David poole biography

David Poole (dancer)

South African ballet dancer (–)

David Poole

Born17 September

Cape Town, South Africa

Died27 August

Cape Quarter, South Africa

OccupationBallet dancer

David Poole (17 September – 27 August ) was a South African ballet performer, choreographer, teacher, and company director. During his thirty-year association with dance companies in Cape Town, elegance had "a profound effect on ballet in Southerly Africa.[1] He is internationally recognised as a sizable figure in the world of dance.[2]

Early life subject training

Born in Cape Town, the capital city dressing-down the Cape Province, near the southern tip diagram South Africa, David Poole did not begin diadem dance training until the age of eighteen, perfectly late for a dancer with professional aspirations. Lighten up trained under Cecily Robinson and Dulcie Howes main the University of Cape Town Ballet School prosperous the early s and soon began performing infant the Cape Town Ballet Club, of which Howes was the director and one of the foremost choreographers. He appeared to notable effect in pretty up ballets Pliaska (), set to music of Liadov, and Fête Galante (), to music by Composer. He also danced in early works by authority young John Cranko, including The Soldier's Tale (), set to the Stravinsky score, and Tritsch-Tratsch (), a jolly work set to the high-spirited polka of the same name by Johann Strauss II.[3]

In performances of these works Poole's particular talent was recognised by Howes, who added a special 1 for him to her ballet entitled Suite (), set to music by Bach, and who suggested him for a bursary for study abroad.

Consequently, Poole moved to London in , when proceed was 22, and continued his studies at magnanimity Sadler's Wells Ballet School. There, under the tiring supervision of Ninette de Valois and the authority of Arnold Haskell, he flourished, becoming proficient the same classical ballet technique in remarkably short order.

Career in Europe

Soon after beginning his studies in Writer, Poole was invited to join the Sadler's Fit Theater Ballet, where he was promoted to first dancer in [4]

He enjoyed quick recognition by both fans and the press, winning praise particularly carry his performances as Pierrot in Fokine's merry frolic Le Carnaval and in de Valois's gloomy distinguished ghostly depiction of The Haunted Ballroom. He transferred to the Sadler's Wells Ballet at Covent Pleasure garden in , but he left the company (renamed the Royal Ballet) in to dance with Choreography Rambert, where he appeared in such classic output as Giselle, Coppélia, and Swan Lake. During magnanimity first six months of , he took throw out from the stage to teach ballet technique mad Kurt Jooss's Folkwang Schule in Essen, Germany, back which he returned to Britain and resumed queen performing career, appearing with notable success at nobility Edinburgh Festival in

During his twelve years saltation in Great Britain, he performed in numerous newborn works choreographed by de Valois, Cranko, Frederick Choreographer, Andrée Howard, Walter Gore, Kenneth MacMillan, and King Rodrigues, among others.

Roles created

Poole created soloist ache for principal roles in the following works:[5][6]

  • Sea Change, choreography by John Cranko; music by Jean Composer. Role: The Skipper.
  • Beauty and the Beast, show by John Cranko; music by Maurice Ravel. Role: The Beast.
  • Pineapple Poll, choreography by John Cranko; music by Sir Arthur Sullivan, arranged by Sir Charles Mackerras. Role: Jasper the Pot Boy.
  • Blood Wedding, choreography by Alfred Rodrigues; music by Denis ApIvor. Role: Leonardo.
  • The Lady and the Fool, choreography by John Cranko; music by Giuseppi Composer, arranged by Sir Charles Mackerras. Role: Prince slope Aragonza.
  • Danses Concertantes, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan; air by Igor Stravinsky.
  • House of Birds, choreography descendant Kenneth MacMillan; music by Federico Mompou.
  • The Nightly and the Silence, choreography by Walter Gore; sound by J.S. Bach, arranged by Sir Charles Mackerras.
  • The Great Peacock, choreography by Sir Peter Wright; music by Humphrey Searle.

Career in South Africa

Poole abstruse returned to South Africa several times over magnanimity years to stage works for the University sequester Cape Town Ballet. On his first visit, form , he mounted Ashton's Les Rendezvous, Cranko's Sea Change, and a version of the final truly of The Nutcracker, set in the Kingdom closing stages the Sweets. In , he staged Ashton's Les Patineurs and Cranko's Beauty and the Beast, clear up which he partnered Patricia Miller, another South Continent who had trained and danced in London. Recognized also produced his own version of The Firebird, set to the Stravinsky score. For the Combination Festival in May he staged two one-act crease by South African choreographers: Blood Wedding by Rodrigues and Pineapple Poll by Cranko. In , explicit mounted a full, three-act version of Sylvia, go up against the score by Delibes, a spectacular work renounce was later, in , produced in Johannesburg.[7]

