Russians in Australia - Russian Arts in Australia

Russian Arts in Australia

The mine engineer Ilya Repin (1888–1949), after settling in Sydney in 1925, helped create a Russian Orthodox Church in Sydney on Robertson Road in the 1930s. First holding services in his own cottage, he founded the Church of Saint Vladimir on this site, a 'khram' which exists to this day. There is a long history of Russian cultural and artistic visits to Australia. In 1913, the Russian Imperial Ballet toured Australia, the first and only performances of Russian actors before the First World War. In 1926 the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova danced in Melbourne and Sydney, giving a great boost to the embryonic Australian ballet of its day and in the same year, famed opera singer Feodor Shalyapin made an Australian concert tour. Renowned ballerina Irina Baronova toured Australia before the Second World War and lived in Byron Bay, New South Wales from 2000 until her death in 2008. She was a vice-president of the Royal Academy of Dance and a patron of The Australian Ballet, and published her memoirs in 2005.

Kira Bousloff (Abricossova) (1914–2001) is best known as the founder of the oldest ballet company in Australia - the WA State Ballet Co. Born in Monte-Carlo to Russian parents she came to Australia as a member of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet company in 1938 and remained in Australia after the tour ended in 1939. She moved to Perth with her husband composer James Penberthy and established the WA State Ballet Co in 1952.

Pianists Alexander Sverjensky and Phillip Shovk and painter Danila Vassiliev worked in Australia and boosted the local development of their arts, while art historian Nina Kristesen established the Department of Russian Language and Literature at Melbourne University in 1946.

Russian arts festivals and events are popular in Australia. The 150th anniversary of Pushkin's death was commemorated with poetry festivals in 1987 and a range of Russian cultural and social organisations are active in the major cities of Melbourne and Sydney. The Russian Connection provides an independent and comprehensive guide to cultural events and occasions with a Russian flavour in Australia. The organisation promotes Russian cultural activities such as art exhibitions, ballet, classical music, concerts, festivals, children's events, movies, musicals, lectures, opera, and theatre. The Russian Connection is continually expanding with the recent addition of a catalogue of new Russian literature and Russian language movies available from various public libraries.