Simple Symphony (1944 - )

Stringer, Walter: Dianne Parrington, Gary Hill, Karl Welander and Belinda Mitchell in Walter Gore's 'Simple Symphony', Ballet Victoria, 1974

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Simple Symphony was choreographed by Walter Gore to the Benjamin Britten composition of the same name for Ballet Rambert in London in 1944. It was brought to Australia by the Rambert company on its tour of 1947 to 1949 and was given its Australian premiere in Melbourne on 24 October 1947. It had designs by Ronald Wilson and Gore dedicated the ballet to D.M. The cast for the opening night comprised Sally Gilmour, Elizabeth Schooling, Paula Hinton, Margaret Scott, Walter Gore, Frank Staff, Harry Cordwell and John Gilpin with Barbara Grimes, Eileen Ward, Pamela Vincent and Margaret Hill. Rambert program notes described the ballet as 'an exuberant choreographic thank-offering created by Walter Gore, Ballet Rambert's premier danseur, a few months after he was twice torpedoed on D-Day. The ballet portrays the different moods of the fisher-folk of a seaside village - a whirlwind frolic by the seashore, overflowing with the gay abandon of youth ...'. During the Rambert tour the work was filmed on the Gold Coast by the Queensland Department of Public Instruction.

Simple Symphonywas subsequently restaged by Cecil Bates for the South Australian Ballet Company in 1963 and by Gore for Ballet Victoria in 1974. The Bates restaging opened on 23 May and featured Susan Pegler, Helen Beinke, Heather Deen, Gaynor Maxwell, Cecil Bates, George Dubowsky, Donald Lugg and William Stuart with Jane Ballantyne, Barbara Dickeson, Charmaine Spencer and Janet Winkley. The Ballet Victoria production opened in July 1974. It had designs by Miranda Hurley and was dedicated to D.M. It featured Dianne Parrington, Belinda Mitchell, Pamela Buckman, Gaye Sinclair, Johanna Harper, Christine Babinskas, Jane Beckett, Susan Mikkelsen and Karl Welander, Gary Hill, Phillip Hurley-Warrell and Leszek Kuligowski.

Program notes by Gore for the Ballet Victoria production state:
The hurly-burly of the Sea
Has the tang of the salt-sea waves
The return of the fishermen from the sea.
So spoke the Press, but it was not my intention that this ballet should be sea-style. Although, as I started thinking it out on duty watch during my time in the Navy while we were swinging round a buoy, I expect this had some effect. The sweeping seagulls played a part in it too, I suppose.

See also: Ballet Rambert Australian tour ; Ballet Victoria ; Bates, Cecil ; Gilmour, Sally ; Gore, Walter ; Scott, Margaret

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Find more about Simple Symphony in:

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