Australia Dancing - Bodenwieser Ballet (1939

Bodenwieser Ballet (1939 - 1959)

Raine, W. Hall: Artists of the Bodenwieser Ballet on tour in New Zealand , 1947

The Bodenwieser Ballet, also known by various other, similar names including the Bodenwieser Viennese Ballet, was the first truly influential modern dance company in Australia. The Australian company was a development of Tanzgruppe Bodenwieser, which Gertrud Bodenwieser had formed in Vienna in the 1920s as a vehicle for her choreography. The Australian group at first consisted of dancers who had worked with Bodenwieser in Vienna, most of whom had come to Australia not originally with Bodenwieser but as a 'specialty act' in two 1939 J. C. Williamson revues - London Casino Revue: Folies d'Amour and Around the Clock. The dancers who appeared in these revues included Evelyn (Irma) Ippen, Bettina Vernon, Emmy Taussig, Melitta Melzer and Katja Georgieva. They performed similar items in both of the two revues. Those items included 'The Machine', a version of Demon Machine, in a segment called 'Metal Age', a 'Peasant Number' and 'Waltz Fantasy' in a segment called 'Vienna'.

Later, Australians trained by Bodenwieser in Australia joined the group. Dancers like Anita Ardell, Keith Bain, Margaret Chapple, Coralie Hinkley and others not only established their early professional careers with the Bodenwieser Ballet but went on to make major contributions to Australian dance after they had left the company.

The Bodenwieser Ballet performed in many, diverse venues and situations in Australia. It gave shows to pearl divers in Broome and miners in Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie and Broken Hill. The company went on tour to country towns in New South Wales, and danced in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory. As part of the civilian contribution during World War II, the Bodenwieser Ballet performed for a wide variety of charities including the Red Cross, the New South Wales Ambulance Fund, the Red Army and the Czechoslovakian Fighting Forces in France. The Bodenwieser Ballet also pioneered lunchtime concerts in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide where it staged 40 minute programs catering to workers in nearby offices and shops. The Australian company also toured to New Zealand and to South Africa in 1950 and India in 1952.

The Bodenwieser Ballet did not endure after Bodenwieser's death in 1959 although her legacy continues through her Australian dancers who set up schools across Australia to teach her particular style of expressive dancing.

Further information about the Bodenwieser Ballet in Australia, with online resources including a brief film clip of Coralie Hinkley performing in Bodenwieser's Central Australian Suite, is contained in the National Library of Australia's exhibition Dance people dance. See 'The search for identity' and explore the 'More' links.

Bibliography:

Michelle Potter, 'This beautiful cultural desert', National Library of Australia News (February 1999), pp. 3-6.

Research Materials

Other resources

Find more about Bodenwieser Ballet in:

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