Australia Dancing - Waltzing Matilda (1954

Waltzing Matilda (1954 - )

Cameron, Ernest: Bruno Harvey as the Swagman with dancers of the Bodenwieser Ballet in Gertrud Bodenwieser's 'Waltzing Matilda', 1954

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In 1954 Gertrud Bodenwieser created a three act dance work called Waltzing Matilda for her company, which at that stage was known as the Bodenwieser Modern Expressive Ballet. The Bodenwieser Waltzing Matilda had an original score by Werner Baer based the well-known melody by Marie Cowan. The scenario was by Bodenwieser and the work was also accompanied by a narrated introduction to each act, and by verse written by Graham McDonald.

The 1950s was a period in Bodenwieser's Australian career when she turned on several occasions to outback themes. Her scenario took the traditional story of the swagman who stole a jumbuck and was captured by troopers as its starting point, but set it within the wider context of what Bodenwieser saw as the intellectual and industrial growth of Australia. It was a memorial to survival in harsh conditions and to an idea of progress that did not deny its roots in hard work. The original cast included Anita Ardell as the Narrator and Bruno Harvey as the Swagman. The work was televised in 1958.

Helene Kirsova had plans to stage a ballet based musically and thematically on Waltzing Matilda for her company, the Kirsova Ballet. Kirsova's company gave its last performance in Brisbane in 1944 but Peter Bellew records in Pioneering Ballet in Australia that at the time of the company's demise plans were in hand for a collaboration with American composer Dai-Keong Lee on Kirsova's Waltzing Matilda project. The Bodenwieser work was, however, the first dance project based on the popular Australian story and music, Waltzing Matilda, to go into production.

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Gertrud Bodenwieser Archives, 1919-1997 (Manuscript): 10 boxes, 17 folio items; This collection contains press cuttings, photographs, posters, programs, costume designs and assorted printed material relating to the life and career of Gertrud Bodenwieser and her Bodenwieser Ballet. The material covers Bodenwieser's work in Europe, on tour in various countries and in Australia where she settled in 1939. Australian dancers represented either photographically or in other ways include Anita Ardell, Keith Bain, Margaret Chapple, Coralie Hinkley and Eileen Cramer (Kramer). Works for which significant material, such as scores, photographs, programs, designs and clippings, exists include Demon Machine, Life of the Insects, O World, Cain and Abel, The One and the Many and Central Australian Suite, and Waltzing Matilda. Major Australian photographers whose work is represented include Max Dupain and Margaret Michaelis. Costume designers represented include Cedric Flower and Eileen Cramer (Kramer). Full details of the scope of the collection, as well as notes on the provenance of the material and a brief biography of Bodenwieser, can be found at: MS 9263 - Papers of Gertrud Bodenwieser (1890-1959); Bodenwieser Ballet ; Bodenwieser, Gertrud ; Demon Machine ; Dupain, Max ; Kramer, Eileen ; Hinkley, Coralie ; Ardell, Anita ; Chapple, Margaret ; Bain, Keith; Location:; The Keep Dancing! Collection; National Library of Australia; MS 9263
nla.cat-vn2088991

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