Australia Dancing - Pineapple Poll

Pineapple Poll

deMarney: Elaine Fifield as Poll in 'Pineapple Poll', Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, 1951

John Cranko's Pineapple Poll was first staged in Australia by the Borovansky Ballet, premiering on 8 May 1954. This was the first production of the work by a company other than the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet on whom it had been created three years earlier. Cranko adapted the libretto for Pineapple Poll from W S Gilbert's Bab Ballad The Bumboat Woman's Story, and set the ballet in three scenes to an arrangement by Charles Mackerras of music by Arthur Sullivan. For the London premiere, 13 March 1951, Australian ballerina Elaine Fifield danced the title role, with David Blair as Captain Belaye.

Edouard Borovansky arranged for Cranko to stage the ballet in Australia with reproductions of Osbert Lancaster's original decor and costumes. The Australian premiere featured Kathleen Gorham as Pineapple Poll, Paul Grinwis as Captain Belaye, Tom Merrifield as Jasper, Christiane Hubert as Blanche and June Florenz as Mrs Dimple. At the conclusion of the performance, Cranko took to the stage to criticise Australian critics, none of whom, he said, knew anything at all about ballet. He concluded, 'But this is MY ballet and…I'd like to say that [this performance] was better than any performance of Pineapple Poll I have ever seen, and this company is really rather marvellous'.

In the 1957 season in which Margot Fonteyn and other principals of the Royal Ballet performed with the Borovansky company as guest artists, Gorham and Vassilie Trunoff danced the lead roles in Pineapple Poll. Fifield appeared with the company in her original title role later that year. In the following year, the Royal Ballet performed the work during its Australian tour, with Patricia Cox as Poll and Blair in his original role as Captain Belaye.

The Australian Ballet first performed Pineapple Poll in 1966, with Fifield and Barbara Chambers as Poll and Bryan Lawrence and Warren de Maria as Captain Belaye. Kelvin Coe performed his first individual solo role with the company as Jasper during this season. In 1976, Maria Lang and Walter Bourke led the cast, with Alan Alder as Jasper. The Australian Ballet's 1980 production, under the directorship of Marilyn Jones, was part of a program that paid tribute to Borovansky and included Graduation Ball and Scheherazade. Ann Jenner and Dale Baker danced as Poll and Captain Belaye in this season's opening performance.

The charm and broad humour of Pineapple Poll have contributed to its significant popularity. It has been performed by a number of international companies and remains in the repertoire of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Within Australia, it was reproduced by Bryan Ashbridge for the West Australian Ballet in 1971, and is also in the repertoire of the Dancers Company.

Bibliography:

Edward H. Pask, Ballet in Australia: the second act 1840-1980 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1982)

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