| The Fool on the Hill | |
|---|---|
| Choreographer | Gillian Lynne |
| Music | John Lanchbery |
| Based on | The Fool on the Hill (song by the Beatles |
| Premiere | January 1976 (TV production) 28 April 1976 (stage production) Sydney Opera House, Australia |
| Original ballet company | The Australian Ballet |
| Characters | Eleanor Rigby Sergeant Pepper LSD Platitudinists |
| Created for | Television |
The Fool on the Hill is a ballet created by the British choreographer, Gillian Lynne.
In 1975 Gillian Lynne arrived in Australia to create The Australian Ballet's first work expressly commissioned for television which was jointly commissioned by The Australian Ballet and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Fool on the Hill ballet was inspired by the Beatles' song of the same name, and the score was arranged and orchestrated by John Lanchbery, using interpretations of Beatles' songs and featuring characters like Eleanor Rigby, and Sergeant Pepper. [1] [2] The director of the television production was Bryan Ashbridge. [3] Robert Helpmann appeared as Sergeant Pepper in the original television ballet. [4]
The ballet won a number of international television awards. [2]
The ballet was later revised for stage performances. [1] It premiered as a live stage production at the Sydney Opera House on 28 April 1976. [2]
 | This ballet-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This article about a television show originating in Australia is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Sir Robert Murray Helpmann 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.
The Australian Ballet (TAB) is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur and director Dame Peggy van Praagh as founding artistic director. Today, it is recognised as one of the world's major international ballet companies and performs upwards of 150 performances a year.
Wolfe Bowart is a physical comedian, actor, director and playwright. He is the creator and performer of the physical theatre productions LaLaLuna, Letter's End and The Man the Sea Saw. Bowart is the son of writer Walter Bowart and Linda Dugmore, and grandson of the abstract expressionist artist Edward Dugmore.
The Helpmann Awards are accolades for live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Performance Australia (LPA) since 2001.
Stephen George Page is an Aboriginal Australian choreographer, film director and former dancer. He was artistic director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre, an Indigenous Australian dance company, from 1991 until 2022. During this time he choreographed or created 33 works for the company, as well as several other major works, including segments of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Sydney Olympic Games. He was artistic director of the 2004 Adelaide Festival of the Arts, and has also done work for theatre and film.
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.
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.
Fool on the Hill may refer to:
Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the live performing arts in Australia: performed, written or produced by Australians.
Northern Ballet, formerly Northern Ballet Theatre, is a dance company based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a strong repertoire in theatrical dance productions where the emphasis is on story telling as well as classical ballet. The company tours widely across the United Kingdom.
Garry Stewart is an Australian dancer and choreographer. He was the longest-serving artistic director of the Australian Dance Theatre, taking over from Meryl Tankard in 1999 and finishing his term at the end of 2021. He is renowned for his unusual, post-modern interpretations of classical ballets.
John Meehan is an Australian ballet director, choreographer, professor, and retired ballet dancer. He was educated at the Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane and studied at the Australian Ballet School. Meehan joined the Australian Ballet in 1970 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1974, creating roles in new works by Glen Tetley, John Butler, Garth Welch, Sir Robert Helpmann and Gillian Lynne as well as the role of Count Danilo in Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow. In 1977 he performed as Guest Artist with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) joining the company as Principal Dancer in the fall of that year. He also danced as guest artist with The Boston Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada and the New York City Ballet.
Adam Zero is a ballet with music composed by Arthur Bliss and choreographed by Robert Helpmann in 1946.
Gideon Obarzanek is an Australian choreographer, director, and performing arts curator, and founder of the dance company Chunky Move.
Miracle in the Gorbals (1944) is a one-act ballet choreographed by Robert Helpmann to a story by Michael Benthall, with music by Arthur Bliss. The setting is the 1940s slums in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. It became a staple of the Royal Ballet, performed each season from 1944 to 1950 and receiving a revival in 1958.
Tim Goodchild is a set and costume designer from Great Britain.
Loudon Sainthill was an Australian artist and stage and costume designer. He worked predominantly in the United Kingdom, where he died. His early designs were described as 'opulent', 'sumptuous' and 'exuberantly splendid', but there was also a 'special quality of enchantment, mixed so often with a haunting sadness'.
Henry Danton was a British dancer, teacher, and stager of classical ballet.
The Soldier's Tale is a 1959 Australian television ballet starring Robert Helpmann. It aired 4 March 1959 in Melbourne and 15 March 1959 in Sydney.
Dorothea Ashbridge was a South African-born New Zealand ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher and international ballet judge.