Russian dancers pirouetted in the Beaches sand in the 1930s
Visitors to Bungan Beach in 1939 may have been surprised by some of the activities on the sand – a group of very athletic young men and women dancing singly and together. Off to the side they may also have noticed a youngish man, dressed quite conservatively, operating a home movie camera.
The man was Ewan Murray-Will and the young dancers were members of the Ballets Russes under Colonel W de Basil, who were on their third tour of Australia for JC Williamson. The company had been formed in 1909 by leading Russian dancers and choreographers, but by the 1930s was based in Monte Carlo.
Murray-Will (1899-1970), a graduate of Sydney University, a dermatologist and a passionate supporter of the arts. He also served in World War II in the Middle East and later in North Queensland, for which he was awarded an Order of the British Empire.
He became very involved in supporting the Ballets Russes dancers who visited Australia three times between 1936 and 1940. It was his habit to rent a cottage on Bungan Beach in summer and on all three tours he invited the visiting ballet troupe to take a break there.
The dancers relished the relative seclusion, the weather and the freedom. They treated the beach, the ocean’s edge and the adjacent rocks as a stage and danced spontaneously, allowing Ewan to film their performances. He produced some wonderful sequences, some of them using the novel technique of slow motion.
You can view his films on the National Film and Sound Archives website.
Richard Michell is the vice-president of the Manly, Warringah and Pittwater Historical Society and the secretary of Friends of Dee Why Lagoon. Visit mwphs.org.au and fodyl.au