Harry Haythorne. What a Star!
…azing. See below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAlA2GKXl8 With thanks to Philippe Charluet. Michelle Potter, 21 January 2015 See also my obituary for Harry and Jennifer Shennan’s tribute to him…
Swan Lake. National Theatre Ballet
…floods out of the picture and recalls the words of Keith Bain quoted in an obituary for Graeme: ‘once seen, never forgotten’. Joyce Graeme as the Queen in Swan Lake, Act III, National Theatre Ballet, 1951. National Library of Australia. Photo: Walter Stringer The costumes for the pages are rather unusual and, while looking through the Rex Reid Collection at the Artscentre Melbourne, I came across a note that describes the costumes. In a folder of…
Anna Volkova Barnes (1917–2013)
Here at last is a link to my obituary for Anna Volkova published in The Canberra Times on 18 September 2013. See also my ‘Vale Ania’ story at this link. Anna Volkova in costume for her signature role in Les Sylphides. Dedication to Xenia and Edouard Borovansky, 1939. Photo: The Sun, Sydney, National Library of Australia. Here too is an extract from an interview I recorded with Volkova in 2005 for the National Library of Australia’s Oral History a…
Dance diary. September 2013
…6. [Online version no longer available]. ‘Ballerina’s globetrotting life’. Obituary for Anna Volkova Barnes, The Canberra Times, 18 September 2013, ARTS p. 6. As a PDF. ‘Russian feast a real cracker’. Review of A Festival of Russian Ballet, Imperial Russian Ballet, The Canberra Times, 19 September 2013, ARTS p. 8. [Online version no longer available]. ‘Winton’s tale of grief challenges and confronts’. Review of Tim Winton’s Shrine, Black Swan St…
Anna Volkova Barnes. Vale
…40, has died aged 96. She danced her way out of this life on 18 August. An obituary is in process [now available], but in the meantime below are two non-dancing images that I especially like from Volkova’s dancing years in Australia and later in South America. Anna Volkova (second from left) with colleagues Serge Ismailoff, Oleg Tupine and Tamara Tchinarova, with Paul Petroff standing in the background. Christchurch, New Zealand, 1939. National Li…
Dance diary. April 2019
…links. Taking readers to the latest news of the day is useless for my purposes. Luckily I have kept a paper copy (what is paper you may ask?) of everything published. So, while a plug has been pulled, not everything has gone down the sink. Press for April 2019 ‘Farewell to a grand dame.’ Obituary for Dame Margaret Scott. Dance Australia, April/May 2019, pp. 13–14. PDF at this link. ‘Sydney Dance Company turns 50.’ The Canberra Times/Panorama, 20…
Dance diary. January 2019
…e Borovansky Ballet in its early days, died on 2 January 2019 aged 100. An obituary will follow later. Posts about Busse are at this tag. Press for January 2019 ‘Production brought to life for kids.’ Review of Storytime ballet. Coppélia. The Australian Ballet. The Canberra Times, 21 January 2019, p. 16. Online version ‘Another BOLD program for festival’. Preview of BOLD II, Canberra 13–17 March. The Canberra Times, 28 January 2019, p. 16. Online v…
Cecil Bates (1925–2019)
…istory and Folklore Collection, from which much of the information in this obituary has been obtained, is available at this link. Michelle Potter 3 March 2020 Featured image: Cecil Bates in the pas de trois from Swan Lake (detail), 1940s? Photographer not identified. National Library of Australia, Papers of Cecil Bates, MS 9427 Notes: 1. Oral history interview with Cecil Bates recorded by Meg Denton in 1985. J. D Somerville Oral History Collection…
Dance diary. May 2021
…in Australia in 1976 when she danced Giselle to Kelvin Coe’s Albrecht. An obituary is at this link. (left) Carla Fracci prepares for Giselle; (right) Carla Fracci in Giselle Act I. The Australian Ballet, 1976. Photos: © Walter Stringer Kristian Fredrikson. Designer After a year since publication, reviews of the Kristian Fredrikson book have pretty much come to an end. I can’t resist sharing, however, the images below. On the left is the book taki…
Valrene Tweedie (1925–2008). The fire and the rose
‘The fire and the rose‘ is a tribute to and obituary for Valrene Tweedie, Australian dancer, teacher and choreographer who died in August 2008. Tweedie danced with Colonel de Basil’s and Sergei Denham’s Ballets Russes companies and with an embryonic National Ballet of Cuba. She choreographed for stage and television in Australia, pioneered dance education programs and founded Ballet Australia in the 1960s to encourage Australian choreography. ‘Th…