CRITICS’ CHOICE: WHAT WERE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF 2022?

ISSUE 238 JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH ’23 DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

IS THERE A BETTER
APPROACH TO
THE CHOREOGRAPHIC SYLLABUS?
GENIUS OF CRYSTAL PITE

SAFE STRETCHING
Easing into glorious
flexibility
WHAT’S ON?
NO ORDINARY The best of dance
ENTERTAINMENT
Christian Spuck and around the country
Ballett Zurich

LONG RUNNING
MUSICALS
Staying fresh
in the same role

PLUS Frances Rings on her plans for Bangarra | Benjamin Millepied on his film
of ‘Carmen’ | Laura Boynes on her take on the cosmos | Rachel Ogle in the limelight
 Tiana wears the Ashley Leotard with Skir t.

Our sustainable journey is well on it’s way.

This garment is proudly made from recycled plastic bottles.
Contents 3

10
THE (ZOOM-
FREE) YEAR
AHEAD
A snapshot of the
company dance offerings around the
country this year.

38
IN FOR
THE
LONG
HAUL
Dancers tell Olivia Stewart
how they keep their roles fresh
over a long-running musical.

57
SAFE STRETCH
TO SUPPLENESS
Achieving super
flexibility takes time and
care, advises Belle Beasley.

32
THE EXTRAORDINARY
CRYSTAL PITE
The acclaimed choreographer
says she doesn’t want
anyone to be ‘held back’ by
her choreography.

42
CRITICS’
CHOICE
The return of the
annual Dance

24
Australia Critics’ Survey!
NO ORDINARY
EVENING
Christian Spuck’s Adelaide
Festival premiere brings
together the Ballett Zurich with over a
hundred local artists, writes Lucas Forbes.

COVER: Bangarra’s Dance Clan
is returning! Pictured are
Courtney Radford and Daniel
Mateo. Photo by Daniel Boud.
Pièces de résistance
6 IN STEP
23 DANCING THE COSMOS
Isabelle Leclezio interviews Laura Boynes on
her Perth Festival premiere.
30 MEET BANGARRA’S NEW LEADER
Frances Rings reveals her hopes and plans.
52 IS THERE A BETTER APPROACH TO SYLLABUS?
John Byrne thinks so.
62 THE BUILDING THAT FLIES
Matthew Lawrence delights in the Qld
Ballet’s new world class premises.
65 THE REMAKING OF ‘CARMEN’
Benjamin Millepied describes his debut
as a film director.
67 REVIEWS
74 LIMELIGHT

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

4 / Opening number

Christian Spuck in
collaboration with dancers.

PHOTO: IDA ZENNA

Editor DANCE AUSTRALIA
Karen van Ulzen is published by
dance@yaffa.com.au

Words from
Yaffa Media Pty Ltd,
ABN 54 002 699 354,
Contributors
17-21 Bellevue St,
Belle Beasley
Surry Hills NSW 2010.
Susan Bendall

the choreographers.
Sally Clark Ph: (02) 9281 2333
Michelle Dursun Fax: (02) 9281 2750
Geraldine Higginson All Mail to: GPO Box 606,
Alana Kildea Sydney NSW 2001
Irina Kuzminsky
Matthew Lawrence
Isabelle Leclezio
To sell Dance Australia, T is always fascinating to hear choreographers speak in their own words about their
Margaret Mercer
call Michelle, Retail Sales,
methods: what inspires them, how their pieces evolve, from the initial, nascent idea to
Denise Richardson
on (02) 9213 8302,
the nitty-gritty in the studio. Here are some choice quotes from interviews in this issue:
Rhys Ryan
Fax (02) 9281 2750.
[They] “had an interesting language of their own. Then I would basically make
Emma Sandall
up the structure and let them choreograph the movements.” (Benjamin Millepied about
Maggie Tonkin
Publisher local Sydney crumpers in his new film of Carmen.)
Taylor Venter
Tracy Yaffa “... we made an abstract work that, by including dancing, lets audience members hear
National Sales Manager the music with their eyes and better understand the composition.” (Christian Spuck,
Carol Roselli Production Director
artistic director designate of the Berlin Ballet, on creating his Messa da Requiem.)
Ph: (07) 3348 6966 Matthew Gunn
“Every story in Bangarra has its roots in culture and community and the people who
carolroselli@yaffa.com.au Marketing Manager care for those stories, the cultural authorities who ensure they are maintained, we go
Advertising Production Lucy Yaffa to them for permission.” (Frances Rings, artistic director and choreographer of the
Michelle Carneiro Studio Manager company’s latest full-length work, Yuldea.)
Ph: (02) 9213 8219 Lauren Esdaile “I don’t ever want anybody to be held back by my choreography. I want dancers to use
michellecarneiro@ it as a map or tool for them to deliver whatever it is that they’re are really good at.”
Senior Designer
yaffa.com.au (Crystal Pite, choreographer of Revisor, which will be presented at the Adelaide Festival.)
Stéphanie
SUBSCRIPTIONS Blandin de Chalain And here’s another, not in this issue, but a gem I came across from a past issue, from
www.greatmagazines.com.au a choreographer looking back: “As a dancer, that was the greatest experience to me, to
CALL 1800 807 760 The opinions expressed
be involved creatively with a choreographer, where what is being made is being made
subscriptions@yaffa.com.au in Dance Australia are not on your body, and you’re contributing to it, just by your own physical statement. You’re
an active participant.
necessarily those of the
SUBSCRIPTION RATES: “I think that’s how a company grows – working with a variety, knowing that one has to
1 year/4 issues $32.22 publisher or editorial staff. adapt to a particular style, to a particular choreographer. When I was a dancer, my
1 year PLUS $36.00 dream was to be that vehicle, that instrument that every choreographer would want, and
(print + digital) choose, and to place myself inside the body of the choreographer.”
ISSN 0159-6330 The speaker is Glen Tetley (1926-2007), one of the first choreographers to fuse
classical and modern dance, talking to Lee Christofis on staging Voluntaries and Gemini
for the Australian Ballet (Issue 57, December 1991/January 1992).
If it wasn’t for these creative people, we wouldn’t have the dance to do or see. Enjoy
the interviews in these pages, and raise a glass to their incredible, fertile minds and
unique imaginations.

