Obituary: Vale Alan Brissenden, longtime dance critic for The Australian

A widely respected figure in Adelaide cultural circles, Alan Brissenden has died at age 87.

The Australian’s former dance critic in Adelaide, Alan Brissenden.

Alan Brissenden was chuffed that three of his former university students — Rob Brookman, Robyn Archer and Rachel Healy — went on to become directors of the Adelaide Festival.

They were just three of the longstanding connections he had with the cultural life of Adelaide, where he was also The Australian’s dance critic for 30 years.

Widely loved and respected, Brissenden died on Wednesday at age 87.

“The word that keeps coming up is champion — he was a champion of the arts,” said his daughter, Celia Brissenden. “He had such a passion for it.”

Brissenden was a lecturer in English at the University of Adelaide for more than 30 years until his retirement in 1994. He specialised in the performance of Shakespeare in Australia and also contemporary Australian fiction.

His love of dance was lifelong, starting as a six-year-old when he saw his first ballet, part of a pantomime performance of Aladdin. At the University of Sydney in 1950 he wrote his first dance review for student newspaper Honi Soit.

Brissenden’s writing for The Australian included reviews of Adelaide companies — Australian Dance Theatre and international productions at the Adelaide Festival.

In 2013 he was inducted into the Australian Dance Awards hall of fame, the only non-practitioner of dance to be given that honour.

With his wife Elizabeth, who died last year, they enjoyed dance performances on their travels around the world.