Celebrating collaboration with The Australian Ballet

Members of The Australian Ballet with display of Ballet Russes materials from the Special Collections of the Barr Smith Library.
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Dr Mark Carroll, Professor Neville Marsh and Professor Nicolette Fraillon.
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Friday, 14 October 2005

A celebration of the unique research collaboration between the University of Adelaide and The Australian Ballet was held on 6 October at Ayers House. The event, hosted by Professor Neville Marsh, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), was attended by guests from The Australian Ballet including Mr David McAllister AM, Artistic Director, Mr Richard Evans, Executive Director, Professor Nicolette Fraillon, Music Director and Chief Conductor and dancers Madeleine Eastoe and Timothy Harbour. The event arose out of the Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisations signed in June 2005.

The University, The Australian Ballet and the National Library of Australia are currently working together to research Serge Diaghilev's "Ballets Russes", and in particular the impact on Australian culture and society of the tours by the Ballets Russes companies between 1936 and 1940. The project is being led by Dr Mark Carroll from the University's Elder School of Music who is working with Professor Fraillon. The collaboration has already been awarded Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project funding of almost $370,000. The Ballets Russes tours exposed Australian audiences to cutting edge high art of the kind scarcely seen here previously, including choreographics by Massine, music by Stravinsky and decors by Picasso. The impact of the tours was long-lasting: they inspired a generation of Australian artists. For example, a young Sidney Nolan created the set and costume design for one of the performances in 1940, and the tours led ultimately to the establishment of The Australian Ballet in 1962. The Company gave its first performance in Adelaide.

The Company was recently in Adelaide to perform "The Sleeping Beauty" and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) attended the Opening Night on 4 October as a guest of The Australian Ballet.

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