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www.danceaustralia.com.au KAREN VAN ULZEN – EDITOR

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 A U S T R A L I A

REACH FOR THE STARS IN GRISHKO STAR POINTES

ASK FOR THEM

AT YOUR LOCAL
SPECIALIST
GRISHKO SHOP
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6 / Instep NEWS | EVENTS

The succession of ‘KING’

WHEN Shaun Parker and Company
premiered KING in Sydney back in 2019, it
received rave reviews. An “inspired
collaboration” between Bulgarian singer/
songwriter Ivo Divchez and Parker’s
complex choreography, this is a “well
thought out and cleverly devised piece of
dance theatre” that makes the mind boggle
at the “depth of thought and intellectual
process” that went into making it,
according to Dance Australia’s critic,
Geraldine Higginson. KING toured the
Middle East and Austria after its 2019
launch and was set to tour Europe in 2020
and beyond until Covid hit.
The cast of nine dancers come from all
around the country (Sydney, regional NSW,
Melbourne, Canberra, Darwin and
Tasmania], a mix of cultural backgrounds
(including Maori, Indonesian, Filipino,
Ecuadorian) and diverse dance backgrounds.
Among them is actor Tony Derrick
(Neighbours, Underbelly) whose character
emerges as the alpha dominant who not only
claims power, but is given power via the group.
While the subject is raw, KING has been
described as enthralling entertainment.
‘KING’ is being relaunched in Sydney in
February for Sydney WorldPride Arts ahead
of a European tour. Seymour Centre
Sydney’s Everest Theatre, February 28 to
March 4.

PHOTO: PRUE UPTON

The cast in Shaun
Parker and
Company’s ‘King’.

John Cranko book

FIFTY years after his tragically early death, a new
biography has been published on the choreographer
John Cranko (1927-73), whose ballets still enchant
audiences today.
The book is written by Ashley Killar, whose
admiration for the master choreographer was sown
when he began his own career at the Stuttgart Ballet,
which Cranko directed from 1961 till his death.
(Killar went on to become artistic director of the
NAPAC Dance Company in South Africa and the
Royal New Zealand Ballet.)
At 493 pages, the book is a thoroughly researched
documentation of Cranko’s life and career,
including a catalogue of his complete works, a
selection of his letters, synopses and program notes
as well as information about the John Cranko
School, which still thrives in Stuttgart today. The
book is also, as Killar writes, “a loving tribute to an
unforgettable man”.
Cranko: the man and his choreography is available at
Bloch stores and through https://crankobiography.com

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU


Dance for climate hope
WESTERN Australian choreographer
Annette Carmichael has brought together a
team of 25 artists working across dance, sound
and design to create a vast and ambitious
dance work called The Stars Descend.
The work is performed in five instalments,
in five different sites, across a tract of land
1000km in length. It tells a new story about
Australia’s climate emergency and the power of
interconnected action to halt climate change.
Choreographers joining the team include
a number of exceptional First Nations artists.
Janine Oxenham was most recently
choreographer on Yirra Yaakin Theatre
Company’s hit show, Panawathi Girl. Simon
Stewart is a graduate of NAISDA and
lecturer at WA Academy of Performing Arts.
Rachael Colmer has performed in a number
of Carmichael’s previous works while Torres
Strait Islander dance artist Sonya Stephen
rounds out the team with extensive
experience in community consultation.
They are joined by renowned Australian
choreographer, Chrissie Parrott, Australian
Dance Award winner, Adelina Larsson
Mendoza, and former member of New
Zealand’s Atamira Dance Company, Pare
Randall. CO3 dancer, Russell Thorpe, is
also critical to the performance, joining
7
Janine Oxenham as one of two soloists who
perform as the “stars”, alongside large casts
of community performers.
The community ensembles have been
drawn from a diverse mix of regional people,
including farmers, scientists, conservationists,
nurses, and artists. The ultimate goal of the
project is to highlight the significance of the
protection and revegetation of a 1000km
wildlife pathway called Gondwana Link,
which stretches from Wooditjup (Margaret
River) on the West Coast to Garlgula
(Kalgoorlie) in WA’s interior.
The project has been in development since
2020 and has resulted in the creation of a
methodology for delivering arts projects called
Distributed 15. It delivers on-the-job training
and development for regional producers and
artists, while also improving the well-being of
regional communities through increased
participation in creative activity.
Commencing on March 17, each
performance happens in a beautiful outdoor
location that showcases the biodiversity of
southern Western Australia. The audience
can watch a single chapter or travel for 16
days and witness all five instalments. More
information at www.heartlandjourneys.com.
au/the-stars-descend.
PHOTO: NIC DUNCAN
Showcasing the
landscape:
participants in
‘The Stars Descend’.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
8 / Instep

Chunky Move Marrugeku receives award

residency MARRUGEKU Dance Company has been
awarded a prestigious 2022 Sidney Myer
Award in acknowledgment of our many years of
trans-Indigenous and intercultural performance
Performing Arts Award, one of the richest and making,” the pair said in accepting the award.
most covetted awards in the performing arts in Also announced on the day were the
Australia. Individual Winner ($60,000) – the actor and
Marrugeku won the group award of $90,000. theatre-maker Eryn Jean Norvill – and the
Co-directed by Dalisa Pigram and director/ Facilitator’s Prize ($25,000) – Deirdre
dramaturg Rachael Swain, the O’Brien, of Auspicious Arts Projects
company is dedicated to Indigenous in Melbourne.
and non-Indigenous Australians The Sidney Myer Performing

PHOTO: MICHAEL JALARU TORRES

working together to develop new Arts Awards were established in
PHOTO: GREGORY LORENZUTTI

dance languages that are, in their 1984 to commemorate the 50th

own words, “restless, transformative anniversary of the death of Sidney
Melanie Lane and unwavering”. Myer, a passionate advocate and
performing her Keir “On behalf of Marrugeku we are great friend of the arts.
Choreographic thrilled and honoured to receive the
Award solo in 2018. Sidney Myer Performing Arts Group Marrugeku co-director, Dalisa Pigram.

