Free-lance Dancer With N.Z. Ballet

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31153, 1 September 1966, Page 6

Free-lance Dancer With N.Z. Ballet

A free-lance ballet dancer has joined the New Zealand Ballet Company for two months. He is the English dancer, Ivan Dragadze. Free lancing in the ballet world was “not terribly usual,” Mr Dragadze said in Wellington. It was all right once a dancer had made a name for himself. Ivan Dragadze started dancing at the age of 15 and has been dancing “for a very long time.” He thought 15 was a good age for a boy to start dancing. “I did all my training with the Royad Ballet. I originally wanted to be a scientist but I suddenly decided to take up dancing. I started ballet classes for physical exercise. I had a rather hard time making up my mind about taking up dancing full-time and then I had some mental tests and was told I should take up dancing. So I did.” Mr Dragadze danced his first big role when he was 18. This was the Harlequinade pas de deux which he danced with Belinda Wright. He spent some time with the Festival Ballet and then had an offer from Roland Petit in Paris to join his company. Mr Dragadze did so and remained with this company for a couple of years dancing in France and around Europe. His next move was to join the Marquis de Cuevas’s company—“the only really big French company.” It was during this engage-

ment that Mr Dragadze married Yvonne Meyer, a Brazilian, who also belonged to the same company. “And then my wife and I started free lancing.” During his career, Ivan Dragadze has created “quite a lot of roles.” He enjoys this aspect of dancing very much. “It is more interesting to work with the choreographer.” He has also ventured briefly into choreography and did one ballet, “Perpetuum” which he created for the inauguration of the Orly Airport in France. His dancing has taken him to many places, including South America. This is his first visit to New Zealand, Plans for the future are a bit undecided at the moment. “My wife had an operation about four months ago and I am just waiting to see if she will be able to join me. This is only the second time in 10 years that we’ve been separated. We are mostly engaged together, although we don’t always dance together.” Dragadze would like his wife to join him in New Zealand so that they can see a bit of Australia and New Zealand together. Meanwhile, he will dance in “Prince Igor” in New Zealand, starting this week in Wellington.