Australia Dancing - Bousloff, Kira Abricossova (1914

Bousloff, Kira Abricossova (1914 - 2001)

Esler, Ronald: Kira Bousloff as Chiarina in 'Le Carnaval', Ballet Guild, 1949

Kira Abricossova was born in Monte Carlo to Russian parents who had been exiled in France at the outbreak of World War I. She was the thirteenth child of Anna and Alexei Abricossoff, fine confectionary manufacturers, and she grew up in France - in Monte Carlo, Nice, Biarritz and Paris - and took classes in Paris from Russian emigre ballerinas who had left their homeland as a result of the war and the Russian Revolution. Her teachers included Mathilde Kchessinska and Olga Preobrajenska and, as well, Pavlova's partner, Alexander Volinine. Abricossova's first professional engagement as a dancer was with the company of Paris Opera Ballet teacher Leo Staats who took a small company to South America around 1930. In 1932 she joined another small company financed by Ida Rubinstein and directed by Bronislava Nijinska. When that company folded in 1934 she successfully auditioned for Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes. Russian-born dancer Serge Bousloff, whom Abricossova had met in Monte Carlo and had married in London in 1934, also successfully auditioned for de Basil that same year and together they toured with his company in Europe and America.

As Kira Abricossova she came to Australia in 1938 as a member of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet. With Serge Bousloff and a number of other dancers she remained in Australia at the end of the tour in 1939. In Australia she assumed the name Kira Bousloff, by which she was known for the rest of her life despite a divorce and another marriage. In Australia she danced with Laurel Martyn's Ballet Guild and the Melbourne-based National Theatre Ballet. For those two companies she remounted some the ballets she knew from her time with the Ballets Russes, including Le Carnaval, Prince Igor, Protee and Scheherazade. She also created some works of her own including the Russian inspired Prasnik.

She moved to Perth in 1952 and with composer James Penberthy, who in 1961 officially became her second husband, established West Australian Ballet. The company gave its first performance to packed houses in July 1953. Bousloff and Penberthy collaborated on many productions with Australian themes including The Beach Inspector and the Mermaid in 1958, Kooree and the Mists in 1960, and Fire at Ross's Farm in 1961. Bousloff retired as director in 1969 when the company received its first government support but continued to teach until her death in 2001. She was the recipient of an Australia Dance Award for lifetime achievement in 2000.

Bibliography:

The early days of West Australian Ballet, including Kira Bousloff's contribution to them, are discussed in a number of articles in Brolga, 16 (June 2002), a special issue published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of West Australian Ballet. See in particular 'Madame Ballet' by Ffion Murphy in Brolga, 16 (June 2002), pp. 7-21. Excerpts from Bousloff's oral history interview for the National Library of Australia are published in Michelle Potter, Kira Bousloff: Founder of the West Australian Ballet, Russians in Australia No. 14 (Melbourne: University of Melbourne, 1991).

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Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
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