BALLET TO ATTEND MEMORIAL SERVICE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31343, 13 April 1967, Page 8

BALLET TO ATTEND MEMORIAL SERVICE

A memorial service for the Australian ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer, Algeranoff, who was killed in a motor accident in Australia on Friday, will he held in Christchurch Cathedral at 1.15 p.m. tomorrow. It will be attended by members of the Australian Ballet, many members of which had danced with him or been taught by him. Algeranoff appeared three times in Christchurch—with Anna Pavlova in 1929; with Colonel de Basil’s Ballet Russe in 1939; and as ballet master of the Borovansky Ballet in 1960. The service will be conducted by the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Bey. M. Underhill) with an address by Miss Peggy van Praagh, the artistic director of the Australian Ballet, who was associated with Algeranoff for 40 years. The lesson will be read by the ballet production manager, Mr W. Akers.

Members of the ballet will attend the service and have expressed a hope that anyone in Christchurch who knew Algeranoff will also attend. Algeranoff appeared with the Ballet in its first season, 1962, as Dr. Coppelius tn "Coppelia” and for the last four years had been teaching at Mildura in northern Victoria at his own ballet school. He had always wanted to live in the country. He was particularly interested in the folk dancing of the countries he visited. He studied Aboriginal and Maori dancing for its own sake and not to include elements of it in his productions and teaching. Born Algernon Harcourt, Algeranoff changed his name when he began his eight-year association with Pavlova. She told him he could not possibly dance in Russian ballet with a name like that so in 1921 he changed it and borbade the use of his Christian name ever afterwards.