Choreographer Reversed Ballet Tradition

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday January 31, 2007

Valerie Lawson

GLEN TETLEY, one of the world's leading choreographers, has died of cancer at the age of 80 in Florida.

Tetley, whose creations were a blend of classical ballet and contemporary dance, worked on several occasions with the Australian Ballet. His 1973 production of Gemini was one of his most successful works for the company. It became a showcase for the four dancers in the first cast, John Meehan, Gary Norman, Marilyn Rowe and Carolyn Rappel.

Other Tetley works in the Australian Ballet's repertoire are Rite of Spring, Voluntaries and Orpheus.

David McAllister, the artistic director of the Australian Ballet, said yesterday that Tetley was "incredibly gentle and enigmatic. We felt we were working with a genius."

Born in Cleveland, Tetley trained at the School of American Ballet and with contemporary dance pioneers Martha Graham and Hanya Holm. He joined the Joffrey Ballet in 1956, and worked with ballet and modern dance companies before directing his own troupe and then the Stuttgart Ballet. His first popular work was Pierrot Lunaire, choreographed in 1962.

As a freelance choreographer, Tetley created works to 20th-century scores for numerous dance companies.

The former dance critic for The New York Times, Anna Kisselgoff, has described him as: "Europe's favourite American choreographer, more honoured in the old world than the new.

"Through his prolific creations of new works, he reversed a traditional pattern: America had imported ballet from Europe, but Mr Tetley introduced and integrated American modern dance aesthetics and movement into European choreography."

Graham was one of his biggest influences. He once described his fascination with "her theatre, her deep sensuality, her journey into the psyche - her works have nothing of the canvas about them; they have everything to do with sculpture, with three-dimensional space".

Yet Tetley made many works for classical ballet companies, often with particular dancers in mind. He told Dance magazine in the United States that he was lucky to work with the American Ballet Theatre, "with great ballerinas, and that went into my knowledge as a choreographer. I learned about movement through space, about difficult movement, difficult partnering, and knowing what it is to do the extraordinarily difficult feats that one does in classical partnering."

After his partner of 42 years, Scott Douglas, died in 1996, Tetley choreographed his last ballet, Lux in Tenebris, for the Houston Ballet.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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