Autumn Leaves

Photographer unknown: Artists of the Borovansky Australian Ballet in Anna Pavlova's 'Autumn Leaves', ca. 1940

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Autumn Leaves, Anna Pavlova's single substantial choreographic work, was set in one act to various piano pieces by Chopin and depicted the fate of a chrysanthemum bloom which is lovingly tended by a poet and then buffeted and killed by the autumn wind. Subtitled A Choreographic Poem, it premiered in Rio de Janiero, probably in 1918, with Pavlova performing the role of the Chrysanthemum and Alexandre Volinine dancing as the Poet. The original design was by Konstantin Korovin.

Pavlova introduced Australian audiences to this ballet during her 1926 tour, when Pierre Vladimiroff performed as the Poet and Aubrey Hitchins as the Wind. She also included it in the repertoire of her 1929 Australian tour. In the early 1930s Louise Lightfoot and Mischa Burlakov then staged a version for their First Australian Ballet, based on recollections of the Pavlova seasons and on photographs and written accounts of the work.

Edouard Borovansky, who had toured with the Pavlova company to Australia in 1929, staged Autumn Leaves for the first major public appearance of his Borovansky Australian Ballet Company at the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne in December 1940. Borovansky's version, which drew his on first hand recollections of the choreography, was designed by William Constable. Borovansky himself danced as the Poet, Rachel Cameron and Edna Busse alternated in Pavlova’s role of the Chrysanthemum, and Serge Bousloff performed as the North Wind.

Bibliography:

Keith Money, Anna Pavlova: Her Life and Art (London: Collins, 1982); Horst Koegler, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet (London: Oxford University Press, 1982).

In his biography, Money states that the earliest program he found for Autumn Leaves places the premiere in Rio de Janiero in September 1919. However The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet dates the premiere as 1918.

See also Potter, Michelle, 'As Light as Air: Decorative Dancing' , National Library of Australia News (February 2004).

See also: Borovansky Ballet ; Borovansky, Edouard ; Bousloff, Serge ; Burlakov, Mischa ; Busse, Edna ; Cameron, Rachel ; Constable, William (Bill) ; First Australian Ballet, The ; Lightfoot, Louise ; Pavlova, Anna

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