Louise Mary Lightfoot (22 May 1902 – 18 May 1979) was an Australian architect, choreographer and dancer. She was also known as Louisa Mary Lightfoot. She is credited with contributing to the cultural life of Australia through both classical ballet and Indian classical dance.
East Melbourne
East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. East Melbourne recorded a population of 4,896 at the 2021 ...
. Lightfoot went on to study architecture at the
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb n ...
, graduating in 1923, the first woman to complete the program. She apprenticed in architecture in the office of
Walter Burley Griffin
Walter Burley Griffin (November 24, 1876February 11, 1937) was an American architect and landscape architect. He is known for designing Canberra, Australia's capital city and the New South Wales towns of Griffith and Leeton. He has been cr ...
and
Marion Mahony Griffin
Marion Mahony Griffin (; February 14, 1871 – August 10, 1961) was an American architect and artist. She was one of the first licensed female architects in the world, and is considered an original member of the Prairie School. Her work in ...
in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...
. Lightfoot moved to Castlecrag in 1924 with the Griffins, working in the Sydney office and also serving as companion and cook for Marion.
Career in dance
Fond of dancing from a young age, Lightfoot was inspired after seeing
Anna Pavlova
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20t ...
perform in 1926. She studied with Ivan Sergieff and Alexis Dolinoff, dancers from Pavlova's company. She also trained briefly with Daphne Deane at the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (formerly the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music and known by the moniker "The Con") is a heritage-listed music school in Macquarie Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the ol ...
and Sonia Revid, a student of
Mary Wigman
Mary Wigman (born Karoline Sophie Marie Wiegmann; 13 November 1886 – 18 September 1973) was a German dancer and choreographer, notable as the pioneer of expressionist dance, dance therapy, and movement training without pointe shoes. She is ...
. Lightfoot also met
Misha Burlakov
Misha (russian: Миша), also known as Mishka (russian: Мишка) or The Olympic Mishka (russian: Олимпийский Мишка), is the name of the Russian Bear mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games (the XXII Summer Olympics). He ...
who taught her Russian folk dances. She began teaching ballet to children and left the Griffins in October 1928 to take up dance full-time. Lightfoot taught the
Cecchetti method
The Cecchetti method is variously defined as a style of ballet and as a ballet training method devised by the Italian ballet master Enrico Cecchetti (1850–1928). The training method seeks to develop essential skills in dancers as well as str ...
. With Burlakov, she founded the Lightfoot-Burlakov Classic Dance School which in 1931 became the First Australian Ballet. In 1931, they staged the first ballet performed by an Australian dance company, a production of ''
Coppélia
''Coppélia'' (sometimes subtitled: ''La Fille aux Yeux d'Émail'' (The Girl with the Enamel Eyes)) is a comic ballet from 1870 originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to the music of Léo Delibes, with libretto by Charles-Louis-� ...
''. She choreographed and produced several ballets each year, some based on classic ballets and some original.
Lightfoot visited London and Paris with Burlakov in 1937. They secured the rights to perform
Diaghilev
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pat ...
's '' Le Dieu bleu'' (The blue god). She also took classes in modern, Spanish and Hindu dance. Lightfoot next spent five months in studying
Kathakali
Kathakali ( ml, കഥകളി) is a major form of classical Indian dance. It is a "story play" genre of art, but one distinguished by the elaborately colourful make-up and costumes of the traditional male actor-dancers. It is native to the M ...
dance at the
Kerala Kalamandalam
Kerala Kalamandalam, deemed to be University of Art and Culture by the Government of India, is a major center for learning Indian performing arts, especially those that developed in the Southern states of India, with the special emphasis on ...
. On her return to Sydney in 1938, she staged her own production of ''The Blue God''. She then left her partnership with Burlakov and returned to India to study Kathakali and
Bharatanatyam
Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of ...
dance, living in
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South C ...
and
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...
for the next five years. She also taught ballet to the children of the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi language, Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Q ...
. She promoted Indian dance and organized tours for troupes in the region.
In 1947, she arranged a tour of Australia for the Kathakali dancer Ananda Shivaram. In 1949, she created a ballet ''Indra Vijayam'', starring Shivaram. Lightfoot and Shivaram established an Indian dance school in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. In 1951, she went to
Manipur
Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a States and territories of India, state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It ...
where she studied a third tradition of Indian sacred dance. From 1965 to 1968, she lived at the
ashram
An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions.
Etymology
The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< Vishnudevananda Saraswati in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
. She retired to
Oakleigh, Victoria
Oakleigh is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 14 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Monash local government area. Oakleigh recorded a population of 8,442 at the 2021 census.
Once a ...
in 1968 and continued to promote Indian dance in Australia, also organizing tours of Indian dancers and drummers there, in Japan and in North America.
Lightfoot published ''Dance-Rituals of Manipur'' in 1958. In 1968, she published recordings of Indian music ''Ritual Music of Manipur''.
Lightfoot died in Malvern a few days before her 77th birthday.
Legacy
In 1997, dancer and choreographer
Tara Rajkumar
Tara Rajkumar is an Indian classical dancer and dance teacher. She is an exponent in Indian classical dances like Kathakali and Mohiniyattam. In 2009, she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia. She also received many other awards in ...
created a dance with dialogue called ''Temple dreaming'' in memory of Lightfoot which was shown in Melbourne and
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders wi ...
. In 2014, Mary Louise Lightfoot, her niece, published an
e-book
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...
'' Lightfoot dancing—Part 1: an Australian-Indian affair''.
Vallathol Narayana Menon
Vallathol Narayana Menon (Malayalam: വള്ളത്തോൾ നാരായണ മേനോൻ) (16 October 1878 – 13 March 1958) was a Malayalam poet and one of the triumvirate of modern Malayalam poetry, along with Asan and Ulloor ...
, the founder of Kerala Kalamandalam, called Lightfoot the "Australian mother of Kathakali".
Her contribution to Australia's interaction with Asian culture is documented and preserved through the Louise Lightfoot Collection at
Monash University
Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university h ...