NOTABLE BALLET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26641, 11 December 1947, Page 10

NOTABLE BALLET

“TERRA AUSTRALIS” ESTABLISHING A SOUTHERN TRADITION For the Daily Times by E. A. A. The programme for the final suite of ballets presented by the Borovansky Company did not hint that it contained the most important contribution to ballet that has yet been made in the southern dominions. Yet if ballet, the most completely satisfying of the plastic arts, ever gains in New Zealand and Australia a popularity comparable with that it enjoys in other countries, “ Terra Australis ” will be regarded, if not as the finest of southern ballets, at least as the first notable achievement in the establishment of a southern ballet tradition. It is a ballet that contains all the , ingredients of greatness, even though its potentialities were somewhat concealed at its Dunedin presentation by the limitations of the size of the stage, the size of the corps-de-ballet and, it must be admitted, a lack of virtuosity. In its conception “Terra Australis” is far grander than the “ chamber ballets” with which the company “ padded ” its programmes so freely, and the choreography, though it creaks a little, stamps Borovansky as a man capable of better things than the divertissements that he previously arranged as much for the education of his company as for the edification of the public. The story, as usual, is a slender one. It tells of the intrusion of the explorer (Martin Rubenstein) on the lonely Australia (Kathleen Gorham) and her Aboriginal (Vassilie Trunoff). In conventional dance patterns Australia is wooed by the explorer; the Aboriginal, awakening to discover the unfaithfulness of his mistress, is killed; and as his body is received by the quiet-breathing Earth (Phyllis Kennedy) Australia and the Explorer face together the new horizons of civilisation. The creation of the role of the Aboriginal was a personal triumph for Trunoff, a dancer with tremendous vitality, a strong line and little respect for the laws of gravity. If any criticism could be made it would be that he—and the choreographer, of course—overlooked the possibility of identifying himself even more closely with his background by an emphasis on the corroboree motif. The part could well sustain the addition, and the music of Esther Rofe could be suitably adapted to it. Ballet in these latitudes must be prepared to establish its own precedents. Kathleen Gorham danced the role of Australia with sympathy and charm. She has amazing balance, but she has not yet the technical virtuosity that would enable her to develop the part to the utmost. It is a role of great potentialities, but it is an exacting one, and demands much of the ballerina who performs it. German's costume, like the decor, showed that Australia has no lack of designing talent- that needs only the opportunity for expression.

The arrangement of the stage in two dimensions, with a living frieze of corps-de-ballet to represent the earth, was remarkably effective. The subdued lighting and the costumes in dull colours precluded the possibility of detraction from the main action. It seemed, nevertheless, that greater use could have been made of the corps-de-ballet in representing the rhythmic monotonuous breathing of the earth. Their attitudes alone were decorative, but not sufficient. “ Terra Australis ” is something vital in ballet, and it is to be hoped that the time will not be long before the company is dancing it again in Dunedin.