CriticalDance Forum

Amusing story from Down Under:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B>The shouting Czech who saved Australia from the ballet desert</B><P>Valerie Lawson, Sydney Morning Herald<P>By today's standards, their technique is appalling, their tutus so brief they resemble the ruff on a circus dog's neck, and their thighs are, well, chunky. But the theatricality of the dancers of the Borovansky Ballet is beyond question, revealing how and why they were so loved by Australian audiences.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.smh.com.au/news/0105/14/features/features11.html" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A>

This video, 'Boro's Ballet', is available for purchase. Contact <sales@screensound.gov.au> for information on prices and postage costs. Copies on NTSC format, suitable for US playback equipment, are available on request. Also available from ScreenSound Australia, the National Screen and Sound Archive, is 'An Avalanche of Dancing: the Ballets Russes in Australia, 1936-1940'with rare archival footage of dancers such as Toumanova, Riabouchinska, Baronova, Youskevitch, Petroff and a host of others on tour in Australia.

Welcome, valentina, and thanks for the information. Can you tell us a little more about "Boro" and the company?<p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited May 15, 2001).]

The Borovansky Ballet was Australia's first major, enduring ballet company. Edouard Borovansky, Boro, remained in Australia at the end of the 1938-9 tour by the Covent Garden Russian Ballet and established a ballet school and eventually his company. The repertoire, at least in the 1940s was largely works that Boro knew from his days with the Ballets Russes augmented by new works made by Boro himself and by a few Australian choreographers (mainly women!). Later, as the company grew and became better established Boro began to introduce full length works from the international repertoire like Sleeping Beauty (which he called The Sleeping Princess), Swan Lake, Nutcracker (in a version choreographed by David Lichine) and so on. Boro himself was pretty much a flamboyant character whom his dancers alternately loved and hated. He died in 1959 after which the Borovanskly Ballet continued on briefly giving its last performance in 1961. The Australian Ballet, which gave its first eprformance in November 1962 has strong links to the Borovansky Ballet. <P>The contact address I left for anyone wanting to get a copy of Boro's Ballet, the video, or a copy of the Ballets Russes video produced by ScreenSound in 1999 (which has some amazing footage), is an email address which seems not to transfer from my keying in to the actual postings page. How do I do it?