Australia Dancing - Sager, Peggy (1924

Sager, Peggy (1924 - 2002)

Photographer unknown: Portrait of Peggy Sager in costume for 'Les Sylphides', Kirsova Ballet between 1942 and 1945

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Peggy Sager began her dance training learning 'fancy dancing'. She received her most significant early dance education, however, in Hamilton with teachers from the Nettleton Edwards School, an Auckland-based school whose teachers travelled regularly to Hamilton to teach selected dancers. Sager passed her Intermediate and Advanced exams of the Royal Academy of Dancing in 1941 and shortly afterwards left New Zealand to pursue a career in Australia. She arrived in Sydney by sea with her mother, Rose, on the 'Mariposa' on 10 October 1941. In Sydney she continued taking classes and passed the Academy's Solo Seal exam.

Sager joined the Sydney-based Kirsova Ballet in late 1941. With this company she danced the classics of the international repertoire, such as Swan Lake and Les Sylphides, with which Kirsova was familiar from her days with the Ballets Russes. Sager also created roles in Kirsova's own choreography including the Soul of the Lost Umbrella in Kirsova's full-length work The Revolution of the Umbrellas, which premiered in Sydney on 9 February 1943. In 1945, after the demise of Kirsova's company, Sager joined the Borovansky Ballet.

With the Borovansky Ballet Sager's career flourished and she performed with the Borovansky company until illness forced her to retire in 1959. Her repertoire included the role of the Spirit of Australia in Terra Australis, which Borovansky created on her in 1946, the Ballerina in Petrouchka, the leading roles in Borovansky's full-length productions of Nutcracker, Giselle, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Princess and many leading roles in one-act productions of classics and new works. Her partners included Vassilie Trunoff, Royes Fernandez, Paul Hammond, Paul Grinwis, Charles Boyd, Miro Zloch, Robert Pomie and Garth Welch. She was an outstanding technician with superb strength and great facility for turning steps.

In the late 1940s, during a lay off period for the Borovansky Ballet, Sager worked in the United Kingdom. She danced as a soloist in the 1948 film The Red Shoes and then joined Metropolitan Ballet. While with Metropolitan Ballet she scored particular success in John Taras' Design with Strings. After the experience with the Metropolitan Sager moved to Europe and danced with the Brussels Opera until Borovansky asked her to return to Australia to rejoin the Borovansky Ballet for its new season in 1951.

Sager also had a long career as a teacher and adjudicator, which included the running of a summer school initially in conjunction with her Borovansky colleague Kathleen Gorham. She also served briefly on the board of the Australian Ballet.

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Find more about Sager, Peggy in:

Internet - Google
Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia
Collection - OzLife
Libraries - Libraries Australia