59 Facts About Rachel Cameron

Rachel Cameron was an Australian ballet dancer and teacher.

Rachel Cameron was one of the leading dancers in early Australian ballet in the 1940s, performing with the Borovansky and Kirsova ballet companies, and was one of the first ballet dancers in Australia to reach the rank of principal.

Rachel Cameron spent her very early years in the coastal city of Townsville in north-eastern Queensland.

Rachel Cameron was severely ill as a child and was bored with the enforced regimen of rest imposed on her, but her parents noticed her love of movement and sent her to eurhythmics classes.

Rachel Cameron later reported that a passerby saw her dancing among some flowers and suggested that she take dance classes.

Rachel Cameron was enthusiastic about the idea and insisted in taking part when her school offered her dance lessons.

Rachel Cameron was invited by her to help teach the youngest classes on Saturday mornings, and as a result Cameron found early on that she had an aptitude for teaching which was to serve her well for the rest of her life.

Sievers insisted that Rachel Cameron take piano lessons, and allowed her to borrow from her collection of books on dance.

Interestingly for Rachel Cameron's future teaching career, among the books she borrowed was the Russian prima ballerina Tamara Karsavina's Theatre Street.

Rachel Cameron was one of their first pupils in the special professional morning class held for those who were already dancers of some experience and who intended making dancing their career.

Rachel Cameron was among a number of those attending the school in its early months whose balletic achievements in later years were profound.

In June 1939, Rachel Cameron performed publicly for the first time, being, with Edna Busse, the first of Borovansky's pupils to dance outside the studio: a Melbourne newspaper reported that they danced to the music of Frederic Chopin and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at a charity supper recital.

Rachel Cameron soon discovered that despite performing publicly and being treated by Borovansky as if they were professionals, they were not paid.

Rachel Cameron was picked out by The Age newspaper for her excellence in the Pavlova role of the Chrysanthemum alongside Serge Bousloff in Autumn Leaves.

Rachel Cameron, fast developing her powers, was now one of Borovansky's leading dancers and considered to be highly promising.

Rachel Cameron was "highly sensitive, lyrical and musical", though it was said her line was "a little short for a truly classical dancer".

Rachel Cameron summoned everyone in the studio to the main classroom and called Cameron into the middle of the room.

Rachel Cameron railed at her that she had gone against his wishes, lowered his standards and performed in a very bad way.

Rachel Cameron set up her school at Macquarie Place near Circular Quay in Sydney in 1940.

Rachel Cameron attended her "technically demanding" classes which had a great emphasis on turns, beats and jumps and on "speed, footwork and brain" The classes were mentally and physically demanding.

Kirsova soon discovered that in Rachel Cameron she had a supreme technician whose lyrical talent she was able to extend.

Rachel Cameron recognised that her new protegee had teaching skills and quickly encouraged her to develop them at the school.

The dancers, including Rachel Cameron, were paid trade union rates for the first time and Kirsova paid their dues to Actors Equity of Australia, which registered them as professional performers.

Les Sylphides and Faust, with Rachel Cameron featured again, appeared once more when the Kirsova Ballet moved to Melbourne for a season at His Majesty's Theatre on 31 January 1942.

Rachel Cameron was now one of Kirsova's leading dancers, making her debut as a principal ballerina in February 1943, and she was to stay with the company until October 1945, performing seasons in Sydney and tours to Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.

Kirsova herself, and the critics, agreed that Rachel Cameron was "world class".

Rachel Cameron remarked to Cameron that "if she could take us to Europe we would cause a sensation".

Rachel Cameron is a dancer of rare musical sensitivity and intelligence.

Rachel Cameron is so convincing and gives such strength of characterisation to any role she creates that she makes it difficult to imagine them in other hands.

Rachel Cameron attended evening sessions run by Valya Kouznetsova, a dancer of the Moscow school, who had stayed in Australia after one of the Ballets Russes tours.

