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Australian Ballet

Beyond 40 by Jeff Busby (photographer) & A Collector's Book of Australian Dance by Michelle Potter

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April 2003, no. 250
Robin Grove reviews 'Beyond 40: Celebrating 40 years of dreams' by Jeff Busby, and 'A Collector’s Book of Australian Dance' by Michelle Potter

Here are two sumptuously produced keepsakes serving very different purposes. Beyond 40 describes itself as ‘Forty Years of Dreams’, but actually offers one year’s worth of images that the Australian Ballet want to project. A Collector’s Book of Australian Dance, on the other hand, for all its unintoxicating title, comes much closer to being a book of dreamings.

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Lee Christofis reviews 'The Sleeping Beauty' (Australian Ballet)

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18 September 2015

When Sergei Diaghilev staged The Sleeping Princess at the Alhambra Theatre, London, in 1921, he hoped to prove that classical ballet could be as popular as the outrageously glamorous West End hit, Chu Chin Chow, which ran for five years. Diaghilev invited the brilliant colourist Leon Bakst to design sets and costumes equal to those of the orig ...

Luminous: Celebrating 50 Years of the Australian Ballet edited by Kate Scott and Lorelei Vashti

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June 2012, no. 342

At the closing performance of the Borovansky Ballet in 1961, Peggy van Praagh stepped onstage and spoke about the importance of founding an Australian ballet company. Harold Holt, the serving federal treasurer, went backstage to pledge his personal support. Van Praagh’s celebrated history as a dancer and director overseas made her the perfect candidate to run such a company.

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