Dancer, actor in theatre, film and television, choreographer for stage and film, revue artist, director of ballet, opera, drama, pantomime, musicals, comedy: Robert Helpmann (1909-1986) exuberantly realised a career that encompassed a phenomenal range. In ballet and dance he grew beyond his early years as Ninette de Valois’ protégé within the Vic-Wells Ballet in the 1930s, to become premier danseur with the Company in the 1940s, guest artist with The Royal Ballet in the 1950s and 1960s, and finally director of Australian Ballet. In drama he acted with the Old Vic and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, collaborated frequently with his partner, Michael Benthall, with Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and with Katharine Hepburn. In film his many performances brought him international celebrity, particularly in The Red Shoes, The Tales of Hoffmann and as the demonic Child-Catcher in Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang. Helpmann’s creative stamina was legendary. His personality embraced enigmas, complexities, a delight in continuous shape-changing and role-play (he was a master of stage-makeup and its transformative powers); but these qualities accompanied a profound, whole-hearted and life-long commitment to all that we understand by the ‘theatre’. He was an inspiration for countless younger dancers and performers, having a gift for friendship and support: Dame Margot Fonteyn and Dame Beryl Grey found him a considerate, witty and kind partner, effacing himself readily to support their artistry.
Clearly no one writer could do full justice to all the manifestations of Helpmann’s genius. This was the reason for drawing on the many specialists and one-time colleagues whose essays and reminiscences make up this publication. But, as it is over thirty years since Helpmann’s death and few are alive who experienced his early triumphs, the writers’ verbal evocations of his theatrical persona are supported by over seventy photographs covering his professional life, many not reproduced before. To supplement these, a DVD offers filmed material of archival value and engages with the challenges facing attempts to revive Helpmann’s choreographies today; it includes a documentary of the attempt to revive Miracle in the Gorbals. The editors and contributors have used the sources that are still available to us in the hope that, by bringing them together and offering a fresh interpretation of their significance, they may create a new resource that will place Robert Helpmann securely in future histories of ballet, cinema and theatre, both national and international. To that end, this publication offers both a critique and a homage.