Asian Culture In Ballet

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31774, 3 September 1968, Page 3

Asian Culture In Ballet

The co-artistic director of the Australian Ballet, Sir Robert Helpmann, and the composer, Peter Sculpthorpe, have borrowed from the Cultures of Asia for their new work, “Sun Music,” for the Australian company.

The modern, 45-minute ballet which had its world premiere in Sydney recently, is dedicated to Dame Zara Holt, widow of the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Harold Holt. The new ballet has five movements with a common theme: the effect of the sun on mankind and the earth. They are titled "Soil,” “Mirage,” “Growth," “Energy,” and “Destruction.’ Sir Robert Helpmann, an international stage and film actor, dancer, choreographer, and producer, visited Bali this year during the Australian Ballet’s Asian tour and incorporated some Balinese dance ideas in the third movement of the ballet, which are reflected in Sculthorpe’s music and Kenneth Rowell’s costumes and scenery. Sir Robert Helpmann be-

lieves the Australian Ballet should draw on the legends, music and cultures of Asia, just as English ballet companies have used European themes. Subtle influences from Asia and other countries are seen in “Sun Music.” “We have tried to make it an international ballet because the theme is common to the world,” he said recently. “We

have avoided making it too Australian. That would have been a mistake.” Sculthorpe’s music, which had already been played as a concert work overseas and recorded, was re-arranged for the ballet score. The ballet’s first movement “Soil,” has brilliant lighting effects suggesting the sun and the beginning of life on earth. The second, “Mirage," in

which a dancer battles demons, suggets the emergence of primitive man. The third deals with growth and the fourth, which depicts man at play, is a paean to the sun. The fifth movement “Destruction,” shows what the sun can do to man. It ends with demented and exhausted dancers swarming up a golden ladder towards the sun. Critics Impressed Australian critics were impressed by the work. Writing in the "Sydney Morning Herald,” F. R. Blanks called it a “turbulent tour de force of total theatre. “Both the flamboyance and the moodiness course through Kenneth Rowell’s light-flecked scenic decor and costumes as irresistibly as they haunt Peter Sculthorpe’s music, but it is in Sir Robert Helpmann's spectacular choreography that they find resolution. “As a showcase compendium of virtuosic teamwork between designer, composer and choreographer, “Sun Music” deserves a place of pride and would deserve it in any ballet company in the world,” he said—Australian News and Information Bureau. The photograph shows the corps de ballet in a dramatic movement from the ballet.