Shirley McKechnie AO was an early contemporary choreographer who became one of the important pioneers of Australian contemporary dance, alongside other greats such as Margaret Lasica and Elizabeth Dalman (later Elizabeth Cameron Dalman).
Shirley was largely influenced by her teachers Johanna Kolm (later known as Hanny Exiner) and Daisy Purnitzer, who passed on the Bodenwieser style in which improvisation and choreography were central. Daisy had been a student of Gertrude Bodenwieser in Vienna and came to Melbourne with her parents prior to WWII, whereas Hanny had been performing and touring with the Bodenwieser Ballet when the company came to Sydney to escape the Nazi regime. Hanny soon joined her friend in Melbourne.
Shirley’s first choreographic works provided performance experiences and showcased the year’s development of the many children, all girls in the 1950s, enrolled in the burgeoning Beaumaris School of Modern Ballet. At its peak the school had about 350 students. Every girl in Beaumaris wanted to join the classes.
The ‘Children’s Ballets’ in the annual children’s dance recitals explored Shirley’s interests in artistic imagination, science and the natural world, as well as Australian themes, often including Indigenous themes in works such as The Magic Garden (1957), Priscilla’s Dream (1962) – a circus ballet – The Whirlwind and the Rainbow (1964) and Tinka and the Didgeridoo (1966).
Daisy Purnitzer mentored Shirley through the process of making her first work, The Magic Garden in 1957. What a Load of Rubbish, was created in 1986 for Tasdance’s Primary School residency program and designed by Kenneth Rowell; it was based on similar ideas and choreographic structures, albeit significantly more sophisticated and yet engaging for children.
Shirley's interest in these themes continued in her works for the Contemporary Dance Theatre of Melbourne (1963–1972). Many of the works for the company were initially created and performed for the annual student recital, as it became known, and were later performed in a program of works by the Contemporary Dance Theatre.
The 1963 inaugural season at the Emerald Hill Theatre in South Melbourne included works such as Sketches on Themes of Paul Klee and The Planets. The company presented work at the Moomba Festival and in regional Victoria – Hamilton, Boort Fiesta and Benalla – as well as in churches in Beaumaris and North Balwyn. Major seasons were presented at the Canberra Playhouse in 1966 and 1968 and at the Alexander Theatre, Monash University, in 1970 and 1972.
The Bodenwieser influence was quite evident in the early works in the use of movement vocabulary such as the body wave or backbend, figure 8s and body circles, as well as the use of ‘structured improvisation’. In Sketches on Themes of Paul Klee (1964), Eerie Moment and Twittering Machine were entirely improvised. In the opening section of the Sea Interlude (1966), Sea Change was largely improvised between the choreographed opening and ending, and the final section Sea Storm incorporated signature Bodenwieser Figure 8 movements.
Of Spiralling Why (1967) was entirely a ‘structured’ improvisation. Over time the Bodenwieser influence diminished as Shirley adopted stylistic influences and the contributions of her dancers, and exposed the company to wide-ranging influences of other choreographers and teachers. Almost invariably there was a guest choreographer in each program, including Jeffa Nicholson, Janette Liddell and in 1972 works by Graeme Murphy and Ian Spink.
Canon for Four Dancers (1973), to Johann Pachelbel’s famous music, was choreographed after Contemporary Dance Theatre’s final 1972 season. Traces of the Bodenwieser influence remained in hinge turns and suspended tilts, but the Graham technique, which Shirley had embraced in the mid 60s, was more evident in use of spirals and spiral turns.
Reflecting the formal structures of the baroque music there was little or no use of floor work, resulting in what audiences perceived as a more balletic style than Shirley’s earlier highly innovative works. However, themes of early feminism underpinned the work as the movement detail expressed women seeking ‘more’ and going beyond expected norms. Canon for Four Dancers was reproduced in 1986 by Tasdance for archival purposes.
Music was really important in all Shirley’s work, from classwork to performance. Pianists played for all classes and were highly valued for their musicianship and capacity to improvise, in particular Gabrielle Whitehorn in the early years and Jerri Mann throughout the 60s and early 70s.
Some of Shirley’s most significant works for the Contemporary Dance Theatre were created to works of major composers, including Gustav Holst’s The Planets (1963), William Grant Still’s The Earth Song (1965) and Bela Bartok’s The Lonely World (1965) which was later performed with its sequel, The Lonely World, Part 1 Three Figures and Part 2 The Other Generation in 1972. The music for The Finding of the Moon (1972), based on Judith Wright’s poem, was by Australian composer Ian Cugley. Shirley also collaborated with Melbourne artists such as Jim Hayes (Twittering Machine – the machine itself) and Rowena Clark (Sea Interlude costumes) Bruce Clark and Anne Pickburn (Of Spiralling Why).
Shirley always acknowledged her inspirational teachers and talked about the Bodenwieser legacy, more as a philosophy than a technique because artistic process and creativity were so important to her. The philosophy of the importance of a creative life, inspiring and supporting the next generation of dance artists 'to become themselves', endured.