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In this article, I explain the demanding creative challenges that Robert Helpmann had to face regarding Miracle in the Gorbals (1944) and Adam Zero (1946) by examining the difficulties presented by the concepts behind the scenarios and Helpmann's own artistic commitments. In relation to the reception of these ballets, I explore the controversies surrounding Helpmann's choices of subject matter as well as the perceived imbalance between the theatrical and the choreographic aspects of these works. I argue that Arthur Bliss' scores for both ballets show him as an ideal collaborator for Helpmann. Bliss' creative personality made him a sympathetic and effective composer for these ballets, given their dramatic requirements. Finally, I contend that only an awareness of the theatrical reality of these ballets will allow us a proper assessment of Bliss' scores for Helpmann.

Review(s) of: Robert Helpmann: The many faces of a theatrical dynamo, edited by Richard Allen Cave and Anna Meadmore, (UK Dance Books, 2019).

Robert Helpmann played an influential role in the early development of the Australian Ballet as choreographer and co-artistic director. The first ballets he created for the fledgling company, The Display in 1964 and Yugen in 1965, were seen as a means by which the Australian Ballet could achieve an international profile: the Helpmann name was a powerful one. But the creative development period that brought these ballets to the stage reveals a demanding side of Helpmann's personality and approach-an uncompromising collaborative aesthetic in his dealings with his collaborators.

Besides the heritage of talent and early family nurture, performer Robert Helpmann was active in a wide variety of strenuous and excellent performance work in Australia before he left for England in 1932. As a multi-skilled man of the theater, he fulfilled various roles: choreographer, artistic director of festivals and ballet companies, and stage and film actor, among other things. In this light, Bemrose explores Helpmann's early career in Australia.

Sir Robert Helpmann, who shot to stardom with The Royal Ballet in London in the 1930s, will have an exhibition in his honour in London.

Royal Opera House exhibitions manager Cristina (Cristina) Franchi said [Robert Helpmann] left a lasting impression as a dancer and choreographer. Six years later, English actress Margaret Rawlings was so impressed by Helpmann she recommended Ninette de Valois, founder of the Vic-Wells Ballet (which later became Sadler's Wells and then the Royal Ballet) in London to take him on. When he wasn't on stage, Helpmann mentored the company's young dancers, most notably Margot Fonteyn, with whom he forged a celebrated 14-year partnership.

The characterisation of a country and its culture can often be confronting for the citizens, particularly when this is critical and emphasises negative aspects of accent, lifestyle or behaviours. Couched as humour it can be more readily accepted, but it takes courage and perhaps a degree of personal outrage to mount serious critique on one's own countrymen.

The characterisation of a country and its culture can often be confronting for the citizens, particularly when this is critical and emphasises negative aspects of accent, lifestyle or behaviours. Couched as humour it can be more readily accepted, but it takes courage and perhaps a degree of personal outrage to mount serious critique on one's own countrymen.

The book offers some very interesting chapters and a lot of beautiful photographs, but with this appeal to new readers and viewers in mind, I did hope that the editors would focus their reflections through contemporary performance discourse and go further to draw out Helpmann's legacy through the lens of now. Byrne, through invoking Helpmann's long career, advocates to 'celebrate the mature dancer as an essential distributor of historical, cultural and creative knowledge' (133), in contrast to ballet's dismissal of the 'ageing body as a site of technical and expressive limitation' (131). The author takes this opportunity to point out the complexity of Helpmann's relationship with his homeland (he spent most of his career overseas, returning in later life), which must have included ambivalence regarding early memories of discrimination.

Miracle is framed by two other war-themed ballets. Kenneth MacMillan's La Fin du Jour (1979) evokes the interwar years, its jazz-age choreography etched with acidic melancholy. Occasionally, MacMillan's choreographic sophistications overwhelm the cast, and it's in David Bintley's Flowers of the Forest (1985) that BRB really shine.