Cultural Dance in Australia: Essays on performance contexts beyond the Pale

287 Pages·2022·5.826 MB·English

by  Jeanette Mollenhauer

Cultural Dance in
Australia
Essays on performance
contexts beyond the Pale
Jeanette Mollenhauer
Cultural Dance in Australia
Jeanette Mollenhauer
Cultural Dance
in Australia
Essays on performance contexts beyond the Pale
Jeanette Mollenhauer
Sydney, NSW, Australia
ISBN 978-981-19-5899-1 ISBN 978-981-19-5900-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5900-4
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Acknowledgements
I have to go back to the beginning of my adult dance journey to acknowl-
edge Bronwyn James and Ray Richardson, who taught the recreational
folk dance group in Katoomba, New South Wales, when I joined in
1995. Kathryn Marsh and Michael Webb at The Sydney Conservatorium
of Music, The University of Sydney suggested I join the International
Council of Traditional Music’s Study Group on Ethnochoreology, which
was the best scholarly decision I have made. I particularly want to
recognise academic support and friendship received from Study Group
members Linda Dankworth, Ann R. David, Catherine Dulin, Elsie Ivan-
cich Dunin, Catherine Foley, Nick Green, Carmel McKenna, Liz Mellish,
Andriy Nahachewsky, Derek Schofield, Kendra Stepputat, Pegge Vissicaro
and Deborah Williams. I also wish to thank the staff at Palgrave Macmillan
for their valuable assistance in producing this book.
This book is dedicated to the performer and pedagogue Andre van de
Plas from The Netherlands, who faithfully came to Australia every year
for almost 40 years to share the joy of dance until his sudden passing in
January 2019.
v
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Dance in Diaspora 9
3 The West/Rest Pirouette: Division in the Dance
Canon 21
4 Motifs of Migration: Reproducing Dance in a New
Environment 51
5 In the Spotlight: Public Performances of Cultural
Dance in Australia 77
6 The Shell Folkloric Festival: The Most Prominent
Multicultural Event 95
7 Riverdance and the Dissolution of Cultural
Boundaries in Australian Irish Dancing 119
8 The Ivory Tower and Its Fixed Pointe of Reference 141
9 Borders, Boundaries and Difference 159
10 The White Pages: Dance in Australian Textual Records 191
11 The Need for an Archive of Cultural Dance 211
12 Steps Towards the Future 227
vii
viii CONTENTS
Bibliography 245
Index 279
List of Figures
Fig. 1.1 Natasha Businoska, Yorgo Kaporis and Sara Marcovic
of Dusha Balkana, Sydney, 2017 (Photographer: Gerrie
Mifsud) 3
Fig. 3.1 State school fete, Exhibition Building, 1901 (maypole
dance, also forming squads for flower song and dance)
(Photographer: Robert S. Brain, 1840–1906. Accession
no. H27418, Pictures Collection, State Library Victoria) 29
Fig. 3.2 State school fete, Exhibition Building, the maypole dance
opposite the Royal Box (1901) (Photographer: Robert
S. Brain, 1840–1906. Accession no. H27418, Pictures
Collection, State Library Victoria) 30
Fig. 4.1 All Nations folk dance series. ON388/Box011/Item
111/No. 3 May 1946. Mitchell Library, State Library
of New South Wales 55
Fig. 4.2 All Nations folk dance series. ON388/Box011/Item
111/No. 6 May 1946. Mitchell Library, State Library
of New South Wales 56
Fig. 4.3 Latvian folk group dancing, Brisbane, 1953. Latvian
folk dance group Senatne performing at the celebration
of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. John Oxley
Library, State Library of Queensland, Neg. 90908 57
Fig. 4.4 A typical stall selling Irish dance items such as wigs
and hair decorations, 2015, Sydney (Photograph: J.
Mollenhauer) 65
ix
x LISTOFFIGURES
Fig. 4.5 Examples of costume items that are unable to be
produced in Australia and must be imported from Croatia
(Photograph: J. Mollenhauer 2014) 67
Fig. 5.1 Amanda Olic, Croatian Folkloric Ensemble Vukovar,
Sydney, performing Rukavice (Photograph A. Mollenhauer
2014) 86
Fig. 6.1 Page from The Shell Folkloric Festival Program, 1979.
Beth Dean and Victor Carell Papers MLMSS 7804,
Box 25, Folder 3. Mitchell Library, State Library of New
South Wales. Reproduced with kind permission of The
Sydney Opera House 103
Fig. 6.2 Page from The Shell Folkloric Festival Program, 1979.
Beth Dean and Victor Carell Papers MLMSS 7804,
Box 25, Folder 3. Mitchell Library, State Library of New
South Wales. Reproduced with kind permission of The
Sydney Opera House 104
Fig. 7.1 St. Patrick’s Day Sydney 1937. Hood Collection part 1:
Sydney streets, buildings, people, activities and events,
ca. 1925–1957. Call Number: Home and Away 29890.
Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales 133
Fig. 7.2 St. Patrick’s Day Sydney 1937. Hood Collection part 1:
Sydney streets, buildings, people, activities and events,
ca. 1925–1957. Call Number: Home and Away 14166.
Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales 134
Fig. 7.3 Street scene at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Sydney, 15
March, 2015 (Photographer: J. Mollenhauer) 135
Fig. 9.1 Beth Dean. Ballerina, October 1952, ON
388/Box 037/Item 083, Mitchell Library, State
Library of New South Wales and Courtesy ACP Magazines
Ltd. 162
Fig. 9.2 Excerpts from a performance program, The Sydney
Conservatorium of Music, 31 August 1950. Beth Dean
and Victor Carell Papers MLMSS 7804, Series 8, Box 5,
Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales 163
Fig. 9.3 Excerpts from a performance program, The Sydney
Conservatorium of Music, 31 August 1950. Beth Dean
and Victor Carell Papers MLMSS 7804, Series 8, Box 5,
Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales 164
LISTOFFIGURES xi
Fig. 9.4 Portrait of Margaret Walker, 1982 (Photographer: Régis
Lansac. National Library of Australia, Bib. ID: 3302399) 166
Fig. 9.5 Andre van de Plas (Reproduced from Footnotes [Folk
Dance Australia newsletter], April 2019, 9) 183