Australia Dancing - Kirsova, Helene (1910

Kirsova, Helene (1910 - 1962)

Dupain, Max: Portrait of Helene Kirsova, c. 1936

Born in Copenhagen as Ellen Wittrup Hansen, Helene Kirsova came to Australia in 1936 as a leading dancer with the Monte Carlo Russian Ballet. Kirsova's initial dance training was in Paris with Leo Staats and with former Russian ballerina Lubov Egorova. After touring with various companies in South America and dancing in Paris and London Kirsova became a founding member of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo in 1932. In Australia her dancing with the Monte Carlo Russian Ballet was praised by critics as 'sparkling' and 'bewitching' and she was acclaimed for her portrayal of the Ballerina in Petrouchka and Columbine in Le Carnaval.

Kirsova returned to England in 1937 at the end of the Monte Carlo Russian Ballet tour. She sailed with her colleagues on the S.S. Strathnaver on 19 July 1937. She returned to Australia early in 1938, however, and married the Danish Vice-Consul in Sydney, Erik Fischer. By 1940 she had established a ballet school in Sydney and by 1941 the Kirsova Ballet. Her Kirsova Ballet was the first professional ballet company in Australia. She employed several dancers who had stayed in Australia following one or other of the Ballets Russes tours to Australia, including Tamara Tchinarova and Polish dancers Raisse Kouznetsova, Valery Shaievsky and Edward Sobishevsy. She also gave work to some young Australian dancers who would later have significant careers in Australia including Rachel Cameron, Strelsa Heckelman, Paul Hammond and Peggy Sager.

Kirsova was an important patron of Australian artists, composers and set designers. She commissioned designs for her original ballets from artists such as Loudon Sainthill, Amie Kingston, Alice Danciger and Wolfgang Cardamatis. After the demise of the Kirsova Ballet in 1944 Kirsova kept her school running for a few more years before retiring to Europe in the late 1940s.

For more about Kirsova's life, especially her activities in Australia, see 'A dancer's dream' National Library of Australia News, August 2000

Footage of Kirsova dancing with the Monte Carlo Russian Ballet in Le Beau Danube, filmed by Ewan Murray-Will, is available online at the australianscreen site 'Monte Carlo Russian Ballet. Original Ballet Russe Clip 1: Hélène Kirsova on stage'. Footage of her 1938 wedding is available at 'Murray-Will, Ewan: Ballets Russes, Hélène Kirsova’s Wedding: Home Movie'

Bibliography:

Edward H. Pask, Ballet in Australia: The Second Act, 1940-1980 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 15-22; Michelle Potter, 'Helene Kirsova in Australia', Brolga 11 (December 1999), pp. 39-49.

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