A Letter From The Publisher: Apr. 16, 1965

WHEN this week's cover started coming off the presses, the artist who painted it, Sidney Nolan, was in the mountainous wilds of the Sepik area of New Guinea watching native dances. "I wish Nureyev could have been here in the mountains with me," Nolan told TIME'S Australian correspondent by radiotelephone. "Somehow, 100 natives dancing with gorgeous bird of paradise feathers in their hair symbolized for me the very spirit of ballet."

This is TIME'S third cover story on the ballet* and Nolan's first cover for TIME. It was a commission that he welcomed with great enthusiasm. An Australian who now lives in...

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