In 1940 properly trained and experienced dancers were even rarer – a strange condition in a country which boasted numerous dancing 'academies' in every city and large town." Electricians, stage hands and other essential technicians are almost unprocurable. "The half-dozen legitimate theatres existing in the Commonwealth are placed in capital cities from 600 to 700 miles apart.
One of Kirsova's associates (and later her second husband), Peter Bellew, the editor of the magazine Art in Australia and Secretary of the Contemporary Art Society of Australia in New South Wales, wrote about the obstacles that had to be surmounted.
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The problems to be faced in setting up a professional company in the early years of the Second World War were many. and passionate defender of the contemporary arts". She also had influential support from Peter Bellew, "a respected art critic. She had two particular patrons: the impresario and theatre owner Edward Tait, and the newspaper and magazine publisher, Warwick Oswald Fairfax, who were both "entranced" by Kirsova. Kirsova had married the Danish Vice-Consul in Australia, which, combined with her famous name, elevated her to a leading position in Sydney society.
Backers and supporters įunds for opening the ballet company were easy to find. to be the founder of an Australian ballet tradition of our own." In 1941, within a year of starting her school, she realised she had enough talent within the ranks of her pupils and available from elsewhere in Australia to start the country's first professional ballet company. One commentator, interviewing her a few days after she opened the school, reported that "Kirsova is convinced that in the not too distant future Australia will have its own ballet dancers, choreographers, decor designers, in fact an Australian ballet company." He continued: "For this she will work. Kirsova had long held an ambition to open her own company, using Australian dancers and Australian musicians, composers, designers and artists. With foreign ballet companies unable to visit during World War II, the way was clear for Australian ballet troupes to establish a new era of ballet in the country. Kirsova brought to a younger generation of talented Australian dancers the traditions of Russian ballet and the influences of the great European teachers, like Michel Fokine, Olga Preobrajenska, Lyubov Yegorova, Léonide Massine, George Balanchine, and Bronislava Nijinska. Known as the Hélène Kirsova School of Russian Ballet in the Diaghilev Tradition, it attracted many pupils, including several who aspired to be professionals. She remained in Australia after her marriage in 1938 and in 1940 opened a ballet school in Sydney. Hélène Kirsova, an acclaimed Danish prima ballerina with the post- Sergei Diaghilev Ballets Russes, toured Australia and New Zealand in its first Australasian tour in 19. Its influence on Australian ballet was significant. It closed in 1945 having been the pioneer of a genuine Australian ballet tradition. Struggling under wartime restrictions, unable to tour abroad, and later suffering creative differences with the country's main theatre owners, the company's prominence was brief. The company also supported Australian composers, musicians, artists and designers in producing new ballets choreographed by Kirsova. These local performers soon led the troupe and appeared in several seasons in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. Initially the leading performers were dancers who had stayed in Australia following the 1938/1939 tour of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet, but they were supported by talented young Australian dancers promoted from Kirsova's ballet school in Sydney. It was founded by prima ballerina Hélène Kirsova in 1941. The Kirsova Ballet was the first professional Australian ballet company. Hélène Kirsova School of Russian Ballet in the Diaghilev Tradition Hélène Kirsova (Ellen Elisabeth Kirsten Wittrup Fischer née Hansèn)
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