Edward H. Pask was born in Melbourne
and began his first major dance studies
in the early 1950s with Valrene Tweedie
at the National Theatre Ballet School.
Other significant pedagogical influences
came from Xenia Borovansky, Rex Reid,
Piotr Gusev, Poul Gnatt, and Laurel Martyn.
Throughout the early 1950s Pask performed
a number of ?walk-on' parts with the
National Theatre Ballet. He made his
professional debut in Ray Lawler's
Ginger Meggs in 1954.
Pask's career as a dancer included performances
with the Leningrad Maly Ballet during
their 1961 tour of Australia, the National
Theatre Ballet and the Elizabethan Opera
Company. For the National Theatre Ballet
Pask danced in many productions including
Francesca da Rimini, in
which Tweedie created the role Gerolimo's
servant on him. With the Elizabethan
Opera Company he danced in
Adriadne,
Falstaff, and
Don Giovanni, and with the
Leningrad Maly Ballet he performed in
Gusev's
Swan Lake Acts 2 and 3.
In 1963 Pask formed a small dance ensemble,
Cameo Ballet, to provide out-of-season
work for dancers and advanced ballet
students. He choreographed a series of
works for the company, including
La Lecon de danse (1963)
to music by Mozart,
Naila (1964) to music of
Delibes,
Snowmaiden (1965) to music
by Tchaikovsky,
Treglav (1965) to music
by Rimsky-Korsakov,
Surprise Symphony (1966)
to music by Haydn,
Miss Charity Lee (1968)
to music by Offenbach,
Duet of Love pas de deux
(1968), and
Giralda (1969) to music
by Adolph Adam. The company performed
at the Union Theatre, Melbourne University,
and toured Victoria and Tasmania. Cameo
Ballet dissolved in 1969.
In 1972 Pask was invited by Peggy van
Praagh, artistic director of the Australian
Ballet, to research the history of Australian
dance and create an archival collection
of Australian dance material, which later
became known as the Australian Archives
of the Dance. During his time with the
Australian Ballet Pask also lectured
on dance history at the Australian Ballet
School. He finished his involvement with
the Australian Ballet in the mid 1990s.
Pask has made a significant contribution
to researching Australia's dance history
through a number of publications, most
notably through his books
Enter the Colonies, Dancing: A
History of Dance in Australia 1835-1940
(Melbourne: Oxford University Press,
1979) and
Ballet in Australia: The Second
Act 1940-1980 (Melbourne: Oxford
University Press, 1982). Pask also edited
the short-lived
Attitudes and arabesques: a monthly
newsletter of dance events from around
the world between 1972 and 1974
and regularly wrote articles for
Australasian Dance.
In 1978, along with dance teacher Lorraine
Blackbourn, Pask co-founded and became
associate director of the Heidelberg
Ballet Ensemble of Melbourne. Along the
lines of Pask's Cameo Ballet ensemble,
the Heidelberg Ballet Ensemble provided
out-of-season work for dancers and advanced
ballet students. The ensemble folded
in 1986.
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