Gordon Hamilton (dancer)

Australian ballet dancer

Born1918 (1918)

Sydney, Australia

Died14 February 1959(1959-02-14) (aged 40–41)

Paris, France

OccupationBallet dancer

Gordon Hamilton (1918 – 14 February 1959) was an Australian ballet dancer.

Gordon Hamilton was born in Sydney in 1918. Hamilton trained with Mischa Burlakov aged 18,^[1] and then Leon Kellaway.^[2]

Career

Hamilton's first role was in 1937, in the First Australian Ballet's production of Carnaval as Moya Beaver's partner.^[2] He later moved to London.

Hamilton created roles in Robert Helpmann's Hamlet (1942), Miracle in the Gorbals (1944) and Adam Zero (1966); and in Roland Petit's Les Demoiselles de la nuit (1948) and Carmen (1949).^[2]

Hamilton gave Ninette de Valois her famous nickname, Madam, when he created the role of an aging butterfly hunter in Promenade in 1943.^[3]

In 1954, Hamilton was appointed ballet master with the Vienna State Opera.^[1]

Hamilton died on 14 February 1959 in Paris.^[4]

1 2 Alan Brissenden; Keith Glennon (1 January 2010). Australia Dances: Creating Australian Dance, 1945–1965. Wakefield Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-86254-802-2.
1 2 3 "Hamilton, Gordon (1918-1959)". NLA.
↑ Zoë Anderson (17 February 2011). The Royal Ballet: 75 Years. Faber & Faber. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-571-26090-4.
↑ "Gordon Hamilton". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2014.

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