CHUNKY Move, Melbourne’s

Winging upwards
contemporary company, has chosen
Melanie Lane as its Choreographer in
Residence for 2023/24.
The Choreographer in Residence
initiative invests $120,000 in the
recipient’s practice over the two years PICTURED (with Oscar Valdes) is the West The WAB’s new Swan Lake, which is set
including a direct contribution of Australian Ballet’s Kiki Saito, who was in Fremantle in WA, is one of the
$50,000 in artist fees and $70,000 recently promoted to the rank of soloist. company’s most successful productions,
towards the commission of a major Saito had the role of Odette created on with over 20,000 people flocking to see it.
work in the second year of the tenure. her in Krzysztof Pastor’s unique version of (See our review on p.67.)
The Choreographer in Residence Swan Lake, which was premiered by the
is selected via an open EOI and WAB at the end of last year. See more Moves on our website.
interview process assessed by a panel, “This year Kiki brought her artistry and
this year comprising senior Chunky beauty to another level. Throughout the year,
Move staff Antony Hamilton, Kristy her highly technical yet emotive performance
Ayre and Kristina Arnott and wowed audiences and she is very deserving of
industry peers Katina Olsen, Hellen this special promotion,” says Aurélien
Sky and Angela Goh. Scannella, the company’s artistic director.
Melanie Lane is an Australian To dance Odette in this
choreographer and performer of production had a special
Javanese/European cultural heritage. meaning for Saito, as her
She has been commissioned by mother Noriko was also
Sydney Dance Company, Australasian a professional dancer and
Dance Collective, Dance North, performed the role of
Chunky Move, Schauspiel Leipzig and Odette.
West Australian Ballet (among others)
and has toured her independent work
internationally. Her collaborations
include projects with UK musician
CLARK, Adena Jacobs, Amos Gebhardt,
Leyla Stevens, Monica Lim and Rianto.
Melanie was the recipient of the 2018
Keir Choreographic Award and the
2017 Leipziger Bewegungskunstpreis
PHOTO: BRADBURY PHOTOGRAPHY

in Germany. She has been

nominated for both Green Room
and Helpmann awards as both a
choreographer and a dancer,
including the Shirley McKechnie
award for choreography (2020).

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

 Congratulations to the
graduates of 2022!
We are the official school of Queensland Ballet and
our graduates enjoy careers all over the world.

Joining our Jette Parker

Young Artist Program in 2023:
Barlow

Fagan
F

rdo

Joining Queensland Ballet as

Company Artists in 2023:
Joseph Moss, Queensland Ballet Academy Graduate 2022

Frede

Developing the artists

of the future
10 / What’s On

Isn’t it great to look forward to

live dance? With audiences?
There’s a feast in store for dance
lovers this year. Enjoy this
snapshot of plans of full-time
dance companies – no Zoom here!

THE
(ZOOM-
FREE)
YEAR
AHEAD

The Australian Ballet

will present Ashton’s
‘Marguerite and
Armand’. Pictured are
Amy Harris and Callum
Linnane.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

 11

he Australian Ballet
The Australian Ballet is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and
artistic director David Hallberg has chosen to use the occasion to
revive two landmark works.
One is Don Quixote, a milestone for so many reasons. It was
created by Robert Helpmann and Rudolf Nureyev, who both also
danced the leading roles of the Don and Basilio respectively. It was made as a film, in
1973 (still considered to be one of the best dance films around), which put the
Australian Ballet on the international map.
This year, in reverse of the usual order of such things – transferring from stage to
screen – Hallberg is moving the ballet from screen to stage, reproducing as faithfully as
possible the original Barry Kay costumes and sets (as it was filmed in an aircraft hangar
in Melbourne, some space will be required!). Don Q will start the Australian Ballet’s
2023 season in Melbourne from March 15 to 25 and Sydney from April 8 to 25.
The other landmark is Swan Lake, directed by Hallberg but inspired by the 1977
version staged by Anne Woolliams, who was the company’s third artistic director (for
only a year from 1976). Hallberg will collaborate with Lucas Jervies to “to weave his
own interpretation” through the original. Swan Lake will be performed in Melbourne
from September 19 to 30, Adelaide from October 7 to 14, Brisbane from October 24 to
28 and Sydney from December 1 to 20.
Appropriately for the company’s Diamond Anniversary, it will perform Balanchine’s
Jewels for the first time. A three-part plotless ballet by the legendary choreographer,
each section has a jewel as its theme: emerald, rubies and diamonds. Sydney May 4 to
20; Melbourne June 29 to July 8.
Bringing the repertoire right up the present, a double bill called “Identity” will
comprise a new work each by Daniel Riley and Alice Topp. Riley, the artistic director
of Australian Dance Theatre, will create The Hum, with a specially commissioned
musical score by the celebrated Yorta Yorta composer and soprano Deborah
Cheetham. Topp will create Paragon, which she describes as her “birthday gift” to the
company, created in collaboration with lighting designer, Jon Buswell, to music by the
renowned Australian composer for film and stage, Christopher Gordon (he did the
music for the film Mao’s Last Dancer and Master and Commander, among others).
“Identity” will run from May 2 to 20 in Sydney and June 16 to 24 in Melbourne.
The year will be rounded out with a double bill of ballets by Frederick Ashton: The
Dream and Marguerite and Armand. Both are based on literary classics: Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Dumas’ The Lady of the Camellias. “Ashton played
an integral role in shaping the repertoire of the Australian Ballet, so it seems
appropriate to welcome Marguerite and Armand to the repertoire. Made famous by
Fonteyn and Nureyev, this ballet will showcase the depth of the title roles through the
dancers of this company,” writes Hallberg. Sydney, November 10 to 25.

