Barry Moreland was born in Melbourne,
where he studied at the Box Hill Technical
School, before beginning his career at
J. C. Williamson Ltd., at age fourteen,
as an office boy for Frank Tait. After
taking drama and movement classes with
Gertrude Johnson at the National Theatre,
Moreland began his dance training at
the Borovansky Ballet Academy.
Moreland's first professional engagement
as a dancer was with the Borovansky Ballet
in 1960 under Peggy van Praagh. He subsequently
joined the Ballet Guild for a season
touring country Victoria, before joining
the Australian Ballet as a foundation
member in 1962. In 1964 Moreland travelled
to London, where he performed in a number
of West End musicals, including
Hello Dolly with Gar Champion
and
Fiddler on the Roof with
Jerome Robbins. He also studied drama
with George Devine at the Royal Court
Theatre. Moreland launched his choreographic
career with his first work, based on
Anton Chekov's
Three Sisters, at the London
Contemporary Dance School. Later Moreland
became a foundation member of this company,
which was renamed the London Contemporary
Dance Theatre. Moreland choreographed
a number of works for the company include
Nocturnal Dances to a commissioned
score by Maxwell Davies. After leaving
the company, Moreland was invited by
Glen Tetley to perform in Circles, for
the Hamburg Opera Ballet in 1971.
Later in the 1970s Moreland joined the
London Festival Ballet under Beryl Grey,
initially as a soloist, before developing
his choreographic career with the company.
Choreographic works by Moreland during
this period included
Summer Solstice, lit by
John B. Reid,
In Nomine, designed by Nadine
Bayliss, to the music of Peter Maxwell
Davies,
Dark Voyage designed by
Moreland to music by Erik Satie, and
Prodigal Son (in Ragtime)
(1974) to music by Scott Joplin and Hossack,
which Moreland toured to Australia with
the company in 1975.
In 1976 he began a freelance career
as a choreographer in England, Europe
and the United States, returning periodically
to Australia to create works such as
Sacred Space and
Trocadero (1979) for the
Australian Ballet, and
Dialogues (1980) for Sydney
Dance Company.
Moreland returned to live in Australia
during 1982 and worked with Sydney Dance
Company for whom he choreographed
Daisy Bates. He was appointed
artistic director of West Australian
Ballet in 1983 and directed that company
until 1997. As director of West Australian
Ballet he commissioned work from many
Australian choreographers, composers
and designers including Jacqui Carroll,
Elizabeth Hill, Carl Morrow, Chrissie
Parrott, Edmund Stripe, and Garth Welch.
Moreland also made a significant opus
of works himself for West Australian
Ballet including
Spindrift (1983),
Alice in Wonderland (1984),
Romeo and Juliet (1985),
Afternoon of a Faun (1985),
Seven Deadly Sins (1987),
Orpheus (1987),
Celestial Mirror (1988),
Lady of the Camellias (1989),
A Midsummer Nights Dream
(1991), and
Hamlet (1993). Since 1997
Moreland has worked as a freelance choreographer.
In 2009 Moreland returned to large
scale production when he established
the Helix Project to research medical
imaging, biodynamics and experimental
film techniques as media for creating
new dance. A two-year collaboration with
dancer Daryl Brandwood and cinematographer
Ian Batt resulted in the multi-media
work,
Helix, which simultaneously
opened and premiered at the Heath Ledger
Theatre in Perth in June 2011.
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