Australia Dancing - Wakooka (1957

Wakooka (1957 - )

Wakooka with choreography by Valrene Tweedie, a commissioned score by John Antill and designs by Elaine Haxton, premiered in 1957 in Brisbane. Danced by the Elizabethan Opera Ballet Company, it was part of a triple bill program of original works comprising, in addition to Wakooka, Eleonore Treiber's Ballet Academy and Laurel Martyn's Sigrid. The original cast for Wakooka included Eleonore Treiber as the Station Owner's Daughter, and John Bailey as the Engineer. The work was restaged in the 1960s for Ballet Australia and filmed for the ABC.

Program notes for the original production read: '"Wakooka" is danced against a sheep station background somewhere in present-day Australia. The scene opens in the early morning with the entrance of a rouseabout, three shearers and the station owner's daughter. Flirting with the boys, the girl can't decide whom she prefers, and this is further complicated by the entrance of a young engineer from a nearly project, who wishes to obtain information from the girl's father. Interested in the young man, the girl invites him to a barbecue that evening. The second scene opens with the preparations for the barbecue and the arrival of all the girls. After greeting each other they all dance, although the station owner's daughter is unhappy as the engineer has not arrived. Eventually he comes and the party is a tremendous success'.

Bibliography:

The context in which the ballet, and in particular Antill's score for Wakooka, was created is discussed in Joel Crotty, 'Ballet Australia between 1961 and 1962: a Microcosm of Musical Change', Brolga, 1 (December 1994).

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Find more about Wakooka in:

Internet - Google
Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection