Edgley International is a theatre and concert promotions company from Australia, first started in the 1930s and run by several generations.
It has also been known as Edgley & Dawe Attractions, Edgley Ventures, and Michael Edgley International. The company is noted for bringing to Australia many foreign acts not previously seen in the country, particularly dance companies and circuses from Russia.
English song and dance vaudeville brothers Eric Edgley and Clement Edward [1] were invited to Australia in 1920 by J&N Tait to appear in a production of Sinbad the Sailor at King's Theatre, Melbourne. [2]
Born as Eric and Clem White, to musician Richard White and dancer Lizzie Warton, they changed their names in their early years to stage names, considering that "White" was uninteresting and became duo "Edgley and Dawe" The partnership later toured Australia for theatre manager J. C. Williamson and played in shows including Robinson Crusoe , Love Lies and So This Is Love . [1] Eric married an actress Phyllis Edith Amery in 1925, in Newcastle, New South Wales and was widowed when she died during childbirth in 1930, he remarried dancer Edna Louise Luscombe in 1940 at an registrar office in England. Throughout this period he and Clem toured Australasia, the United Kingdom and South Africa, doing shows under various arrangements, and moving from performers to promoters and creating a troupe called. "The Midnight Frolics", and toured productions by Sir Benjamin Fuller and the Tivoli circuit.
In 1951 they moved to Perth, Western Australia to manage His Majesty's Theatre. They took a lease on the venue in 1954 and Clem died the following year. In 1958 the company purchased His Majesty's and undertook extensive renovation work. From the early 1960s Eric arranged tours to Australasia from Russian performing troupes including the Bolshoi Ballet, the Georgian State Dance Company and the Moscow Variety Theatre. Edgley also promoted local talent including the West Australian Ballet.
Eric died in 1967 and management of the company was taken over by his then 23-year-old son Michael. The Moscow State Circus tour in 1968 attracted an audience of 1.2 million and grossed more than $7 million. [3] Russian ballet and theatre ensembles returned to Australia under the Edgley banner in 1970, 1976, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988. [2]
Edgley now has broad interests in the film industry and venue management. Film productions include The Man From Snowy River (1982) and Phar Lap (1983).
The company has staged shows in England and the United States, as well as in Asia including Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan
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.
Gigi Edgley is an Australian actress, singer and songwriter. She is best known for her roles as Chiana on the series Farscape and Lara Knight in Rescue: Special Ops.
The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca as the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 by artistic director Hope Muir. Renowned for its diverse repertoire, the company performs traditional full-length classics, embraces contemporary work and encourages the creation of new ballets, as well as the development of Canadian choreographers.
The Shanghai Ballet Company is the state ballet company for Shanghai. This regional dance troupe organized in 1966. They perform a blend of traditional and Western dance styles. The troupe is particularly well known for their performances of The White Haired Girl.
His Majesty's Theatre is an Edwardian Baroque theatre in Perth, Western Australia. Constructed from 1902 to 1904 during a period of great growth for the town, the theatre is located on the corner of Hay Street and King Street in Perth's central business district.
Dame Gillian Barbara Lynne was an English ballerina, dancer, choreographer, actress, and theatre-television director, noted for her theatre choreography associated with two of the longest-running shows in Broadway history, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera. At age 87, she was made a DBE in the 2014 New Year Honours List.
The Eight Lancashire Lads was a troupe of young male clog dancers who toured the music halls of Great Britain and Ireland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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.
McCarter Theatre Center is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. The institution is currently led by Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg.
West Australian Ballet is the State ballet company of Western Australia and is based in Perth, at the Western Australian Ballet Centre in Maylands.
Albertina Rasch was a naturalized American dancer, company director, and choreographer.
In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other performing group. In music, such an outside performer is often referred to as a guest artist. In performance art, the terms guest role or guest star are also common, the latter term specifically indicating the guest appearance of a celebrity. The latter is often also credited as special guest star or special musical guest star by some production companies.
Valentin Zeglovsky was a ballet dancer with the Ballets Russes who was one of the de Basil dancers who is considered to have contributed to Australian ballet.
Rambert is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingdom, and today, as a contemporary dance company, continues to be one of the world's most renowned dance companies. It has previously been known as the Ballet Club, and the Ballet Rambert.
Hélène Kirsova was a Danish prima ballerina, choreographer and ballet teacher and is noted as the founder of the first professional ballet company in Australia. She trained in Paris with former Sergei Diaghilev ballet dancers and choreographers. She then performed in companies run by Léo Staats and Ida Rubinstein before in 1931 becoming a soloist with Les Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, dancing for several years in Europe and North America. In 1936, as a principal dancer, she joined René Blum's Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo in which she scored a singular success in London. Later that year she joined Colonel Wassily de Basil's Monte Carlo Russian Ballet as prima ballerina on an extensive tour of Australia and New Zealand where she was fêted by critics and audiences. She remained in Australia, started a ballet school in Sydney, and in 1941 formed the Kirsova Ballet. Despite wartime restrictions she directed the company for several years before retiring in 1948. She has been described as the "Godmother" of Australian ballet.
The BP Super Show was an Australian television series of loosely scheduled TV specials often of the variety show genre, which aired from circa 1959 to circa 1970. The programs often featured international performers that were touring Australia. It originally aired on ATN-7 in Sydney and GTV-9 in Melbourne, with the production of episodes varying between the two stations, and it also aired on other stations across Australia. It aired on the Nine Network after the formation of that network. Given the varied nature of the episodes, critical reception varied, but was often very positive, with a 1961 episode with Ella Fitzgerald being called by The Age newspaper "one of the best shows of its type presented on Melbourne TV".
Illaria Obidenna Ladré was a Russian ballet dancer in the Diaghilev Ballets Russes and later, between 1932 and 1946, for the troupe run by Colonel Wassily de Basil. During her career, she was known as Lara Obidenna, though after ending her performance career, she began using her married name, Illaria Ladré.
Rachel Cameron was an Australian ballet dancer and teacher. She was one of the leading dancers in early Australian ballet in the 1940s, performing with the Borovansky and Kirsova ballet companies, and was one of the first ballet dancers in Australia to reach the rank of principal. After emigrating to Great Britain she was an inspirational educator of ballet teachers at the Royal Academy of Dance in London for over forty years. In 2010, she received the Royal Academy of Dance's prestigious Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award in recognition of her outstanding services to ballet.
Patricia Bowman was an American ballerina, ballroom dancer, musical theatre actress, television personality, and dance teacher.
The Kirsova Ballet was the first professional Australian ballet company. It was founded by prima ballerina Hélène Kirsova in 1941. Initially the leading performers were dancers who had stayed in Australia following the 1938/1939 tour of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet, but they were supported by talented young Australian dancers promoted from Kirsova's ballet school in Sydney. These local performers soon led the troupe and appeared in several seasons in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. The company also supported Australian composers, musicians, artists and designers in producing new ballets choreographed by Kirsova. 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. It closed in 1945 having been the pioneer of a genuine Australian ballet tradition. Its influence on Australian ballet was significant.