Poul Gnatt
Poul Gnatt |
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Poul Rudolph Gnatt
Childhood
Gnatt was born in Baden, Austria. His father was Kai Gnatt, flower merchant, and his mother Kaja Olsen, both from Denmark, to which they returned from Austria with Poul and his sister Kirsten six years after his birth, whereupon the children entered the ballet school of the Royal Danish Ballet. Brother and sister entered the parent company upon their graduation in 1939.
Career
Early career
Gnatt achieved acclaim for his
New Zealand
Gnatt and New Zealand ballet teachers Beryl Nettleton and Bettina Edwards performed at the Playhouse Theatre
Dancers to come out of the company included Jon Trimmer, Russell Kerr, Rowena Jackson and Sara Neil. His sister, Kirsten Ralov, and her husband, Fredborn Bjornsson, visited in 1962 to dance in Bournonville's Napoli, its first production outside Denmark.
The company's board, however, appointed a new director that year. Gnatt joined The Australian Ballet as balletmaster. He returned as interim director of the New Zealand Ballet from 1969 to 1971 and subsequently co-founded the Dance Theatre of the Philippines.
Gnatt died in
Honours and awards
In the
In 1998, the Royal New Zealand Ballet's principal studio was named in Gnatt's honour when it moved into the refurbished St James Theatre in Wellington.
Footnotes
- ^ in Karangahape Road; later renamed the Mercury Theatre
References
- ISBN 9781869790080.
- ^ Deguara, Brittney (15 January 2021). "The Danish dancer who become the 'patriarch' of the Royal New Zealand Ballet". Stuff. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- ^ "Han heter Fin Gnatt". Bergens Tidende.
- ^ "No. 49376". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 11 June 1983. p. 34.
- ^ "Honorary graduates and Hunter fellowships". Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
- Ashton, B. The New Zealand Ballet. Wellington, 1978
- Shennan, Jennifer. "Gnatt, Poul Rudolph 1923–1995". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, volume five (1941–1960), 2000, updated 22 June 2007
- Dancing Times 86, no 1023 (December 1995): 243
- Evening Post. 19 October 1995: 5
- Dictionary of New Zealand Biography