Kathleen Gorham OBE 1928-1983

Borovansky’s company disbanded at the end of 1947 and, inevitably, Gorham was among the
local dancers drawn to the ranks of the visiting British Ballet Rambert. She joined the Rambert corps de ballet in 1948, dancing as ‘Anne Somers’, a name with links to her mother’s family. Her brilliance soon won her featured roles such as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Nutcracker and Odette in Swan Lake – Act 2. When the Rambert company sailed back to Britain, Gorham went with them. Kathleen Gorham made her London debut at the Princes Theatre on 21 February 1949 as a Midinette with Roland Petit’s Ballet de Paris in Suite de Danses du Beau Danube. Later that year she joined Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet. After starting as a Cygnet in Swan Lake – Act 2, she swiftly worked her way up to principal roles in ballets by choreographers such as Balanchine, Ashton and Cranko.

Edouard Borovansky brought her back to Australia for his company’s 1951-1952 national tour. She danced for the first time in Giselle, a ballet with which she became especially identified. She also had leading roles in three important new works: Miss X in Borovansky’s Ned Kelly ballet, The Outlaw, Woman in Dorothy Stevenson’s Chiaroscuro, and Juliet in Paul Grinwis’ The Eternal Lovers – appropriate, as she and Grinwis, a popular Belgian dancer and choreographer, had become engaged.

In 1953 Gorham accepted an invitation to join the prestigious Grand Ballet du Marquis du Cuevas, with whom she created roles in ballets by George Skibine and Serge Golovine. Her Paris debut was sensational, and her success was repeated when the company appeared at the Stoll Theatre in London early in 1954.

Gorham rejoined the Borovansky Ballet later that year. In 1954 she took the title role in Pineapple Poll under the direction of its choreographer, John Cranko, and created leading roles in Grinwis’ Los Tres Diabolos (1954) and Lichine’s Corrida (1956). As well she entranced audiences in the great 19th century classics – Swan Lake, The Sleeping Princess, Nutcracker, Coppélia and, of course, Giselle.

But it was not only in ballet that Gorham shone. For Christmas 1956 William Orr cast her in the title role of his adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, with music by Dot Mendoza. After an enormously successful season at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney Alice was restaged at the Comedy in Melbourne in 1961, and revived at the Phillip in Sydney in 1966 and at the Princess in Melbourne in 1967. In 1957 Gorham reached a vast new audience when she played the tragic deaf mute in the drama Johnny Belinda, telecast live as part of the groundbreaking Shell Presents drama series on ATN7 and GTV9. Later she was often seen in classical ballet segments on Graham Kennedy’s In Melbourne Tonight.