148:; and toured the company in China, the United States, and Europe as well as in Australia. For the company's sixtieth anniversary in 2013, encapsulating his attitude to his appointment in 1981, and also his approach to directorship in general, he wrote: "I knew I had to learn much more about New Zealand and its history, familiarise myself not only with its dance world but also with its literature, music, and visual arts, while still keeping a finger on the international pulse."
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than head a dance school, he accepted the position of artistic director of the Royal New
Zealand Ballet in 1981. His directorship of this company was a fruitful one, lasting more than a decade, until 1992. He regarded it as the happiest time of his life. During his tenure, the company staged works by major international artists. Haythorne oversaw the company's thirtieth anniversary in 1983; staged his own full-length
155:, Haythorne worked closely with the New Zealand School of Dance and its teachers. He attended school auditions and became a member of the board of directors. He believed that the strength of any company was a school that would train dancers who were familiar with company style and repertoire and who had gained experience by having small parts in its productions while still students.
55:, the child of an English father and an Australian mother of Irish descent. Both his parents, who had met at a local dance hall, loved ballroom dancing, but they were barred from many venues in Adelaide because they dared to introduce what Haythorne jokingly referred to in an interview as "filthy foreign dances" such as the
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On his return to
Australia from New Zealand in 1993, Haythorne was always in demand. He taught dance history at the Victorian College of the Arts, in Southbank, and repertoire at the National Theatre Ballet School, in Melbourne, and was frequently invited to teach and stage ballets for schools around
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During the last months of World War II, Haythorne joined the Royal
Australian Air Force and remained in the defence forces for two years. After being discharged, he resumed his dancing career. In the late 1940s, he took ballet classes from the Adelaide teacher Joanna Priest and performed in her South
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Haythorne began his dance training with Jean
Bedford, who taught "operatic dancing," and shortly afterward enrolled in tap dancing classes with Herbert Noye. His initial ambitions were to go into vaudeville. Even with the visits of the Ballets Russes companies to Australia in the 1930s, which was an
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After leaving the
Queensland Ballet, Haythorne was founding coordinator of a tertiary dance course at Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education (now Queensland University of Technology). He remained in this role for another three years, but, after deciding that he wanted to direct a company rather
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hospice in
November 2014 at the age of eighty-eight. A small, private funeral was held for his close friends. When his will was read, it was learned that he had requested a party celebrating his life rather than a somber memorial service with a eulogy. Accordingly, on 31 January 2015, simultaneous
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Always an
Australian at heart, Haythorne began to miss his homeland and made various moves to return. He eventually went back, and, in 1975, took up the position of artistic director of the Queensland Ballet. With that company, he mounted works by a number of Australian choreographers, including
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When
Haythorne was fourteen, he began his professional performing career with Harold Raymond's Varieties, a vaudeville troupe established initially as a concert party to entertain troops as World War II began. With Harold Raymond, he took part in comedy sketches, played his piano accordion, sang
209:, in which he was cast as an old vaudeville trouper. At the age of seventy-five, Haythorne reprised his tap dancing–roller skating–skipping routine from the 1940s. For his performances in this role he received the 2001 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer.
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celebrations, linked by video, were held in the studios of the
Australian Ballet in Melbourne and the Royal New Zealand Ballet in Wellington, Many members of the dance and theatre communities in both countries attended and shared affectionate anecdotes and stories.
140:. Despite these accomplishments in only three years on the job, Haythorne's directorship was a short one, as his contract was terminated in 1978. He was unhappy at the way this was done and thereafter always maintained that no rational explanation was ever given.
128:, Don Asker, Rex Reid, Leslie White, and Ray Cook, and he introduced the ballets of choreographers he had worked with in the United Kingdom, including Walter Gore, Jack Carter, and Peter Darrell. He also engaged the Danish dancer and teacher
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Haythorne left
Australia in 1949, bound for the United Kingdom. In London he took ballet classes with Anna Northcote and Stanislas Idzikowski before auditioning successfully for the Metropolitan Ballet and later joining
92:'s International Ballet. But his career in England and continental Europe proved to be an eclectic one, not limited to the world of ballet. He worked on the
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Harry Haythorne, interviewed by Michelle Potter, May and October 2000. National Library of Australia, Keep Dancing Oral History Project, TRC 4560.
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63:. His father had brought these dance styles with him when he migrated from England to Australia. They were unknown at the time in Adelaide.
221:, with illustrations by Peter Cazalet (England: Wolfe Publishing for the Dairy Industry). He was the author of articles published in
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31:, musicals, and ballet companies in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and Australia. He was assistant artistic director of the
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Australia. He returned to the stage himself on several occasions with productions by the Australian Ballet, taking cameo roles in
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songs, and danced. His star act, which would feature again much later in his life, was his tap dancing routine on roller skates.
