Australia Ballet Reportedly to Play the Center

The Australian Ballet will appear at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Aug. 7 through 12, according to an advertisement in the latest edition of the widely used Stern’s Performing Arts Directory. It would be the only appearance on the West Coast by the Melbourne-based company next year.

However, Center officials would not confirm the booking, saying only that negotiations with the company are under way.

The company, last seen in Los Angeles in 1971, also is performing in New York City at the Metropolitan Opera House July 23 to 29, and in Washington at the Kennedy Center July 31 to Aug. 5, according to the ad.

Considered the leading classical troupe of its country, the Australian Ballet was founded in 1962 and is closely associated with the Royal Ballet, which is to play the Orange County Center next summer on dates to be announced.

Among the celebrated dancers associated with the Australian company has been Robert Helpmann, who also was artistic director in 1974-75. Other prominent dancers produced by the company include Lucette Aldous, John Meehan, and Danilo Radojevic and Ross Stretton, who are best known as principal dancers in American Ballet Theatre.

Maina Gielgud is the current artistic director. John Lanchbery is music director.

Works created for the company have included Helpmann’s “The Display” (1964) and “Sun Music” (1968), Glen Tetley’s “Gemini” (1973), and Andre Prokovsky’s “Anna Karenina” (1979). The company was filmed in Rudolf Nureyev’s “Don Quixote” in 1973 with Helpmann as the Don, Nureyev as Basil and Aldous as Kitri.