Australia Dancing - Duchesne, Mary (1932

Duchesne, Mary (1932 - 1996)

Lansac, Regis: Portrait of Mary Duchesne [2], 1987

Mary Duchesne, born in Cowra, New South Wales, was a foundation member and senior soloist with the Australian Ballet. Prior to joining the Australian Ballet for its inaugural season in 1962 Duchesne danced soloist and principal roles with the Melbourne-based National Theatre Ballet. With that company she danced the role of Odette in some performances of the first full-length production of Swan Lake in Australia, which was staged by the National in 1950. She shared the leading role in these performances with Marilyn Burr who danced Odile.

Duchesne also danced soloist and principal roles both with the Borovansky Ballet in 1952 and 1961 and in England with Ballet Rambert, Walter Gore Ballet, Ballet Comique and London Festival Ballet from 1953 to 1960. Duchesne also performed extensively on television in the 1960s, appeared in the Australian tour of Stars of World Ballet in 1978, and was a guest artist with Sydney Dance Company in the 1980s, where she had roles created on her in Graeme Murphy's Homelands and in Barry Moreland's Daisy Bates. She also guested on numerous occasions with West Australian Ballet and the Australian Ballet in the 1970s and 1980s.

In addition to performing Duchesne was also a teacher, choreographer, director and adjudicator. She was manager, ballet mistress and narrator for the dance in education company Ballet in a Nutshell, later called Athletes and Dancers, in 1968, assistant to the director at West Australian Ballet in 1977 and 1983 and choreographer for several productions for Opera Australia and Sydney Theatre Company. At the inaugural Australian Dance Awards in 1997 Duchesne was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame.

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