Australia Dancing - Hinkley, Coralie

Hinkley, Coralie

Michaelis, Margaret: Coralie Hinkley in 'Indian Boy', Bodenwieser Ballet, c. 1952

Coralie Hinkley began her serious dance studies with Gertrud Bodenwieser and eventually became a member of the Bodenwieser Ballet and a teacher at the Bodenwieser School. In 1957 Hinkley was the first Australian dancer to be awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for graduate study in modern dance. She spent the next three years in New York where she studied with Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Louis Horst and Merce Cunningham.

In 1956, while still with Bodenwieser, Hinkley choreographed Unknown Land, based on imagery found in the poetry of Rex Ingamells and danced to a commissioned score by John Antill. On her return to Australia after her Fulbright studies she continued to pursue her choreographic interests. In the 1960s and 1970s she made several works for Ballet Australia including Eloges, Day of Darkness, Improvisations, L'Isle joyeuse, The Forest and Ritual for Dance Play and Magic. During the 1970s she established a creative dance program at Fort Street Girls' High School in Sydney and set up the Fort Street Dance Group. Since the 1990s she has written several books of poetry, which are intended as source material for creative movement.

A brief film clip of Hinkley performing in Bodenwieser's Central Australian Suite is contained in the National Library of Australia's online exhibition Dance people dance. See 'The search for identity (Item 8)' and open the 'View film' link.

Bibliography:

Coralie Hinkley, Innovisions: expressions of creativity in dance (Nedlands, WA: Cygnet Books, 1990)

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Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection