Australia Dancing - van Praagh, Peggy (1910

van Praagh, Peggy (1910 - 1990)

Byron, Keith: Peggy van Praagh, Artistic Director, the Australian Ballet, 1965

Peggy van Praagh was first artistic director of the Australian Ballet. She held the position from 1962, the year of the company's inception, until 1974, sharing it with Robert Helpmann between 1965 and 1974. She returned to direct the company again during 1978.

Van Praagh began dancing very early in her life. As little more than a toddler she was performing at charity functions and by age six she was attracting press coverage:

At last night's concert a dainty extra was a very charming dance by little Peggy van Praagh ... Peggy is only six but she is quite a clever little artiste and is booked again for Saturday's matinee by request.

Van Praagh's career as a professional dancer began when she joined Ballet Rambert in 1933. Later she also danced with Antony Tudor's London Ballet and with Rambert and London Ballet van Praagh created roles and performed in some of Tudor's best known works including Lilac Garden, Dark Elegies, Gala Performance, Soiree musicale and The Planets. In the early years of World War II van Praagh was heavily involved in staging lunch time ballet shows called Ballet for a Bob, which attracted large audiences of civilian and military personnel. In 1941 she was employed by Ninette de Valois largely to teach company classes for Sadler's Wells Ballet, although van Praagh also danced in a number of company productions including Les Patineurs, Comus and Coppelia in which she danced the leading role of Swanilda. She also taught extensively and staged ballets throughout England and in Canada, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway in the 1950s. Her time as artistic director of the Australian Ballet followed on from this career as a dancer, teacher and director and from a brief period, following the death of Edouard Borovansky in 1959, directing the Borovansky Ballet in Australia in 1960 and 1961.

Under van Praagh's direction the Australian Ballet made the first of many overseas tours, developed a repertoire of ballets that included works from the established international repertoire as well as commissioned works from Australian and overseas choreographers, and hosted guest appearances by a number of notable dancers including Sonia Arova, Erik Bruhn, Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. While with the Australian Ballet she also nurtured the development of Australian choreographers including Graeme Murphy, Ian Spink, John Meehan and Leigh Warren.

Van Praagh was also an educator and a tireless advocate for dance. During her career in Australia, along with Bernard James of the University of New England's continuing education program, she was instrumental in organising a series of summer schools in dance that had a long-lasting influence on dance in Australia. She also helped establish the advocacy body, Ausdance (formerly Australian Association for Dance Education). In 1982 she was coordinator of dance studies at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, Perth. She was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame at the 2000 Australian Dance Awards.

For a discussion of van Praagh's career in Australia as reflected in her personal papers held in the National Library of Australia see Documenting Australian Dance: The Peggy van Praagh Collection in National Library of Australia News, January 2000.

For more on van Praagh's involvement with the University of New England summer schools see The Armidale Summer Schools in National Library of Australia News, April 2002.

Bibliography:

Christopher Sexton, Peggy van Praagh: A Life of Dance (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1985)

Research Materials

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Find more about van Praagh, Peggy in:

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