GORHAM, KATHLEEN ANN (1928-1983), dancer, was born on 7 September 1928 at
Narrandera, New South Wales, second of four children of Marcus Gorham, an
Irish-born railway employee, and his wife Hilda Muriel Florence, née Somers, from
England. Kathy grew up at Bankstown, Sydney, and was educated at Bethlehem
College, Ashfield. She began learning ballet aged 7 but, severely injured in a
motor accident, had to begin again a year later. From the Kathleen Danetree School
of Dance she went to Leon Kellaway’s George Street studio to strengthen her
pirouettes. Soon, under his tuition, multiple turns of every kind were her
specialty.
View the full record at
Australian Dictionary of Biography
Kathleen Gorham began her classical dancing career with the Borovansky Ballet at the age of fifteen, retaining her association with the Ballet until it finally disbanded in 1960 on the death of Borovansky. She danced with other companies in Paris and London, and in 1962 Kathleen Gorham became prima ballerina of the newly formed Australian Ballet Company. She played an important role in the artistic development of a recognisably Australian ballet company and danced new roles in association with Robert Helpmann. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1968 for her services to ballet. Retiring from dancing after the Australian Ballet's first overseas tour in 1966, she taught ballet in Melbourne and Southport, Queensland before her death in 1983 at a relatively young age.
View the full record at
Australian Women's Register
Born in Narrandera, New South Wales,
Kathleen Gorham studied under Lorraine
Norton and Leon Kellaway before joining
the Borovansky Ballet in 1946. In 1947
she was promoted by Borovansky to the
rank of junior ballerina and with this
promotion Gorham began to take on major
roles in the Borovansky repertoire. They
included the mazurka and pas de deux
in
Les Sylphides, First Hand
in
Le Beau Danube and Peggy
Sager's original role of the Spirit of
Australia in
Terra Australis.
Early in 1948 Gorham joined Ballet Rambert
for its Australian tour dancing under
the name Ann Somers, both Ann and Somers
being family names from Gorham's mother's
family. With Ballet Rambert Gorham danced
in much of the repertoire and took major
roles in
Swan Lake and
Nutcracker. In 1949, at
the end of the Rambert tour, Gorham left
Australia for Europe where she danced
with Roland Petit's Ballet de Paris and
the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet. She
was enticed back to Australia by Edouard
Borovansky for the Borovansky Ballet's
1951-1952 season. During this period
with the Borovansky Ballet she created
the roles of Miss X in Borovansky's work
The Outlaw, a ballet inspired
by the legend of Ned Kelly, and Juliet
in Paul Grinwis'
The Eternal Lovers. In 1951
she also made her debut in the title
role in
Giselle.
In 1953 she returned to Europe and worked
with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas
creating roles in ballets by George Skibine
and Serge Golovine. But by 1954 she was
again dancing with the Borovansky Ballet
taking the lead in
Pineapple Poll under the
direction of its choreographer John Cranko,
and creating leading roles in David Lichine's
Corrida and later in Robert
Pomie's
The Surfers. In 1959 she
joined Pomie, her husband, in a season
with his Company Robert Pomie at Ballet
Theatre le Francais in Sydney dancing
in several classical and original works.
Gorham joined the Australian Ballet
as a foundation member and with singular
success created leading roles in Robert
Helpmann's ballets
The Display and
Yugen. After her retirement
from the company in 1966 she continued
to run her dance school, which she had
started after the death of Borovansky,
and was well known for the summer schools
she ran on the Gold Coast in conjunction
with Peggy Sager, her colleague from
the Borovansky Ballet. Gorham was also
successful as an actor and was acclaimed
for her part in the television production
of
Johnny Belinda.
Show comments and reviews from Amazon users