Kirsova Ballet

Struggling under wartime restrictions, unable to tour abroad, and later suffering creative differences with the country's main theatre owners, the company's prominence was brief.

Kirsova brought to a younger generation of talented Australian dancers the traditions of Russian ballet and the influences of the great European teachers, like Michel Fokine, Olga Preobrajenska, Lyubov Yegorova, Léonide Massine, George Balanchine, and Bronislava Nijinska.

In 1940 properly trained and experienced dancers were even rarer – a strange condition in a country which boasted numerous dancing 'academies' in every city and large town.

[10] The troupe Kirsova formed, initially with 25 members, was dominated at first by leading dancers who had stayed on in Australia after the Covent Garden Russian Ballet tour of 1938–39, wary of returning to their European bases with war imminent, among them Tamara Tchinarova, Raissa Koussnetsova, Valeri Shaievsky, and Edouard Sobichevsky.

Prominent among them were Rachel Cameron, "a dancer of rare musical sensitivity and intelligence" who had been expelled from Edouard Borovansky's ballet school in Melbourne after performing publicly without first seeking his permission; Strelsa Heckelman, the "baby" of the company who came to Kirsova when she was only 14; Helene ffrance, who arrived at the studio in 1942 as "an awkward novice" but blossomed rapidly into a soloist "with unusual grace and purity of line"; June Newstead, an "arresting" stage personality; Henry Legerton, who had trained for a year in England and whose appearances with Kirsova were limited by his duties with the Australian Army; and later, Paul Hammond (then working under the name Clementin), a dancer of exceptional elevation and a master of "some quite startling technical tricks".

The corps de ballet consisted mainly of Australian dancers who had been studying at Kirsova's school and included John Seymour, Victoria Forth, Helen Black, Trafford Whitelock, Jean Shearer, Bettina Brown, Marie Malloy, Joy Palmer and Peggy Chauncey.

Artists frequently visiting the studio were Sali Herman, Arthur Boyd, William Dobell, Loudon Sainthill, Wolfgang Cardamatis, and Amy Kingston.

[6] Kirsova commissioned Loudon Sainthill, then still in his early twenties, and whom she had met in Melbourne in 1937, to design the costumes and décor for her productions of Faust, A Dream – and a Fairytale and Vieux Paris.

[18] As well as enthusing over modern art Kirsova also loved contemporary music[18] and encouraged musicians and composers like Charles Mackerras, Frank Hutchens, Lindley Evans and the young pianist Henry Krips to visit the studio.

[19] The company danced three ballets: a restaging of Léonide Massine's Les Matelots about sailors and their girlfriends, with settings and costumes by Loudon Sainthill after Pedro Pruna, and two new works choreographed by Kirsova.

In the premiere Tamara Tchinarova played the Fairy Queen, Raissa Kousnetsova the Shepherdess, Valeri Shaevsky the Chimney Sweep, Edourard Sobichevsky the Evil Spirit, Strelsa Heckelman The Child, and Henry Legerton The Faun.

For the premiere Valeri Shaevsky was Rudolphe, Tamara Tchinarova was Louise, Strelsa Heckelman was the Principal Maid, Henry Legerton was the Snob, and Peggy Chauncey was the Opera Singer.

This was followed by a third charity event from the 4–6 October 1941: three days in an elegant home in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, where the troupe gave Les Sylphides with Rachel Cameron and Henry Legerton,[9] and Vieux Paris.

[7] Australia and New Zealand had a shortage of experienced, high-quality orchestral players available for theatres, a problem exacerbated by the recent expansion of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC).

[26] She was even more optimistic in an interview with Melbourne's The Argus newspaper in January 1942, stating: "With foreign companies unable to encroach on this field, it is Australia's moment to prove that a regular ballet can be maintained here.

[18] The first, from 9–14 February, in aid of the Red Cross and the Legacy War Orphans Appeal, saw Les Sylphides once again, and the world premiere of Kirsova's new ballet Revolution of the Umbrellas, a story of social injustice and inequality, with music by Henry Krips and settings and costumes designed by Wolfgang Cardamatis.

A somewhat longer season from 18 to 28 September brought back Jeunesse, Capriccio, Hansel and Gretel and the classic Le Lac des Cygnes with Marius Petipa's choreography, and to the delight of Sydney audiences, Hélène Kirsova herself was now dancing again, every night, for the first time since 1937.

"The programme for the new season, however, is so exacting and will make such demands on the company", wrote one reporter, that Kirsova had decided "to ease the strain on the others by dancing a spectacular role, which has an important solo, in 'Capriccio'.

"[36] By the end of this season the Red Cross and the War Orphans had benefitted by £3,755 and funds were also being dedicated to a new charity, Kirsova's own, which was intent on establishing fully-equipped children's playgrounds in the deprived and congested area of Erskineville in Sydney.

As a result, Kirsova resorted again to her two grand pianos rather than dance to a scratch orchestra, and consequently had to forgo three new ballets she had planned, all of which required an orchestra: Minotaure, which was to have been performed to Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony; Waltzing Matilda, the music for which was composed by the young Sydney musician Charles Mackerras (the famous bush ballad tune being prominently positioned);[38] and another ballet, not yet named, set to the César Franck Variations symphoniques.

Liking the packed houses and the early morning queues for tickets, and the widespread appreciation of the critics, J. C. Williamson's offered Kirsova a tour of Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, starting in January and ending in May 1944.

The first season included Le Lac des Cygnes, Jeunesse, Harlequin, and Vieux Paris in which Melbourne audiences were able to see Kirsova dancing in their city for the first time in nearly seven years.

Three days after closing in Melbourne, the company opened in Adelaide at the Theatre Royal, presenting a three-week season of Les Sylphides, Hansel and Gretel, Harlequin, Vieux Paris, Revolution of the Umbrellas, Le Lac des Cygnes, Capriccio, and Jeunesse.

It had seen Kirsova's young protégées, Rachel Cameron, Strelsa Heckelman, Peggy Sager and Paul Clementin, become world class performers and the future of the company seemed assured.

"[16] Hélène Kirsova had proved that Australia could support its own indigenous ballet company, and that the talent was there for it to be world class, not just in dancers, but in composers, set and costume designers, and librettists.

But the Taits considered Kirsova "unmanageable, totally individualistic" and were concerned that she insisted on performing new ballets, rather than the standard classics they felt the Australian public preferred.

Edouard Borovansky, from his Melbourne base, had been building his own company in much same way as Kirsova: with a school and setting up his troupe with former Russian Ballet dancers and new young Australians whom he paid when they were performing.

[18] It has also been suggested that in considering the reasons for the demise of the Kirsova Ballet "the issue of gender-bias, conscious or unconscious, in the male-dominated world of theatrical management in Australia of the 1940s cannot be discounted.

The planned Sydney season, due to open on 20 September at the Conservatorium, was postponed indefinitely, because – according to the Kirsova Ballet – the wartime Rationing Commission had refused them permission to buy costume materials.

[5][6] With her depleted troupe, the Kirsova Ballet took part in a gala on 5 September 1944 in Sydney in a stage show supporting the premiere in Australia of the film Phantom of the Opera.