Person - Mischa Burlakov
MISCHA BURLAKOV (ca 1884 - 1965)
Near 36 Pitt Street was Burlakov’s studio where WAC members on Saturday nights drank rough red wine and brandy punch at long trestle tables and watched the floor show: Mischa “ a fat little body in tights” and Cossack dancers. A Burlakov dancer performed “Labour in Chains” at the official WAC opening in October 1932, and the Burlakov - Lightfoot Studio staged gypsy and other items at WAC 1934-5. Moya Beaver was a member of the Burlakov troupe.
Born in the Ukraine, Mischa moved to London in the early 1890s and, a cabinetmaker by trade, migrated to Australia before the First World War. With Louise Lightfoot (who in 1938 went to live in India) he established the First Australian Ballet.
Mischa Burlakov's papers 1929-65 are held by the National Library of Australia.