The AB will also play host to the Tokyo Ballet’s tour to Melbourne, with Lavrosky’s
staging of ‘Giselle’. July 14 – 22.
PHOTO: SIMON EELES

Australasian Dance Collective

Dance and technology will meet centre-stage when Australasian Dance Collective (ADC)
presents Lucie In the Sky, a world-first production where drones are choreographed using

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

PHOTO: SIMON EELES
12 / What’s On
human movement patterns to emulate emotions
and personalities. Conceived by ADC Artistic
Director Amy Hollingsworth and named after a
set of custom, trademarked micro drones called
Lucie, the work blends art and technology in an
exploration of what it means to be human.
“Contemporary dance and technology push
boundaries and connect people – I wanted to
explore this through the melding of drones and
dancers, humanizing the drones and bringing the
Pixar effect into real life,” Hollingsworth explains.
ADC has forged a partnership with
Switzerland-based Verity Studios (whose
THIS PAGE: Balanchine’s
previous collaborators include Drake, Justin
‘Jewels’: pictured are
(from left) Amy Harris,
Bieber and Cirque Du Soleil to name but a
Benedicte Bemet and few) to create the ground-breaking project.
Dimity Azoury. For this work, ADC dancers will share the
stage with five drone characters,
OPPOSITE PAGE: The choreographed to emulate emotions and
Queensland Ballet has
interact in nuanced interpersonal relationships.
commissioned a new
ballet based on Miles
The five drones will be encoded with unique
Franklin’s biographical personalities, each recognisable by the colour
novel, ‘My Brilliant Career. of its light source. Unlike other drone
Pictured is Principal Artist performances involving swarms, this dance
Yanela Piñera. performance invites the audience to know and
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
understand the individual drones as they create
on-stage relationships with ADC’s dancers.
May 15 – 13, Playhouse Theatre, QPAC.
Australian Dance Theatre
Australian Dance Theatre is spending the first part
of the year in festival mode. The Sydney, Perth
and Adelaide festivals have all snapped up Tracker,
a new work by Artistic Director of the company,
Daniel Riley. Tracker, made in collaboration with
Melbourne’s Ilbijerri Theatre Company, follows
the story of his great-great-uncle, Alec “Tracker”
Riley, who served the NSW police force for 40
years. Co-directed by Rachel Maza and co-written
with Ursula Yovich, performers Tyrel Dulvarie,
Rika Hamaguchi, Ari Maza Long and Kanie
Sultan-Babij will show the path this Wiradjuri
elder carved through colonial systems and
Indigenous lore.
After its aforementioned The Hum for the
Australian Ballet in May and June, the company
will return home to the Odeon Theatre in
Adelaide to present its “Cultivate”
choreographic season in later in the year.
 13

Queensland Ballet
The Queensland Ballet will finally be able
to stage its production of Giselle this
year. This quintessential Romantic ballet
was meant to be performed last year, but
was cancelled due to the floods, which
caused the Playhouse Theatre, QPAC, to
close. The QB’s production is by Ai-Gul
Gaisina, the company’s ballet teacher and
coach. April 14 – 29.
Ballets based on Australian stories are
hard to find, but the Queensland Ballet has
come up with a classic: Miles Franklin’s My
Brilliant Career. The one act ballet is the
creation of UK choreographer Cathy
Marston, whose specialty is narrative ballets.
“To have Cathy Marston, one of the world’s
most highly regarded choreographers, create
My Brilliant Career as an original work for us
is truly amazing. Her unique works are
story-driven with incredible protagonists and
have been commissioned around the world
in companies such as the Royal Ballet,
American Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet, and
Danish Royal Ballet,” artistic director Li
Cunxin says. (See more on Marston on p.28.)
My Brilliant Career will form part of a triple
bill, “Trilogy”, alongside Christopher Bruce’s
Rooster and A Brief Nostalgia, by Brisbane
choreographer Jack Lister, which premiered
in London in 2019 as a co-production with
Birmingham Ballet. This season will be held
at the new Talbot Theatre in the Thomas
Dixon Centre from June 16 to 25.
Another new ballet on the program is
The Little Mermaid, to be choreographed
by Australian Paul Boyd to sublime music
by Sibelius. (June 22 to July 1). Boyd’s
choreography will also be featured in the
company’s always thought-provoking
Bespoke, an annual triple bill of
contemporary ballet. His new ballet will
be featured alongside an all-Australian
line-up including QB’s choreographer-in-
residence Natalie Weir and Remi
Wortmeyer, former principal dancer with
the Dutch National Ballet (July 27 to
August 5.)
From September 28 to October 7 the
company is bringing back Derek Dean’s
Strictly Gershwin. This ballet was
choreographed for the English National
Ballet in 2008 and has been embraced by
adoring audiences across the world. QB
last performed it in 2016 to rave reviews.
The year will finish with The Nutcracker
(December 1 to 20). The company is also
embarking on a regional tour with Liam
Scarlett’s enchanting A Midsummer
Night’s Dream. (HOTA, Gold Coast
February 24-25; Townsville Civic Theatre
PHOTO: DAVID KELLY

March 8; Mackay Entertainment &

Convention Centre March 11; Empire
Theatre Toowoomba March 31 – April 1).

