Australia Dancing - Adelaide Festival of the Arts (1960

Adelaide Festival of the Arts (1960 - )

Makeyev, Alex: Jo Roads in 'Parallax', Leigh Warren and Dancers, Adelaide Festival, 1998

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The Adelaide Festival of the Arts is a biennial festival held in Autumn which showcases music, theatre, dance, new media events, literature and visual arts.

Modelled on the Edinburgh Festival, the Adelaide Festival is noted for innovation and exploration, a reputation that largely stems from the frequent turnover of the directorship and the appointment of artists as directors. The success of the Adelaide Festival has given rise to the South Australian identity as the 'Festival State' and was the catalyst for the creation of the iconic Adelaide Festival Centre.

The Adelaide Festival was established in 1960 by Sir Lloyd Dumas and Professor John Bishop, then Professor of Music at the University of Adelaide, under the patronage of the Queen Mother.

At the time of the Festival's inception there was limited dance infrastructure in South Australia. The inaugural festival opened with a Folk Festival of Song and Dance, but was criticised for its neglect of classical and modern dance forms. Dance had an increased presence at the second Festival with performances by the Bhaskar Dance Company from India and lunchtime ballet concerts by local groups.

However, it was not until the 1964 Festival that dance came to the forefront of the program with the world premiere of the Australian Ballet's The Display, choreographed by Adelaide's international dance celebrity, Robert Helpmann. Set to a score by Malcolm Williamson and with decor by Sidney Nolan, the premiere of The Display elicited 20 curtain calls and a 15 minute ovation, with 5 500 people attending its four performances.

The Australian Ballet returned to the next Festival with a program of Lady and the Fool, Illyria, Elektra and Raymonda. 1966 also saw the debut of Adelaide's own modern dance company, Australian Dance Theatre, under the artistic direction of Elizabeth Dalman, as well as performances by the Kalakshetra dancers from India.

In 1970 Robert Helpmann was appointed as director of the Festival. He showcased an impressive international line-up of stars who captured the attention of the media, thrusting the Festival into the spotlight. The dance program included acclaimed performances by the Royal Thai Ballet, Georgian Dancers from Russia and the Balinese Dance Company. At the time, Helpmann was also co-director of The Australian Ballet and they featured with Rudolf Nureyev as guest principal and choreographer, and Helpmann himself dancing the title role in their performances of Don Quixote.

1974 saw the continuation of Helpmann's association with the Festival with the world premiere of his work Perisynthyon. In the same year, Australian Dance Theatre performed their first major evening season including in the program works by their newly appointed co-director, former Nederlands Dans Theater director Jaap Flier.

International artists that toured to the Festival in the coming years included Merce Cunningham (1976), Ballet of the Komische Oper (1980), Pina Bausch and the Wuppertaler Tanz Theater (1982), Nederlands Dans Theater (1986), Twyla Tharp (1988), Lyon Opera Ballet (1990) and Compagnie Maguy Marin (1992).

The 1994 Festival was a dance extravaganza, with performances by the Frankfurt Ballet, New York's Mark Morris Group and Bangarra Dance Theatre. An open roof space was specially designed and built to accommodate performance by a range of groups from the Asia Pacific region including the Thai National Dance Troupe, Cambodia National Dance Company, Cook Islands National Arts Theatre and Kanak Dancers of Wetr (New Caledonia).

In 1996, director Barrie Kosky exposed audiences to a completely different aesthetic with the Australian premiere of Israel's Batsheva Dance Company, The Whirling Dervishes from Turkey and a collaboration between Meryl Tankard and Indian dancer Padma Menon entitled Rasa.

Under the artistic direction of Robyn Archer, the 2000 Festival included New Moves Australia, in which seven Australian choreographers undertook a choreographic laboratory in Glasgow and a two week residency in Adelaide, with scheduled public drop-in sessions.

Amongst the local companies, Adelaide's Australian Dance Theatre has had a particularly strong presence at the Festival. They have premiered a multitude of works under varied artistic directorship including Stripsody and Incident at Bull Creek (1980), A Descent in to the Maelstrom (1986), Beyond the Flesh (1990), Possessed (1998) and Birdbrain (2000). Leigh Warren and Dancers have also appeared with Parallax (1998) and Divining (2000).

In recent years, local audiences have continued to experience an eclectic range of dance sourced from around the globe including Taiwan's Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (1998), Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker & Les Ballets C de la B (2000), Conjunto di Nero & Ballet Nacional de Espana (2004).

Directors of the Festival include John Bishop (1960 -1964) ; Advisory Board (1966 -1968) ; Sir Robert Helpmann (1970) ; Louis van Eyssen (1972) ; Anthony Steel (1974 ? 1978, 1984 - 1986) ; Christopher Hunt (1980, 1994) ; Jim Sharman (1982) ; The Earl of Harewood (1988) ; Clifford Hocking (1990) ; Rob Brookman (1992) ; Barrie Kosky (1996) ; Robyn Archer (1998 -2000) ; Sue Nattrass (Peter Sellars resigned) (2002) ; Stephen Page (2004) ; Brett Sheehy (2006, 2008)

Bibliography:

'Festival! The Story of the Adelaide Festival of Arts', Derek Whitelock, 1980.

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