Corroboree (ballet)

{{Short description|1940 Australian ballet}}

{{About||the event|Corroboree}}

{{Italic title}}

{{Use Australian English|date=October 2018}}

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Image:Corroborree.jpg's Corroboree.]]

Corroboree is a ballet written by Australian composer John Antill in the early 1940s. The first full version of the score was completed in 1944 and it was first performed as a concert suite in 1946.{{cite web|last=Plush|first=Vincent|title=Corroboree|url=http://aso.gov.au/titles/music/corroboree/notes/|work=Australian Screen|publisher=National Film and Sound Archive|accessdate=14 February 2013}} On 3 July 1950 it was performed as a ballet, at the Empire Theatre in Sydney, choreographed by Rex Reid, with dancers of the Melbourne-based National Theatre Ballet.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18160848 |title="Corroboree" Has World Premiere. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=4 July 1950 |accessdate=14 February 2013 |page=1 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Wildly successful and seen as a national "coming-of-age",[http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/nlanews/2004/mar04/story-3.pdf Michelle Potter, (March 2004), Corroboree, National Library of Australia News Volume XIV Number 6] accessed 8 June 2011 the ballet was performed again with new choreography by American-born dancer, choreographer and writer Beth Dean in 1954. Notably, Dean and her Australian husband, Victor Carell, had spent several months in remote outback Australia researching Aboriginal ceremonies, costumes and dance, upon which Dean's version was based.{{Cite web |url=http://www.australiadancing.org/subjects/26.html |title=Dean, Beth (1918–) at Australia Dancing, accessed 8 June 2011 |access-date=8 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612055445/http://www.australiadancing.org/subjects/26.html |archive-date=12 June 2011 |url-status=usurped }} In this first production, Dean danced the role of the Initiate herself.

Many of the costumes and props for this version of the ballet are held by the National Museum of Australia. The music manuscript is held by the State Library of New South Wales.{{cite web|title=John Antill – music manuscript for his ballet suite 'Corroboree', 1940s, together with list of performances, 1950-1970|url=http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=413502#|work=Manuscript, oral history and pictures catalogue|publisher=State Library of New South Wales|accessdate=13 February 2013}}