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

 Season
2023
Impressions

IN Cognito: Ballet at the Quarry | 10 February – 11 March

Regional Tour | 22 – 31 March
Ballet to Broadway | 5 – 13 May
STATE | 23 June – 1 July
Van Gogh | 8 – 23 September
Genesis | 12 – 21 October
The Nutcracker | 17 November – 10 December

waballet.com.au

2023 Season
On sale now
Join us as we celebrate 60 years
with a season of refreshed classics,
20th century masterpieces and
new Australian works.

Government Lead Principal

Partners Partner Partner

Principal Artist Robyn Hendricks

Photo Simon Eeles
What’s On
Sydney Dance Company
Sydney Dance Company announced
its 2023 season with the rallying cry
“Feel the music. The movement. This
moment. We dare you not to dance.”
Artistic director Rafael Bonachela
will celebrate his 15th year with the
company and is approaching the year
with his customary infectious
enthusiasm. First up is a triple bill
called “Ascent”, co-commissioned by
the Canberra Theatre Centre, followed
by a season at the Sydney Opera
House as part of their 50th-anniversary
celebrations. (Canberra Theatre Centre
March 9 – 11; Sydney Opera House
March 15 – 26.) “Ascent” will comprise
a new work by Bonachela, the return
of Antony Hamilton’s Helpmann award-
winning work Forever and Ever, and a
world premiere by the renowned
Spanish choreographer Marina
Mascarell. “After the challenges of the
past few years, I am so pleased to
again be commissioning an
international artist whose works have
garnered critical acclaim around the
world, alongside showcasing the work
of a brilliant Australian choreographer,”
says Bonachela. “Ascent” will also be
Sydney Dance
Company’s Coco Wood
and Jacopo Grabar.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
15
taken on a national tour to 13 centres
from May through to August.
The second 2023 Sydney season will
take audiences inside the company’s
newly renovated premises, with “Up
Close”. Performed in the Neilson
Studio, it will provide “an unparalleled
connection to our company dancers,
allowing you to witness their formidable
skill and astonishing physicality up close
and personal”, says Bonachela. The
dancers will perform his brand-new
work Somos, meaning “we are” in
Spanish, described as a “cascade of
solos, duets and trios with a distinct
Latin flavour”. (November 1 – 15.)
2023 is the 10th year of “New
Breed”, presented with Carriageworks.
With the unwavering support of the
Balnaves Foundation, “New Breed” has
seen more than 34 emerging dance
artists present new works. This year’s
group will be announced later in 2023.
(December 6 –16 Carriageworks.) Then
comes “INDance”, which will return will
return to the Neilson Studio for two
weekends in August (17 – 26) after its
sold-out inaugural season last year.
PHOTO: DAVID BOON
 16 / What’s On
PHOTO: SAM ROBERTS
ABOVE: Stephanie Lake Company’s
‘Manifesto’.
ABOVE RIGHT: ADT’s ‘Tracker’.
LOWER RIGHT: Carly Sheppard and
Gabriel Comerford during the
creative development of Force
Majeure’s ‘IDK’.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
Co3
Perth’s contemporary dance company, Co3, is
embarking on what it is describing as “a seminal
collaboration” with LINK Dance Company, the
graduate company of the West Australian
Academy of the Arts. The yet-to-be-named work
will “investigate what drives a person to push
beyond their perceived physical limits to
PHOTO: ADT
PHOTO: ASHLEY DE PRAZER.
accomplish the remarkable”. Though it is not
scheduled till October, the dancers have already
undertaken some extensive interrogation of
their subject: four weeks of rehearsals with the
students, then taking the resulting tasks and
ideas on an endurance and isolation exercise on
Nyoongar and Gubrun Country with dancers
Ella-Rose Trew, Frankie Fenton, Alex Kay and

Storm Helmore for a further, immersive 10-day
experience. We can glean an idea of what is in
store when artistic director Raewyn White
reveals: “To work and walk on country beside
the extraordinary Ian Wilkes as a dancer and
collaborator with elders Uncle Claude, Uncle
Mick and Jason gave me new insights into place
and the tracks and stories we share as people
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across cultures. Linking illustrations from
Dante’s Divine Comedy to Nyoongar dreaming
stories and culture was an unbelievably
energising and profound experience.”
Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of
WA, 11 – 15 October
Bangarra Dance Theatre
Bangarra Dance Theatre will present Yuldea,
Frances Rings’s first full-length work the
company’s Artistic Director, which role she
steps into this year. The production will
premiere in the company’s hometown of
Sydney as part of the Sydney Opera House
50th Anniversary celebrations, before
touring across Australia from June 14 June to
October, 14.
The company is also thrilled to be reinstating
the experimental choreography season, “Dance
Clan”, after a 10 year hiatus. Bangarra senior
artist Beau Dean Riley Smith, dancers Glory
Tuohy-Daniell and Ryan Pearson and youth
programs coordinator Sani Townson will each
choreograph an original work, performed by the
Bangarra ensemble of dancers with a NAISDA
dance intern. (February 3 – 8).
See our interview with Frances Rings on p.30.
Force Majeure
The resident company at Sydney
Carriageworks, Force Majeure is working
towards a premiere of IDK in August in Sydney
and Melbourne.
Directed by artistic director Danielle
Micich, IDK is described as exploring “the
moment boundaries are formed and the
ongoing conversation that consent requires
from all of us. Some of us need to learn how to
say no, and others need to learn to accept no”.
Tracker
Australian Dance Theatre
in association with ILBIJERRI Theatre Company
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
17
“There are no promised answers in IDK.
Should we listen to our body’s inbuilt
mechanisms designed to protect and guide us?”
Tasdance
Under the leadership of Adam Wheeler,
Tasdance is starting the year at MONA
FOMA in Hobart with Baby Girl,
choreographed by Amber McCartney,
described as “a dance performance of a figure
caught between their body’s original
memories and the persona of a new,
otherworldly being”.
Nolan Gallery, MONA, Feb 24 – 26. (See more
on Tasdance on p.21.)
Stephanie Lake Dance Company
This busy company is having another busy
year, getting a lot of mileage (literally) out of
its eponymous artistic director’s ambitiously
large-scale choreography. After presenting
Manifesto at the Sydney Festival (from
January 12 to 15) and the Perth Festival
(February 8 to 12) the company is taking off
overseas and performing Colossus in Geneva,
Montreal, Toronto and Buenos Aires.
“We teach the work to 50 local dancers in
each place that the show is performed,” Lake
explains. “To date the show has been
performed in Melbourne (twice), Sydney,
Perth, Paris, Taipei, Hong Kong and
Germany and over 350 dancers have now
learned and performed the show all over the
world. Incredibly, Paris, Taipei and Hong
Kong were all directed/rehearsed remotely
via Zoom since it was during the pandemic
and we weren’t able to travel.”
The company is also presenting a return
season in Melbourne and taking off again for
the US later in the year.
10 – 18 Mar
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16 – 26 March

