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Yugen was Robert Helpmann's second ballet choreographed for the Australian Ballet during his term as co-artistic director of the company. It followed on from The Display, his first creation for the Australian Ballet. Yugen told the story of Tsukiyomo the Moon Goddess, and was freely adapted by Helpmann from the Japanese Noh play Hageromo. Yugen, a Zen Buddhist term, was defined by Helpmann in program notes as 'the most gracefully refined expression of beauty; beauty which is felt - as the shadow of a cloud momentarily before the moon'.
The work was created on Kathleen Gorham as Tsukiyomo and Garth Welch as Hakuryo, a Fisherman, and had designs by Desmond Heeley and music by Yuzo Toyama. It followed the story of Tsukiyomo who came down to earth each night to bathe in a lagoon and had her wings stolen by a local fisherman who believed they were rare shells. The work premiered in Adelaide on 18 February 1965 and was then toured during the Australian Ballet's first overseas tour to the 1965 Commonwealth Arts Festival.
In program notes Helpmann explained his motivation for creating the ballet: 'I have choreographed this work for the Australian Ballet in the belief that this young Company should draw on the legends, music and cultures that are their neighbours, just as the English Ballet has drawn on the countries of Europe. This Ballet is in no way intended to be an exhibition of the technique of the Japanese dance but rather a tribute to the deeply felt admiration I have for this beautiful and complicated art and for the Theatre of Japan. As the use of the "points" in classical Ballet was introduced to indicate flight, I, in this work, return to this symbolic meaning.'
See also: Australian Ballet, The ; Display, The ; Gorham, Kathleen ; Helpmann, Robert ; Welch, Garth
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Stringer. Walter: Anne Fraser in Robert Helpmann's 'Yugen', the Australian Ballet, 1965
Stringer, Walter: Artist of the Australian Ballet in Robert Helpmann's 'Yugen', 1965
Stringer, Walter: Artists of the Australian Ballet in Robert Helpmann's 'Yugen', 1965
Stringer, Walter: Artists of the Australian Ballet in Robert Helpmann's 'Yugen' [1], 1965
Stringer, Walter: Artists of the Australian Ballet in Robert Helpmann's 'Yugen' [2], 1965
Stringer, Walter: Artists of the Australian Ballet in Robert Helpmann's 'Yugen' [3], 1965
Stringer, Walter: Artists of the Australian Ballet in Robert Helpmann's 'Yugen' [4], 1965
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