Australia Dancing - Pask, Edward (1940

Pask, Edward (1940 - )

Plant, Norman: Edward Pask with a scenery model for 'Don Quixote', 1977

Edward H. Pask was born in Melbourne and began his first major dance studies in the early 1950s with Valrene Tweedie at the National Theatre Ballet School. Other significant pedagogical influences came from Xenia Borovansky, Rex Reid, Piotr Gusev, Poul Gnatt, and Laurel Martyn. Throughout the early 1950s Pask performed a number of ‘walk-on’ parts with the National Theatre Ballet. He made his professional debut in Ray Lawler’s Ginger Meggs in 1954.

Pask’s career as a dancer included performances with the Leningrad Maly Ballet during their 1961 tour of Australia, the National Theatre Ballet and the Elizabethan Opera Company. For the National Theatre Ballet Pask danced in many productions including Francesca da Rimini, in which Tweedie created the role Gerolimo’s servant on him. With the Elizabethan Opera Company he danced in Adriadne, Falstaff, and Don Giovanni, and with the Leningrad Maly Ballet he performed in Gusev’s Swan Lake Acts 2 and 3.

In 1963 Pask formed a small dance ensemble, Cameo Ballet, to provide out-of-season work for dancers and advanced ballet students. He choreographed a series of works for the company, including La Lecon de danse (1963) to music by Mozart, Naila (1964) to music of Delibes, Snowmaiden (1965) to music by Tchaikovsky, Treglav (1965) to music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Surprise Symphony (1966) to music by Haydn, Miss Charity Lee (1968) to music by Offenbach, Duet of Love pas de deux (1968), and Giralda (1969) to music by Adolph Adam. The company performed at the Union Theatre, Melbourne University, and toured Victoria and Tasmania. Cameo Ballet dissolved in 1969.

In 1972 Pask was invited by Peggy van Praagh, artistic director of the Australian Ballet, to research the history of Australian dance and create an archival collection of Australian dance material, which later became known as the Australian Archives of the Dance. During his time with the Australian Ballet Pask also lectured on dance history at the Australian Ballet School. He finished his involvement with the Australian Ballet in the mid 1990s.

Pask has made a significant contribution to researching Australia’s dance history through a number of publications, most notably through his books Enter the Colonies, Dancing: A History of Dance in Australia 1835-1940 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1979) and Ballet in Australia: The Second Act 1940-1980 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1982). Pask also edited the short-lived Attitudes and arabesques: a monthly newsletter of dance events from around the world between 1972 and 1974 and regularly wrote articles for Australasian Dance.

In 1978, along with dance teacher Lorraine Blackbourn, Pask co-founded and became associate director of the Heidelberg Ballet Ensemble of Melbourne. Along the lines of Pask’s Cameo Ballet ensemble, the Heidelberg Ballet Ensemble provided out-of-season work for dancers and advanced ballet students. The ensemble folded in 1986.

Bibliography:

Susan Powell, 'Ted Pask and the Australian Ballet Archives', National Library of Australia News (May 1992), pp. 11-13.

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