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 What’s On 19

West Australian Ballet

How will the West Australian Ballet top its amazing
Australian Swan Lake of 2022? It is planning another
fascinating world premiere – a biographical work on
the life and art of the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh.
An all-Dutch creative team, led by choreographer
Wubkje Kuindersma, with Tatyana van Walsum, who
will create period costumes and sets, and Anthony
Fiumara, who will create a bespoke composition for
the full-length ballet. Kuindersma created Architecture
of Hope for Ballet at the Quarry in 2020. Van Gogh will
premiere at His Majesty’s Theatre on September 8.
But first up for the year is Ballet at the Quarry, the
30th instalment of this popular outdoor summer
season. This year the program will feature four works:
two from Polish choreographer Robert Bondara, and
one each from American choreographer Helen Pickett
and Australian choreographer Alice Topp, who is
proving to be one of Australia’s most sought-after
classical choreographers.
Pickett is a luminary of William Forsythe’s Ballett
Frankfurt, and has created over 40 ballets in the US and
Europe. From 2012-2017, she was Resident
Choreographer for Atlanta Ballet. Her work for the
Quarry is inspired by Tom Robbins’s novel, Villa
Incognito. This will be performed alongside Bondara’s
Verses, a short duo featuring music by internationally-
renown, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ólafur
Arnalds, and a trio, Persona [Fratres] set to Arvo Pärt’s
music, which premiered for the Polish National Ballet in
2011. Bondara has been described as having “one of
the most brilliant ballet careers in the last decade”. His
Take Me With You, to music by Radiohead, was given
its Australian premiere by the WAB last year. Ballet at
the Quarry will be held from Feb 10 to March 11.
Immediately after, the company will go on a regional
tour to Karratha, Bunbury, Mandurah and Port Hedland
with a gala program as well as its 30-minute children’s
ballet, Peter and the Wolf.
In May, the company’s main stage season will be a
classical triple bill, Raymonda (Act 3), arranged by
Javier de Frutos, the pas de deux from Sylvia,
arranged by artistic director Aurelien Scannella and his
wife and artistic associate, Sandy Delasalle, and
Balanchine’s Who Cares?, a lighthearted, jazzy work to
Gershwin’s music. Ballet to Broadway will be held
from May 5 to 13.
For the annual winter contemporary season, STATE,
Melanie Lane and Adam Alzaim will return to the Heath
Ledger Theatre with Slow Haunt and GAINSBOURG
respectively. After unfortunate cancellations due to the
pandemic in 2021, these works will now receive their
full showing. June 23 to July 1.
The company will round out the year with Nutcracker,
arranged by Jayne Smeulders, Delasalle and Scannella,
from November 17 to December 10.
Scannella is celebrating 10 years as artistic director
of WAB, and in 2021 he was awarded a Knight of the
Order of Leopold, an honour bestowed on him during
the lockdowns.
PHOTO: FINLAY MACKAY

WAB’s Matthew The information for all of this article is for full-time
Lehmann in ‘The ensembles. The details were supplied by the companies
Nutcracker’. and are published in good faith.

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What’s On 21

Festival dance picks

Festival programs are expanding Jenni Large’s ‘Body
after the previous two years. body commodity’
will be performed
at MONA FOMA
in Launceston.

N the first half of the year, already the

main time for arts festivals, a new dance
festival is being launched in Melbourne.
Called FRAME, a Biennial of Dance, it
will run from March 1 to 31 with the full
program to be announced early February.
The festival will take in numerous venues in
the city as well as regional centres. Organisers
aim to represent “dance artists across all forms,
practices, cultures, histories, disciplines,
aesthetics and experimentation”.
FRAME has been three years in the making,
and has emerged out of extensive consultation
with the independent dance community and
the small-to-medium sector.
On the other side of the country, the Perth
Festival will celebrate its 70th anniversary – a

