Les Sylphides and The Nutcracker ON TOUR

MARYBOROUGH TOUR

The children in the Maryborough production - children, soldiers, mice, angels, cooks, maids, polichinelles and some of the guests in Act 1 - were from the Maryborough and Hervey Bay Ballet Studios of Shirley McCray and were rehearsed in their roles by their teachers.

In September 1979, Brisbane ballet student and Year 12 Yeronga High School student  BIll Standfield, who played the Prince in The Nutcracker, was the recipient  of the national Peter Stuyvesant Cultural Fund grant worth $3000. It was presented to him at the Sydney Opera House. In a Courier Mail article (18 September, 1979) he said there had been times when he "felt like giving dancing away" but was glad he didn't. With this scholarship he intended to study dance in Berlin with his sister Jennifer who had been there for the last two years.

A VERY SUCCESSFUL YEAR FOR BALLET THEATRE

After a financially disastrous 1978, Chairman Ira Smith was pleased to announce in his annual report that “1979 had been a very successful year” with a balance of over $19,000 in the bank, an effort not achieved “by sitting about and waiting”. He paid tribute to those who had worked especially hard during the year to achieve this much needed turnaround in BTQ’s fortunes:

The ballet teachers of Brisbane, our members and supporters have rallied behind an executive to overcome our problem and to give us a sound financial base for the coming year. I am glad that this my final year as Chairman has seen a revitalization of Ballet Theatre.

I must congratulate Miss Phyllis Danaher our Artistic Director for her production of Les Sylphides and Nutcracker and also Miss Carmel Nolan (for a short time our Assistant Artistic Director) and Miss Wendy Lowe our Ballet Mistress for their generous donation of time and effort in helping to achieve the success culminating in the Twelfth Night Theatre season.

Miss Danaher has for many years completely identified herself with Ballet Theatre to the detriment of her own studio. Miss Nolan and Miss Lowe have very successful studios of their own and any time (and it was considerable) they gave was to the detriment of their own studios. Their help does not go unnoticed.

Our thanks also to Mr Paul Wright for the master classes he gave during the year.

For over two decades Jack Rodgers has been an official of Ballet Theatre. On behalf of all members I place on record our appreciation of his work for Ballet Theatre and it is regretted that we receive his resignation.

In her Artistic Director’s report, Miss Danaher wrote:

Ballet Theatre has been very fortunate this year in that it has had the services of young Bill Stanfield; with continuing hard work and development he has the potential to develop into a very useful dancer and technically he is the best male dancer we have had; we wish him well as he tries to break into the professional field.

The Nutcracker seasons were one of our best both artistically and financially. The dancing of both Bill Stanfield and Susan McIntosh in Sylphides was excellent and Bill and Glenda Kelly were superb in Nutcracker. This year we had one of our youngest Claras ever in Sallyanne Kay and she captured the hearts of all who saw her dance and act that role.

From Ballet Theatre of Queensland’s 1978 Annual Report

Researcher and writer: Dr Christine Comans