Alan Richard Alder (14 September 1937 - 15 July 2019) [1] was an Australian ballet dancer and ballet teacher.
Alder was born in Canberra in 1937. [2] After training that included a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School, twelve months with the Covent Garden Opera Ballet and touring internationally as soloist with Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, Alder returned to Australia in 1963 and rose to principal artist and then guest artist with the Australian Ballet.
He married fellow artist Lucette Aldous in 1972. Alan held the position Head of Dance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University Perth, Western Australia from 1983 to 1991.
Alder died on 15 July 2019 aged 82. [3]
Dame Ninette de Valois was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of classical ballet. Most notably, she danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, later establishing the Royal Ballet, one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century and one of the leading ballet companies in the world. She also established the Royal Ballet School and the touring company which became the Birmingham Royal Ballet. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of ballet and as the "godmother" of English and Irish ballet.
Sir Robert Murray Helpmann CBE was an Australian ballet dancer, actor, director, and choreographer. After early work in Australia he moved to Britain in 1932, where he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet under its creator, Ninette de Valois. He became one of the company's leading men, partnering Alicia Markova and later Margot Fonteyn. When Frederick Ashton, the company's chief choreographer, was called up for military service in the Second World War Helpmann took over from him while continuing as a principal dancer.
Dame Darcey Andrea Bussell, is an English retired ballerina and a former judge on the BBC television dance contest Strictly Come Dancing.
Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. First composed in 1935, it was substantially revised for its Soviet premiere in early 1940. Prokofiev reused music from the ballet in three suites for orchestra and a solo piano work.
David Graeme McAllister is the former artistic director and principal dancer of The Australian Ballet.
Akram Hossain Khan, MBE is an English dancer and choreographer of Bangladeshi descent. His background is rooted in his classical kathak training and contemporary dance.
Ceremonial dancing has a very important place in the Indigenous cultures of Australia. They vary from place to place, but most ceremonies combine dance, song, rituals and often elaborate body decorations and costumes. The different body paintings indicate the type of ceremony being performed. They play an important role in marriage ceremonies, in the education of Indigenous children, as well as storytelling and oral history. The term corroboree is commonly used to refer to Australian Aboriginal dances, although this term has its origins among the people of the Sydney region. In some places, Aboriginal people perform corroborees for tourists. In the latter part of the 20th century the influence of Indigenous Australian dance traditions has been seen with the development of concert dance, with the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) providing training in contemporary dance.
Education in the performing arts is a key part of many primary and secondary education curricula and is also available as a specialisation at the tertiary level. The performing arts, which include, but are not limited to dance, music and theatre, are key elements of culture and engage participants at a number of levels.
Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the performing arts in Australia, or produced by Australians. There are theatrical and dramatic aspects to a number of Indigenous Australian ceremonies such as the corroboree. During its colonial period, Australian theatrical arts were generally linked to the broader traditions of English literature and to British and Irish theatre. Australian literature and theatrical artists have over the last two centuries introduced the culture of Australia and the character of a new continent to the world stage.
Alan Bergman was an American ballet dancer, photographer and businessman.
Dame Margaret van Praagh was a British ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, repetiteur, producer, advocate and director, who spent much of her later career in Australia.
Lucette Aldous was an Australian prima ballerina during her performing years. She was the resident principal dancer with The Australian Ballet, and well known for performing the role of Kitri in the film of Rudolf Nureyev's production of Don Quixote, receiving many honours for her years of performance including being appointed AC in the 2018 Australia Day Honours list.
Meryl Tankard is an Australian dancer and choreographer who has a wide national and international reputation.
Maina Gielgud is a British former ballet dancer and a veteran ballet administrator. She was artistic director of The Australian Ballet from 1983 to 1996. She had a twenty-year career as a dancer in Europe and the United Kingdom. Gielgud directed the Royal Danish Ballet between 1997 and 1999. Until 2005, she held the artistic associate position at the Houston Ballet. She is a daughter of Lewis Gielgud and actress Zita Gordon and niece of actor John Gielgud.
Ballet Theatre of Queensland, founded in 1937 by Phyllis Danaher FRAD, is the oldest continuous dance company in Australia. Ballet Theatre is based in Brisbane in the Australian state of Queensland.
Phyllis May Danaher MBE FRAD was a dancer, teacher of dance and choreographer.
Marilyn Fay Jones OBE is an Australian dancer and teacher of dance. She has been described as "the greatest classical dancer Australia has produced".
Paul Clement Hammond OAM was an Australian ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer.
Greg Horsman is an Australian ballet choreographer, teacher, and retired dancer. In 2022, Dance Magazine Australia described him as "formerly one of the Australian Ballet's most poetic and classical of principal artists." He and his then-wife Lisa Pavane were a popular partnership during the 1980s and early 1990s, with the Washington Post referring to their "conspicuously poised, elegant dancing" and the New York Times calling them "two perfectly trained and appealing first-class dancers" during a performance of Giselle. Horsman has been the Chief Ballet Master and Director of Artistic Operations for the Queensland Ballet since 2013.
Choo Chiat Goh is a Chinese ballet dancer, choreographer, and the founder of the renowned Goh Ballet Academy, Canada, along with his wife Lin Yee.