PHOTO: GABRIELLE COMERFORD

remarkable milestone. Among its dance highlights
are Tracker (after its premiere at the Sydney
Festival), a production by Australian Dance
Theatre in collaboration with Melbourne's Ilbijerri
Theatre Company (see p.16).
From France comes Bikutsi 3000 by Blick
Bassy, the Cameroon-born singer/dancer/
activist. Bikutsi is the name of traditional
Cameroonian music and dance performed by
Beti women and Bassy's work is an “Afro-
futurist feminist tale in which dance is an act
of resistance, deconstruction and
reconnection to traditional values in a
contemporary form. . .”.
From local independent artist Laura
Boynes comes the world premiere of
Equations of a Falling Body, a Perth Festival
commission, which looks at the effects of
“distant forces beyond our control”. The
performers are James O'Hara, Ella-Rose Trew
and Timothy Green. (See Limelight, p.74.)
Also local, but of international repute, Perth's
STRUT Dance Collective will take over the
State Theatre Centre Courtyard to present a
free program called 10 Duets on a Theme of
Rescue, a series of intimate duets created by
the renown Canadian choreographer, Crystal
Pite. (See interview on p.32.)
The State Theatre will play host to Stephanie
Lake's thrilling Manifesto, while the West
Australian Ballet will perform its annual Ballet
at the Quarry, the popular program of short
contemporary ballet at the open-air venue.
The Perth Festival 2023 will run from Feb 10
to March 5.
TASDANCE is presenting two shows as part
of the annual MONA FOMA. In Hobart it is
presenting Baby Girl (see P.17) and in
Launceston it is presenting Jenni Large’s Body
Body Commodity, an exploration of “the
commodification of the female body in relation
to the impacts of consumerism and capitalism
through contemporary dance, object/visual
design and live sound composition”. (February
17&18, Earl Arts Centre.)
In what promises to be a memorable
program, the 2023 Adelaide Festival is
presenting some outstanding dance, including
two international attractions.
One is Verdi's Messa da Requiem, which will
bring the dancers of Ballett Zurich from
Switzerland together with local musicians and
choristers: 200 artists in all. The choreographer
is Christian Spuck, the artistic director of
Ballett Zurich, who in recent years has
extended his artistic reach to film and opera.
He has recently been appointed artistic
director of the Staatsballett Berlin in Germany.
(See interview p.24.)
Another highlight is Revisor, a dance-theatre
work created by the much-sought-after
choreographer Crystal Pite and theatre maker
Jonathan Young (who also collaborated together
on Bettrofenheit, seen at the Perth and Adelaide
festivals in 2017). Revisor is based on farcical
world of Nikolai Gogol’s The Government
Inspector, and will be brought to life by Pite's
company, Kidd Pivot, who delve into the play's
underworld of corruption and greed.
Adelaide Festival is also presenting ADT’s
Tracker and Jurrungu Ngan-ga (Straight Talk), by
Marrugeku, a passionate piece of dance-theatre
that confronts Australia's shameful fixation with
incarceration. Jurrungu Ngan-ga has received
rave reviews wherever it is performed.
The Adelaide Festival runs from March 3 to 19.
The Sydney Festival will be well underway by
the time this issue comes out, with dance
highlights including Neighbours, a duo that
brings together two very different dancers in
Rauf “RubberLegz” Yasit and Brigel Gjoka;
and Kairos, which brings together
choreographer Meryl Tankard with composer
Elena Kats-Chernin and visual artist Régis
Lansac. Restless Dance Theatre, South
Australia’s company for able and disabled
dancers directed by Michelle Ryan, is
performing Guttered; Flamenco great Sara
Baras and ensemble are presenting Alma, and
Stephanie Lake Company is performing its
explosive Manifesto.
Sydney Festival runs from January 5 to 29.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

