Australia Dancing - Swan Lake

Swan Lake

McMurdo, Don: Artists of the Australian Ballet in the Anne Woolliams production of 'Swan Lake', 1991

The first full-length staging of Swan Lake on Australian soil took place in 1951, presented by the National Theatre Ballet and opening at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, on 7 February with Lynne Golding and Henry Danton in the leading roles. Prior to this, Australian audiences had become familiar with various stagings based on Act II of the work. As early as 1934, Olga Spessivtseva and Anatole Vilzak danced the leading Act II roles during the Dandre-Levitoff Russian Ballet tour. An abridged one-act version, based on Act II, also appeared (billed as Le lac des cygnes) on programs of the touring de Basil Russian Ballet companies between 1936 and 1940 when glamorous stars like Tamara Toumanova, Irina Baronova, Helene Kirsova, Anton Dolin, Paul Petroff and Serge Lifar danced the leading roles. After the Ballets Russes stagings, a version of Act II was performed in the 1940s by the Kirsova Ballet with Peggy Sager and Paul Hammond in the lead and then by the Borovansky Ballet when artists like Edna Busse, Laurel Martyn and Serge Bousloff had starring roles. But the National's full-length production in 1951 marked the beginning of a succession of Australian versions of the full-length ballet.

Edouard Borovansky staged his full-length version in 1957. Program notes indicate that the 'present choreography' and production were by Charles Dickson and that designs were by Anne Fraser. The Borovansky Swan Lake opened in Adelaide on 5 April. The role of Odette/Odile was shared during the season by the company's top dancers including ballerinas Kathleen Gorham, Peggy Sager and Mary Gelder and male artists Robert Pomie and Vassilie Trunoff.

Then Peggy van Praagh produced a full-length Swan Lake for the inaugural season of the Australian Ballet in 1962. Choreography was credited to Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with the production referred to as having been revised by van Praagh and Ray Powell. Designs were those of Anne Fraser and were those used in the Borovansky Ballet production. Opening night was in Sydney at Her Majesty's Theatre on 2 November. In the lead were guest artists Sonia Arova and Erik Bruhn with Australian dancers Marilyn Jones and Kathleen Gorham alternating with Arova in subsequent shows and Garth Welch and Caj Selling alternating with Bruhn. The van Praagh production remained in the repertoire for a decade and a half. Over that period it served as a vehicle for the technical and dramatic talents of the Australian Ballet's finest artists, and frequently showcased the company's guest stars, including Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev who danced van Praagh's full-length production in 1964.

Anne Woolliams, the third artistic director of the Australian Ballet, produced a new version of Swan Lake in 1977. Designed by Tom Lingwood it opened on 19 October at the Palais Theatre, Melbourne, with Marilyn Rowe and Kelvin Coe in the lead. Woolliams created new choreography for Acts I and IV of this production, retained the Ivanov choreography for Act II and had Ray Powell create new character dances for Act III. In her program notes Woolliams wrote: 'This production tries to avoid the trend of changing traditional ballets solely in order to be different. On the other hand, any attempt to reproduce what is believed to be an authentic version usually has a museum quality of interest only to historians'. The Woolliams production, with its dramatic logic, brooding designs and clearly patterned choreography for the corps de ballet remained in the repertoire for twenty-five years.

Graeme Murphy's radical and hugely successful reworking of Swan Lake for the Australian Ballet opened on 17 September 2002 at the State Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne. Leading the cast were Simone Goldsmith as Odette, Steven Heathcote as Siegfried and Margaret Illmann as the Baroness von Rothbart. The concept, which moved the story beyond its traditional Gothic narrative, was developed by the creative team of Murphy, Janet Vernon and Kristian Fredrikson, who also designed the work. The Murphy Swan Lake, its production team and cast won several awards in 2003. They included a Green Room Award for concept and realisation, two Helpmann Awards, one for choreography and one for design, and two Australian Dance Awards, one for choreography and one for best performance by a female dancer (Simone Goldsmith). The work was restaged for an 'encore season' in 2004, opening at the Sydney Opera House on 27 April with Madeleine Eastoe as Odette, Steven Heathcote as Siegfried and Lynette Wills as the Baroness von Rothbart. It was performed by the Australian Ballet in London and Cardiff in 2005, earning the company the 2005 UK Critics' Circle Award for 'Best Foreign Dance Company', and to critical acclaim in Shanghai in 2006, Tokyo in 2007, and Paris and Manchester in 2008.

Bibliography:

The making of the Anne Woolliams production of Swan Lake is documented in Michael Cook, Swan Lake: the making of a ballet (Sydney: Golden Press, 1978). Graeme Murphy's 2002 reworking of Swan Lake for the Australian Ballet is discussed in depth by Lee Christofis in 'Odette's evolving nightmare', Brolga 18 (June 2003), pp. 7-19. This article includes a detailed synopsis.

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