Born in Canberra, Alan Alder initially
studied tap and Scottish highland dancing
with June Hammond, in Canberra and later
ballet with Barbara Todd. Winning a scholarship
to the Royal Ballet School in 1957, he
studied there for a short time before
joining the Covent Garden Opera Ballet,
where he worked for the next twelve months.
In 1958 Alder joined the Sadler's Wells
Royal Ballet. He was promoted to soloist
and toured extensively with the company
throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand,
Japan, and South Africa over the next
four years.
Alder returned to Australia to join
the Australian Ballet in 1963 as a senior
soloist at the invitation of Peggy van
Praagh. He was promoted to principal
artist in 1969, and was a guest artist
with the company from 1978 to 1980.
Alder has danced many principal roles
in a wide selection of ballets. He scored
particular success as Alain in
La Fille mal gardee, a role
he danced initially with the Royal Ballet
in 1961, and again with the Australian
Ballet on many occasions from 1968 onwards.
With the Australian Ballet he also danced
the lead in many other productions, including
Threshold,
Sebastian,
Giselle,
Lady and the Fool,
Othello,
Romeo and Juliet,
Yugen, and
Carmen.
Alder married fellow dancer Lucette
Aldous in 1972. In the mid 1970s both
Alder and Aldous were invited by the
Russian ministry of culture to study
teaching methods in the USSR. In St Petersburg
they studied Boris Kniaseff's floor barre
and the Vaganova system of training.
Following his departure from the Australian
Ballet in 1980, Alder took up part-time
teaching with Dame Margaret Scott and
Anne Woolliams at the dance school of
the Victorian College of the Arts. In
1983 he was appointed to head the dance
department at the Western Australia Academy
of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University,
a position he held until 1991. Alder
currently teaches in Perth.
Show comments and reviews from Amazon users