Australia Dancing - Display, The (1964

Display, The (1964 - )

Stringer, Walter: Bryan Lawrence as the Leader and Kathleen Gorham as the Girl in Robert Helpmann's 'The Display', the Australian Ballet, 1964

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The Display was the first ballet that Robert Helpmann choreographed for the Australian Ballet. With original music by Malcolm Williamson and costumes and set by Sidney Nolan, it premiered at the Adelaide Festival on 14 March 1964 with Kathleen Gorham as the Female, Garth Welch as the Outsider, Bryan Lawrence as the Leader, and Barry Kitcher as the Male (the Lyrebird). Helpmann conceived the idea for a ballet based on the habits of the lyrebird on a visit to Sherbrooke Forest in the Dandenong Ranges when Katharine Hepburn, in Australia in 1955 on tour with the Old Vic company, took him there because she wanted to see a lyrebird dancing. Helpmann eventually dedicated the ballet to Hepburn.

The Display explored ideas of hostility and aggression in Australian society and its name refers to the mating dance of the lyrebird, for which the ornithological term is 'display'. The work was an important milestone for the Australian Ballet and the Australian-ness of the work was the source of much positive comment. Nolan's designs were particularly successful. One contemporary reviewer remarked: 'The ballet's decor, by the painter Sidney Nolan, not merely recreates the haunt of the lyrebird. It is the deep, rich mysterious gloom of a sunlight shafted Australian rainforest with the pillars of its ghostly white gums rising through its depths'.

The Display was a staple in the Australian Ballet repertoire in the early years of the company's history and it was toured extensively in Australia and overseas. The work was revived by the Australian Ballet in 1983 when new costumes were created for it by fashion designer Adele Weiss.

Research Materials

Interview with Colin Peasley, 2000 (Oral history): Interviewee: Peasley, Colin; Interviewer: Bill Stephens; Audiotape; 590 mins; Colin Peasley discusses his early dance experiences in Sydney including his training as a ballroom dancer, his work with Gertrud Bodenwieser and Valrene Tweedie and his experiences as a dancer on television in the 1960s. He continues with an account of the early days of the Australian Ballet, the company's structure and its touring schedules. He speaks about Rudolf Nureyev and Erik Bruhn and their connections with the Australian Ballet and discusses at length the various artistic directors of the company including Peggy van Praagh, Robert Helpmann, Anne Woolliams, Marilyn Jones and Maina Gielgud. He also discusses his own career with the company as a teacher on the ballet staff, as ballet master, as regisseur general and as director of education. Other Australian Ballet personnel he talks about over the course of the interview include Margot Fonteyn, Garth Welch, Alan Alder, Ray Powell, Peter Bahen and Kelvin Coe.

Some of the topics and issues that Peasley discusses during the interview are the early financial difficulties faced by the Australian Ballet, Australian Ballet contracts over the years, the establishment of the Australian Ballet School, the company's tours especially the Commonwealth Festival tour of 1965-1966, the importance of Helpmann's ballet The Display, the foundation and importance of the Dancers Company, the dancers' strike of 1981, the dismissal of van Praagh, Helpmann and Gielgud from their positions and the nature of his own move from the ballet staff to director of education and his ideas about the company's education program. Anecdotes include stories about Raymonda, The Merry Widow and Don Quixote and Nureyev's last tour.; Australian Ballet, The ; Bodenwieser, Gertrud ; Gielgud, Maina ; Helpmann, Robert ; Peasley, Colin ; Tweedie, Valrene ; van Praagh, Peggy ; Woolliams, Anne ; Jones, Marilyn ; Nureyev, Rudolf ; Fonteyn, Margot ; Powell, Ray ; Alder, Alan ; Coe, Kelvin ; Welch, Garth ; Don Quixote ; Merry Widow, The ; Raymonda; Location:; National Library of Australia; TRC 4559
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Interview with Robert Helpmann, 1964

Interview with Robert Helpmann, 1964 (Oral history): Interviewee: Helpmann, Robert; Interviewer: Hazel de Berg; Audiotape; 2 mins; Helpmann speaks about his ballet The Display in particular about its Australian content and its collaborators who included Sidney Nolan and Malcolm Williamson.; Helpmann, Robert ; Nolan, Sidney; Location:; National Library of Australia; deB 47
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Interview with Robert Helpmann, 1974

Interview with Robert Helpmann, 1974 (Oral history): Interviewee: Helpmann, Robert; Interviewer: Hazel de Berg; Audiotape, 66 mins; Helpmann discusses a number of ballets he mounted or choreographed for the Australian Ballet. He concentrates especially on his own works Perisynthyon, The Display and Yugen, on his staging of The Sleeping Beauty and on the production of the film Don Quixote. The interview also contains material relating to Helpmann's early life and career and his associations with a number of artists including Katharine Hepburn, Margot Fonteyn, Ninette de Valois and Peggy van Praagh. It includes with a brief statement of Helpmann's philosophy of life.

An audio extract from this interview, in which Helpmann talks about his early connection with Anna Pavlova, is contained in the National Library of Australia's online exhibition Dance people dance. See 'Early touring companies (Item 1)'.; Yugen ; Perisynthyon ; Helpmann, Robert ; Australian Ballet, The ; Fonteyn, Margot ; van Praagh, Peggy ; Don Quixote ; Pavlova, Anna ; Sleeping Beauty, The; Location:; National Library of Australia; deB 773
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Interview with William (Bill) Akers, 2002 (Oral history): Interviewer: Michelle Potter; Interviewee: Akers, Bill; Audiotape; 245 mins; In this interview Bill Akers begins by speaking of his family background and his early interest and work in the theatre. He talks in particular about working at the Rathbone Academy of Dramatic Art and joining the John Alden Shakespeare Company as actor and choreographer, his education and his first interest in dance. He goes on to give his recollections of performing in radio serials. Throughout the interview he discusses the dance companies with which he has been involved including the National Theatre Ballet, the Borovansky Ballet and the Australian Ballet and some of the artists and artistic directors with whom he has worked including Edouard Borovansky, Peggy van Praagh, Maina Gielgud, Robert Helpmann, Leon Kellaway, Rudolf Nureyev, Erik Bruhn, Kathleen Geldard, Kenneth Rowell, Anne Woolliams, John Cranko, Glen Tetley, Ross Stretton and David McAllister. Some of the dance productions he refers to, often in relation to his lighting of them, Yugen, Sun Music and The Display by Robert Helpmann, Madame Butterfly by Stanton Welch and Aurora's Wedding and The Sleeping Beauty from the classical repertoire. He concludes with a discussion of his exhibition Tutu Gorgeous and of his aspirations both for his own future and that of the Australian Ballet.; Corroboree [Dance work made to the score of John Antill] ; Kellaway, Leon ; Nureyev, Rudolf ; Akers, William (Bill) ; Australian Ballet, The ; Borovansky Ballet ; National Theatre Ballet ; Borovansky, Edouard ; van Praagh, Peggy ; Gielgud, Maina ; Helpmann, Robert ; Woolliams, Anne ; Stretton, Ross ; Reid, Rex ; Welch, Stanton ; McAllister, David ; Yugen ; Madame Butterfly ; Sun Music ; Sleeping Beauty, The ; Rowell, Kenneth ; Aurora's Wedding ; Geldard, Kathleen; Location:; National Library of Australia; TRC 4839
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