Australia Dancing - Hamilton, Gordon (1918

Hamilton, Gordon (1918 - 1959)

Ross, Nikolai: Moya Beaver as Columbine and Gordon Hamilton as Harlequin in 'Le Carnaval', First Australian Ballet, 1937

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Born in Sydney, Gordon Hamilton trained with Mischa Burlakov and later Leon Kellaway. He began his stage career partnering Moya Beaver in the First Australian Ballet's production of Le Carnaval in 1937. Other roles with the First Australian Ballet included the title role in Louise Lightfoot's Le Dieu bleu

Hamilton left Australia to pursue a career overseas and studied in London with Marie Rambert and in Paris with Lubov Egorova and Olga Preobrajenska before joining Les Ballets de la jeunesse in Copenhagen in 1939. Hamilton subsequently performed with Ballet Rambert, Sadler's Wells Ballet, Ballets des Champs-Elysees, and Ballets de Paris. He created many roles with these companies. They included roles in three ballets created by Robert Helpmann for the Sadler's Wells company - Polonius in Hamlet (1942), Street Boy in Miracle in the Gorbals (1944) and the Dog in Adama Zero - and roles in two of Roland Petit's works for his Ballets de Paris - the Baron in Les Demoiselles de la nuit (1948) and the Leading Bandit in Carmen (1949).

Hamilton was appointed ballet master at the Vienna State Opera in 1954. His work with the company over the following few years included a staging of Giselle in 1955.

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Find more about Hamilton, Gordon in:

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