116:, who hired him as manager of Western Theatre Ballet and then as assistant artistic director of the Scottish Ballet in Glasgow.
27:(7 October 1926 – 24 November 2014) was an Australian dancer, ballet master, artistic director, and teacher who performed in
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104:. In an interview in 2000, Haythorne listed the three greatest influences on his career in England and Europe as
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during its Australasian tour (1947–1949) that inspired him to change direction and look to ballet as a career.
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http://www.australiandanceaards.net.au/award-winners/outstanding-performance-by-a-male-damcer/harry-haythorne
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108:, for whom he acted as personal assistant and ballet master for Massine's company, Les Ballets Européens;
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199:(1975, later revived), and the joint Australian Ballet–Sydney Dance Company production of Murphy's
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270:. The principal source of biographical information given herein, used by permission of the author.
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Andris Toppe, Australian choreographer and dancer, personal communication, 26 February 2015. See
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edited by Jennifer Shennan and Anne Rowse (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2013), p. 88.
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Show, danced on early British television shows, performed in musicals, including Cole Porter's
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and he was a contributor to the Royal New Zealand Ballet's sixtieth birthday publication,
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305:(Broken Hill), 11 August 1944, p. 3. Online at National Library of Australia website,
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exciting time for him, he still did not have ambitions to take up ballet seriously.
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He was also a frequent writer of letters to the editor of various dance magazines.
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Diana Dekker, "Artistic Director Had a Huge Impact on Ballet Scene," obituary,
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Haythorne, "The Royal New Zealand Ballet: Sixty Years Young" (2013), p. 102.
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Harry Haythorne, "The Royal New Zealand Ballet: Sixty Years Young," in
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http://www.radionz.co.nz/collections/rnzb/audio/2563342/harry-haythorne
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Harry Haythorne, interviewed by Michelle Potter, May and October 2000.
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Harry Haythorne, interviewed by Michelle Potter, May and October 2000.
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Harry Haythorne, interviewed by Michelle Potter, May and October 2000.
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Harry Haythorne,m "How I Became a Dancer—Aussie Style—in the 1930s."
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Interview with Harry Haythorne, Radio New Zealand, 2013. Online at
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Australian Ballet. However, it was seeing performances by
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Michelle Potter, "Harry Haythorne, 1926–2014," obituary,
388:(Wellington: Royal New Zealand Ballet, 2003), pp. 38–47.
353:(Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 232–234.
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http://michellepotter.org/news/harry-haythorne-1927-2014
112:, for whom he was ballet master of London Ballet; and
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Joanna Priest: Her Place in Adelaide's Dance History
205:(2001). He is especially remembered for his role in
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A Time to Dance: The Royal New Zealand Ballet at 50
100:, and toured to South Africa with a production of
231:Choreography and Dance: An International Journal,
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290:Choreography and Dance: An International Journal
442:(2nd supplement). 31 December 1992. p. 30.
351:Ballet in Australia: The Second Act, 1940–1980
506:Members of the Order of the British Empire
307:http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49563935
227:Brolga: An Australian Journal about Dance
164:Member of the Order of the British Empire
35:(1969–1974) and artistic director of the
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322:(Adelaide: Joanna Priest, 1993), p. 162.
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399:The Royal New Zealand Ballet at Sixty,
235:The Royal New Zealand Ballet at Sixty.
414:(Wellington), 8 December 2013, p. C3.
301:"Harold Raymond's Vaudeville Show."
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467:http://www.andristoppe.com
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219:How to Be a Ballet Dancer
53:Adelaide, South Australia
511:Australian LGBTQ dancers
183:(1997), Graeme Murphy's
41:Royal New Zealand Ballet
16:Australian ballet dancer
318:Margaret Abbie Denton,
20:Henry Neville Haythorne
191:(1992, revived 2003),
51:Haythorne was born in
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245:Haythorne died in a
39:(1975–1978) and the
151:During his time in
138:August Bournonville
136:and other works of
439:The London Gazette
384:Jennifer Shennan,
412:The Dominion Post
83:Theatrical career
37:Queensland Ballet
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102:The Pajama Game
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491:2014 deaths
486:1926 births
434:"No. 53154"
241:Celebration
197:Merry Widow
193:Ronald Hynd
187:(2002) and
170:Later years
153:New Zealand
134:La Sylphide
130:Hans Brenaa
126:Garth Welch
110:Walter Gore
47:Early years
480:Categories
254:References
181:Cinderella
29:vaudeville
247:Melbourne
229:, and in
185:Swan Lake
146:Swan Lake
132:to stage
61:quickstep
59:and the
158:In the
98:Can Can
57:foxtrot
207:Tivoli
202:Tivoli
225:, in
195:'s
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24:MBE
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