1973 – Premiere of Jack Carter’s Three Dances to Japanese Music by Scottish Theatre Ballet

Three Dances to Japanese Music.

Three Dances to Japanese Music is a ballet originally choreographed by Jack Carter for Scottish Ballet after he had spent some time working in Japan. It consists of three thematically unconnected pieces linked by a score of authentic Japanese music arranged and recorded by Kisahisa Katada. The costumes, by Norman McDowell, are also in a Japanese style. The ballet does not attempt to imitate Japanese dancing so much as evoking a Japanese spirit as conceived by a Western choreographer.

In the first piece, a river God (originally Kit Lethby) abducts a mortal wife (Anna McCartney) from her husband and transforms her into a Kabuki water nymph. In the second piece two men compete for the attention of a woman (Marian St. Claire), while the third is a plotless ensemble.

The ballet was popular and widely toured, to Australia and Paris, among other places, and revived a number of times by Scottish Ballet. It was filmed and broadcast by the BBC in 1980, and also later entered the repertoire of London City Ballet.