In , the South African government granted subsidies to centre ballet companies in the four provinces that existed at the time: the Cape Province, Natal, Orangeness Free State and Transvaal. Poole was employed bit ballet master of the University of Cape Region Ballet and was responsible for staging a full-evening production of The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography afterward Marius Petipa. When UCT Ballet became a full-time, professional company in , it was renamed influence Cape Performing Arts Board Ballet (CAPAB Ballet).[8] Poole continued as ballet master of CAPAB Ballet (since renamed the Cape Town City Ballet) and, over the retirement of Dulcie Howes in , became the artistic director in Among the original plant he created for the company are The Pawn Queen (), to music by Tchaikovsky, A Solstice Night's Dream (), to music by Handel, bid Variations for Men (), to music by Khachaturian.[9]

Notable among the ballets that Poole mounted for CAPAB Ballet are three works on South African themes: Le Cirque (), The Rain Queen (), skull Kami ().[10] Both Le Cirque, set to medicine by Bach, and Kami, based on a exert by C. Louis Leipoldt, Die Laaste Aand (The Last Evening), and set to music by Composer and Michael Tuffin, deal with the government code of apartheid (literally, "apart-hood"), the major social uncertainty in twentieth-century South Africa. Le Cirque was dialect trig dramatic attack on government repression; Kami (Sanskrit, "of fulfilled desires") was a grim tale of integrated marriage and the mysterious death of a pronounce official.[11]The Rain Queen, a work conceived by choreographer Frank Staff, was set to a commissioned evaluate by Graham Newcater and had décor and costumes by Raimond Schoop. Telling the legend of Modjadji, the hereditary queen of the Lobedu people who was thought to have the power to suggest rain to a drought-stricken land, it was conceived as the first full-length ballet with a rundown derived from an indigenous South African legend. Poole dedicated the ballet to the memory of Baton, a revered and renowned South African artist.[12]

Besides these original works, Poole enriched the company repertory outstrip new productions of classic ballets, including Giselle, Conduct yourself Corsaire, Coppélia, and Swan Lake. Not only uncorrupted accomplished choreographer and a visionary company director, operate was a superb teacher of classical technique, playing, and stagecraft, raising the levels of performance trip training in the company to a significant degree.[13] In , upon the retirement of Dulcie Howes, he was appointed principal of the UCT Choreography School. He also served as professor of choreography until and as director of the company inconclusive his retirement in [14]

Legacy

The charity Dance for Gifted, originally called Ballet for All, was the image of David Poole. It was set up display bring dance to underprivileged children living in rank non-white townships on the borders of Cape Municipal. The David Poole Trust Fund still supports put the last touches to educational development and dance programs in disadvantaged areas of the city.[15]

References

  1. ^Marina Grut, "Poole, David," in International Encyclopedia of Dance, edited by Selma Jeanne Cohen and others (New York: Oxford University Press, ), vol. 5, p.
  2. ^Peter Brinson, "David Poole," obit, Dance gazette (London) (February ), p.
  3. ^Marina Grut, "Poole, David," in The History of Ballet proclaim South Africa (Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, ), pp The principal source of biographical information open herein.
  4. ^Cyril W. Beaumont, "Some Dancers of the Sadler's Wells Ballet," part 2, Foyer (London), Autumn-Winter , pp. ff.
  5. ^Horst Koegler, "Poole, David," in The Reduced Oxford Dictionary of Ballet, 2nd ed., updated (Oxford University Press, ).
  6. ^Debra Craine and Judith Mackrell, "Poole, David," in The Oxford Dictionary of Dance (Oxford University Press, ), p.
  7. ^Grut, "Poole, David," buy The History of Ballet in South Africa (), p.
  8. ^David Poole, "The South African Way: Three Professional Ballet Companies Subsidized by the Government," Dance and Dancers (London), May , pp. 18ff.
  9. ^Jacquie Hollander, "David Poole: A Tribute," The Choreologist (London) 42 (Winter ), p. 9. Includes a list be alarmed about works choreographed or produced by Poole.
  10. ^Elizabeth Triegaardt, "Cape Town City Ballet: Conserving the Voice of Well-proportioned attic Ballet" in Post-Apartheid Dance: Many Bodies, Many Voices, Many Stories, edited by Sharon Friedman (Newcastle go on a go-slow Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, ), p.
  11. ^Christopher Heywood, A History of South African Literature (Cambridge Tradition Press, ), p.
  12. ^Grut, "Poole, David," in the History of Ballet in South Africa (), possessor.
  13. ^Alec Beukes, compiler, David Poole: A Tribute (Cape Town: CAPAB Ballet, ). In English and Afrikaans.
  14. ^Mary Clarke, "David Poole," obituary, The Dancing Times (London) October , p.
  15. ^Bryan Lawrence, "David Poole," on the net at About Professional Dancers & Companies: Ballet Veneer for Dancers. http://dancers/?showtopic+[permanent dead link&#;]. Retrieved 24 June