Australian dancers where there had been few before. It promoted young Australian musicians and artists. It staged an interesting and original repertoire.^[45] It was one of the most important foundation stones of the first national Australian Ballet company, The Australian Ballet, established in 1962.

It has been claimed that Kirsova was the godmother of Australian ballet, and that "she bestowed a splendid gift at its christening".^[5]

Dancers of the Kirsova Ballet

^[9][46]

Repertoire of the Kirsova Ballet

A dream...and a fairy tale – A Ballet in One Act

Book and choreography: Hélène Kirsova

Music: Frederic Chopin

Settings and costumes: Loudon Sainthill

Premiere: 8 July 1941 at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, Sydney with Tamara Tchinarova as the Fairy Queen, Raissa Kousnetsova as the Shepherdess, Valeri Shaevsky as the Chimney Sweep, Edouard Sobichevsky as the Evil Spirit, Strelsa Heckelman as The Child and Henry Legerton as The Faun

Les Matelots

Choreography: Hélène Kirsova after Leonide Massine

Music: Georges Auric

Settings and costumes: Loudon Sainthill after Pedro Pruna

Premiere: 8 July 1941 at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, Sydney

Vieux Paris – A Ballet in One Act^[9]

Book and choreography: Hélène Kirsova

Music: Jacques Offenbach, Johann Strauss II

Settings and costumes: Loudon Sainthill

Premiere: 8 July 1941 at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, Sydney with Valeri Shaevsky as Rudolphe, Tamara Tchinarova as Louise, Strelsa Heckelman as the Principal Maid, Henry Legerton as the Snob and Peggy Chauncey as the Opera Singer

Les Sylphides

Choreography after Michel Fokine

Music: Frédéric Chopin

Premiere: 22 November 1941 at the Minerva Theatre, Sydney with Rachel Cameron and Henry Legerton

Faust – A Ballet in Three Acts and Five Parts

Book: Heinrich Heine arranged by Hélène Kirsova

Music: Henry Krips

Settings and costumes: Loudon Sainthill

Premiere: November 1941 at the Minerva Theatre, Sydney with Valeri Shaevsky as Young Faust, replaced by Henry Legerton after injury, Raissa Kousnetzova as Mephistophela, replaced by Rachel Cameron, and Tamara Tchinarova as Satana

L’Oiseau bleu (The Bluebird)

Pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty

Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Danza ritual del fuego (Ritual Fire Dance)

Music: Manuel De Falla

Revolution of the Umbrellas – A Ballet in Three Acts inspired by a story by Danish writer Kjeld Abell

Book and choreography: Hélène Kirsova

Music: Henry Krips

Settings and costumes: Wolfgang Cardamatis^[9] assisted by Jean Bellette and Paul Haefliger^[17]

Premiere: 9 February 1943 at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, Sydney with Rachel Cameron as Little Anna and Peggy Sager as the Spirit of the Lost Umbrella

Hansel and Gretel – A Ballet in Three Parts

Book and choreography: Hélène Kirsova

Music: Engelbert Humperdinck

Settings and costumes: Amie Kingston

Premiere: 15 March 1943 at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, Sydney with Paul Clementin and Hansel, Strelsa Heckelman as Gretel, June Newstead as The Witch, and Peggy Sager as The Dawn Fairy

Jeunesse – A Poem in Dance

Choreography: Hélène Kirsova

Music: Francis Poulenc

Settings: Alice Danziger

Costumes: Birger Bartholin

Premiere: 20 July 1943 at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, Sydney with Rachel Cameron, Strelsa Heckielman, and Paul Clementin

Capriccio – A Suite de Danses

Choreography: Hélène Kirsova

Music: Nicolai Rimsky‐Korsakov

Costumes: Alice Danciger

Premiere: 20 July 1943 at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, Sydney with Hélène Kirsova

Le Lac des cygnes (Swan Lake, Act 2)

Choreography: Marius Petipa

Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Premiere: 18 September 1943 at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, Sydney

Harlequin – A Ballet in One Act

Choreography: Hélène Kirsova

Music: Maurice Ravel

Settings and costumes: Amie Kingston

Premiere: December 1943 at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, Sydney with Rachel Cameron as Columbine, June Newstead as the Circus Girl, Helene ffrance as the Moon, Paul Clementin as Harlequin, Strelsa Heckelman as the Rich Girl and Thadée Slavinsky as the troubadour^[9][47]

Archives and research material

In 1944 and 1945 two books were published in celebration of the Kirsova Ballet. The first, in 1944, was Kirsova Australian Ballet, a collection of drawings and sketches by Trevor Clara made backstage and in the wings during rehearsals and performances. It included a lengthy introduction by Kirsova in which she repeated her belief that ballet is a combination of many arts rather than just dancing, and that such artistic availability existed to be encouraged in Australia. She insisted that trying to keep ballet alive in war-time was "heart-breaking" but that she had done her best to do so, feeling that cultural entertainment during war "is more than ever necessary". She also made another plea for financial support for Australian Ballet.^[48] Copies of the book are hard to come by at a reasonable price, though the State Library of Victoria has made it freely available to read digitally.^[49]

In 1945, Peter Bellew published Pioneering Ballet in Australia, a well-illustrated history of the Kirsova Ballet with stories of the ballets in the company's repertoire, and many of the facts around their production. Due to the war, paper for book production was rationed, but Kirsova's wealthy patron, the newspaper owner Warwick Fairfax, used his influence with the government to allow the book to be published.^[6] It was republished in 1946 with an Introduction by the English critic Neville Cardus.^[9] Second-hand copies are readily available.

The Papers of Hélène Kirsova between 1932 and 1945, donated by Peter Bellew in 1986, are held by the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They comprise a large collection of press clippings, programmes, photographs of ballet performances and ballet dancers, lighting plots and original scores for a number of Kirsova's own choreographies and over 100 original set and costume designs commissioned by Kirsova during the 1940s. Further details are available in a National Gallery of Australia Research Library finding aid, which also links to Kirsova Ballet material in other collections.^[50]

A vast amount of material relating to the Kirsova Ballet is listed freely in Trove, the National Library of Australia's exhaustive collection of links to collections in Australian libraries, universities, museums, galleries and archives, consisting of newspapers, magazines, images, research, books, diaries, letters, people, organisations and websites.^[51]

Some of the productions of the Kirsova Ballet were filmed by a Melbourne balletomane and ciné enthusiast, Dr J Ringland Anderson. The films were first made public in a one-hour documentary, called Another Beginning, produced for Australian television in 1975. They have been transferred to nine hours of videotape and are available to researchers and dance historians in the Australian Archives of the Dance, held in the Performing Arts Collection of the Arts Centre Melbourne, Victoria where further photographs of the Kirsova Ballet are also held.^[52]

As well as those held by the National Gallery of Australia and the Melbourne Arts Centre, a significant number of photographs of the Kirsova Ballet can be viewed in the website catalogue of the National Library of Australia.^[53]

Oral histories have been recorded by a number of dancers of the Kirsova Ballet, including Paul Hammond, Peggy Sager and Tamara Tchinarova. These can be listened to on the website of the National Library of Australia.^[54][55]

Further reading

Peter Bellew, Pioneering Ballet in Australia, Craftsman Bookshop, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1945.

Mark Carroll (Editor), The Ballets Russes in Australia and Beyond, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, South Australia, 2011.

John Hood, Peggy Sager: Prima Ballerina, John Hood, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia, 2004.

Valerie Lawson, Dancing Under the Southern Skies: A History of Ballet in Australia, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2019.

Frank Salter, Borovansky: The Man Who Made Australian Ballet, Wildcat Press, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1980.

References