Australia Dancing - Sigrid (1935

Sigrid (1935 - )

Photographer unknown: Martin Rubinstein and Edna Busse in Laurel Martyn's 'Sigrid', Borovansky Ballet, c. 1945

Sigrid premiered at the Rudolf Steiner Hall, London, on 27 July 1935 as an entry in the Pavlova Casket competition. Designed by Hugh Stevenson and danced to music by Grieg, the work won second prize for its choreographer, Laurel Martyn. In this first performance Martyn danced the role of Sigrid and Jean Bedells that of the Guardian Spirit of Sigrid's soul.

The first Australian performance of Sigrid was on 17 April 1940 in Toowoomba, Queensland, as part of the first of a series of ballet recitals put together by Laurel Martyn and Dorothy Stevenson. Martyn danced the title role and Stevenson that of the Guardian Spirit. It was performed later that same year on 10 and 17 August in Melbourne for a Melbourne Ballet Club performance in the studio of the Borovansky Ballet Academy. For those performances Kenneth Rowell designed a backcloth and Martyn and Stevenson again danced the leading roles, supported by Mara North, Keith Ross-Munro, Jonet Wilkie, Corrie Lodders and Ann MacKintosh as the four young girls of the village. It entered the repertoire of the Borovansky Australian Ballet in 1942 with Edna Busse as Sigrid and Martin Rubinstein as the Guardian Spirit. Others in this original Borovansky Australian Ballet cast were Corrie Lodders, Mara North, Ann MacKintosh, and Keitha Ross-Munro, again dancing the young girls of the village. Music for this first Borovansky staging was played by pianist Eric Clapham.

Sigrid was subsequently performed in Australia and New Zealand by the Borovansky Ballet until 1945 and then in many seasons by Martyn's Ballet Guild.

Research Materials

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Other resources

Find more about Sigrid in:

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