Sir Robert Murray Helpmann CBE (9 April 1909 – 28 September 1986) was an Australian dancer, actor, director and choreographer. Born Robert Murray Helpman, he added the extra 'n' to avoid his name having 13 letters, at the suggestion of Anna Pavlova, who was a devotee of numerology. He was born in Mount Gambier and also boarded at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, South Australia. The Helpmann Academy in South Australia, a partnership of the majo...
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Sir Robert Murray Helpmann CBE (9 April 1909 – 28 September 1986) was an Australian dancer, actor, director and choreographer. Born Robert Murray Helpman, he added the extra 'n' to avoid his name having 13 letters, at the suggestion of Anna Pavlova, who was a devotee of numerology. He was born in Mount Gambier and also boarded at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, South Australia. The Helpmann Academy in South Australia, a partnership of the major visual and performing arts education and training institutions in South Australia offering award courses for people seeking professional careers in the arts, was named in his honour.
From childhood, Helpmann had a strong desire to be a dancer. This was an unusual ambition in provincial Australia of the 1920s. In a 1974 interview he recalled that he was taught the moves and dances of a girl because his dance teacher had no prior experience teaching boys.
In the Margot Fonteyn biography, he is described as being dark haired, pale, and having...
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