Rachel Cameron had become involved with the Australian Choreographic Society, a group founded in 1944 to sponsor the development of ballet in Australia with the aim of establishing a permanent company which would perform only original works rather than established ballets.

The producer was Philippe Perrottet, a close friend of Rachel Cameron who had been a student with her at the Borovansky studio but had been fired in a typical Borovansky rage shortly before Rachel Cameron's ejection, and had just emerged from four years' wartime service with the Royal Australian Air Force.

Rachel Cameron was one of the principal dancers in the ballet, playing the character of Night.

In September 1947, in a short season in Melbourne, Rachel Cameron appeared as a guest solo artist with the National Theatre Movement ballet group in a new Australian ballet Euroka, based on aboriginal mythology, and in a number of other popular ballets.

Also in September 1947, Rachel Cameron was among a number of leading Australian dancers invited to supplement the British dance company Ballet Rambert on their Australasian tour from 1947 to 1949.

Rachel Cameron wanted to hone her training in Europe with distinguished teachers like Olga Preobrajenska, Vera Volkova and Kirsova's teacher Lyubov Yegorova.

Rachel Cameron came to see that she should have left Australia earlier.

Preobrajenska, seeing how poor Rachel Cameron was, offered to give her every second class free.

Rachel Cameron stated that one of the most exciting periods of her life came when she was asked to demonstrate for two great teachers and former ballerinas, Lydia Sokolova and Tamara Karsavina.

Rachel Cameron was not content with near being good enough, it had to be exact or else.

For Rachel Cameron it was the beginning of a long and loving relationship with Karsavina.

Rachel Cameron was much valued as one of the greatest exponents of classical dance partnering.

Around the time Rachel Cameron joined him he was principal dancer and choreographer at London's Windmill Theatre, staging over 150 shows, and creating the revue theatre's famous fan dances, but he was simultaneously developing a strong teaching career at the Royal Ballet School and at the Royal Academy of Dance, where he eventually became Director of its Teacher Training Course.

Rachel Cameron, benefitting from her professional alliances with both Lester and Karsavina, became increasingly involved in teaching at the RAD, particularly through the development and perpetuation of the Karsavina Syllabus.

Rachel Cameron was instrumental in helping Karsavina in her development of the Syllabus and in its instruction, demonstrating technical points as Karsavina was no longer able to dance.

Until the end of the twentieth century most of them, like Rachel Cameron, had studied it under Karsavina herself and were entrusted by her to teach it.

In 1973, at the request of Karsavina, Rachel Cameron took over the Syllabus herself as its prime tutor and guardian.

Rachel Cameron had reached the peak of her true calling, training the ballet teachers of the future in the second and third years of their studies, and she retained and enjoyed this crowning achievement for over a quarter of a century.

Rachel Cameron claimed to be able to discern something of the personality of each student, simply by watching how their bodies inhabited the world.

In 1994, when Rachel Cameron was approaching retirement the Board of the RAD awarded Rachel Cameron the designation of Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Dance.

Rachel Cameron remained in charge of the Syllabus until her formal retirement in 1996.

Rachel Cameron continued to run the school after Parker's death in 1984 but eventually closed it in July 1992.

On 10 December 1946 in Melbourne, Rachel Cameron married Keith Frederick Parker, a recently discharged Royal Australian Air Force warrant officer.

When he saw Rachel Cameron perform he abruptly changed his mind and proposed to her when he was still 17 and she was 15.

Rachel Cameron refused him, but he continued to propose throughout his wartime service.

Rachel Cameron continued to drive there from London, even in her old age.

Rachel Cameron died on 6 March 2011 at her home in Hampstead, at age 86.

Rachel Cameron left all her balletic effects, "including paintings, lithographs, memorabilia, books and all written work", to performance archives.

Rachel Cameron was, through Tamara Karsavina, a direct link to Sergei Diaghilev for a multitude of ballet teachers, and through them for the ballet dancers of today.