 Serving the performing arts industry
for over 65 years

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Artist
Dancing
the cosmos
Isabelle Leclezio interviews a
star in contemporary dance.
AURA Boynes, an award-winning
independent dance artist based in
Western Australia, is one of 12
Australian artists commissioned to
create original work for this year’s Perth Festival.
She will present Equations of a Falling Body,
which explores the unpredictability of our
contemporary world, and the distant forces beyond
our control that intervene in our everyday lives.
“I think of the work as ranging between
macro and micro issues, and when I
think macro, I move outside the
planet and the climate and into the
atmosphere and universe,” Boynes
explained during our interview, as we sat on
the front porch of her family home in Perth.
This is fitting in a festival in which there are
many references to the cosmos and our
relationship to it as humans. The theme of the
Festival is Djinda, which means stars in the
language of the traditional custodians of
Boorloo/Perth.
Boynes, who has received two Australian
Dance Awards for her choreographic work, is
primarily interested in creating within the
hybrid spheres of dance, theatre, audiovisual
elements and materials. She grew up in
Canberra in a creative family – both her
parents, her brother and her grandmother being
visual artists – with this exposure to visual forms
being a profound influence on the way she goes
about creating choreographic work.
She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Dance
(Honours) at the West Australian Academy of
Performing Arts in 2007, after which she spent
several years making dance films.
“My live work still incorporates my passion
for film,” she says. “I’m always thinking about
the perspectives of scenes or images that I’m
creating in a cinematic way.”
As well as choreographing, Boynes features
prominently as a performer in the Perth dance
scene; she collaborates with artists who have
lived experience of disability, and offers
movement direction for theatre companies.
In 2013 she made her first full-length works:
Hanging Space, created with Michael Whaites
for LINK Dance Company, and Look the
Other Way, created with Cadi McCarthy for
Buzz Dance Theatre, the latter being a
A fascination with how global events interact
with our individual lives as humans is a
recurring theme in her works.”
company with which Boynes had performed as
a dancer since 2009.
A driving force behind her creativity is the
importance she places on strong collaborative
relationships. In 2015, she formed PRAXIS with
her brother Alexander Boynes (visual artist) and
her partner Tristen Parr (cellist and composer), a
collective that explores the links between their
individual artistic practices and which has
created exciting multidisciplinary works.
A fascination with how global events (political,
social and environmental) interact with our
individual lives as humans is a recurring theme in
Boynes’s works. Equations of a Falling Body was
developed through a SEED Residency with
STRUT Dance (Perth’s National Choreographic
Centre) during the height of the pandemic in
2020. In direct response to the unpredictable state
of the world, Boynes chose to work with in-ear
technology, a live feed through which she can talk
directly to the performers: Ella-Rose Trew,
Timothy Green and James O’Hara. The three
improvise within a scored structure, responding to
Boynes’s voice as she guides them through physical
scores related to current events. This means that
the work is quite literally choreographed live, with
the performers being equally surprised and
supported, spurred on by the thrill of the
unknown. As Boynes explains, creating the work
in real time was important thematically:
“During the time we have been creating this
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
23
Ella-Rose Trew
performing in
Boynes’s ‘Equations
of a Falling Body’.
PHOTO: EMMA FISHWICK
work, we’ve had a global pandemic, wars,
political uprisings, massive climate disasters…
and so it feels like the world has exponentially
changed, and so that’s why the liveness [of the
choreography] is so important because we can
keep the work up to date in the now.”
Boynes also finds that the use of in-ear
technology brings the magic of the rehearsal
room – a non-judgemental, playful and
explorative space – to the stage.
The performers themselves are pivotal in
creating the atmosphere of each scene; many
of the technical elements are handheld and
controlled by them. They utilise a variety of
materials – head torches, fans, spray bottles
that create bursts of water mist – to create
cinematic images and moments of illusion that
build and fall away before our eyes. Boynes is
particularly interested in this lo-fi quality,
where none of the craft is hidden.
With the title itself – Equations of a Falling
Body – being a metaphor for our rapidly
declining planet, it is inevitable that the work has
a sense of overwhelming grief at times. However,
Boynes tackles these topics with humour and
sensitivity, and hopes that audiences will leave
the theatre feeling encouraged by the power of
human resilience and togetherness, and our
power to change things for the better.
The Perth Festival runs from February 21 to 26.
24 / Portrait
The Adelaide Festival is
presenting the Australian
premiere of Christian Spuck’s
NO ORDINARY
‘Messa da Requiem’. Lucas
Forbes, a former dancer in his
company, Ballett Zurich,
EVENING
interviews the choreographer.
ESPITE his standing among
the most celebrated senior
choreographers of Europe,
Christian Spuck is yet to
make an indelible mark on
Australian stages. In fact, he could be mistaken
for a newcomer by an Australian dance audience.
While it is possible Spuck’s comical, crowd-
pleasing Grand Pas de Deux (2000) has made its
way to a local ballet gala in the past, he cannot be
certain. Indeed, the seven-minute-long duet is in
all likelihood his most frequently performed work.
“I’ve lost control of where that’s performed,” he
comments at the outset of this interview,
suggesting the work’s shenanigans might bleed
into real life.
Trained at the renowned John Cranko School,
which is closely affiliated with the Stuttgart
Ballet, Spuck’s early career involved a departure
from classical ballet to work with two prolific
Belgian artists – Jan Lauwers and Anne Teresa de
Keersmaker. In 1995, he became a member of
the Stuttgart Ballet’s ensemble. Since 2001, he
has established himself as choreographer of
ballets in Europe and North America.
His Poppea//Poppea (2009) – created for
Gauthier Dance, the resident dance company of
the Theaterhaus Stuttgart – was recognised by a
jury of peers and awarded a 2011 German
OPPOSITE PAGE:
Theatre Prize DER FAUST. For his Winterreise
A scene from ‘Messa
da Requiem’: ‘an
(2018), Spuck was the recipient of a Prix Benois
abstract work that lets de la Danse in 2019.
audience members Spuck’s profile as a choreographer of
hear the music with large-scale ensemble works for major arts
their eyes ...’. institutions have also made him sought after as
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
director of stagings of musical works. “About 15
years ago,” Spuck recalls, “I was invited to
Heidelberg to direct a contemporary opera. This
opportunity just led to more invitations. At this
point, I have quite a history of directing operas.
I was asked to direct a Verdi work, a bigger work.
And I had to then ask myself, ‘How shall I deal
with this new set of challenges?’ It can really
benefit an opera to include some choreographic
moments even when no dancers are involved.”
Spuck was appointed ballet director of the
Ballett Zürich in the 2012/13 season, a role he
retains to this day. From the 2023/24 season
onwards, he will take on the challenge of directing
the Staatsballett Berlin – a world-famous classical
ballet company of over 80 dancers that has
struggled to retain its artistic directors since
Vladimir Malakhov’s departure in 2014.
Speaking of his impending relocation to
Berlin, Spuck remarks that “there are so many
possibilities in a company of that size. They
have a very good classical repertory, which we
cannot present in Zurich because we have only
36 dancers in total, plus 14 junior dancers.
Every time Ballett Zürich performs Alexei
Ratmansky’s big Swan Lake, we have to rehire
10 to 15 people, which is a massive task.”
The size of Ballett Zürich, however, has not
limited the scale of Spuck’s creative vision. At
the 2023 Adelaide Festival, Ballett Zürich will
tour to Australia to perform a theatrical staging
of Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem (2016)
– a funeral mass first performed in 1874 for the
anniversary of author Alessandro Manzoni’s
death – which the festival markets as “a sacred
 25

PHOTO: GREGORY BATARDON

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

26 / Portrait

PHOTO: GREGORY BATARDON

oratorio with opera coursing through
its veins”. Choreographed and directed It would make me happy if the Australian
by Spuck, Ballett Zürich will be supported
by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and
audience were to have a different view on than
Adelaide Festival Chorus – altogether a cast the European audience. And we can share that.”
of over two hundred.
The prospect of collaboration with local arts “So, having stayed in a small hotel room
organisations – collaboration that is most likely for three weeks, I knew what quarantine meant
the result of budget constraints on the for them.”
programming of works of this scale – is The tour to Adelaide is of significance to an
perceived by Spuck as an opportunity: “We’re Australian audience, as well as to Spuck and
going to meet a lot of Australian artists and work select ensemble members. Spuck is “looking
together with them. We will have a cultural forward to having one big tour again in our last
exchange. It’s much nicer than bringing season. It’s my last season in Zurich before I go
everything and everyone to Adelaide, being in a to Berlin.” He proceeds to explain how “not
bubble, and going back again.” every dancer will stay in Zurich to work with
Adelaide Festival’s efforts to program the work Cathy Marston, the next ballet director and
amid the global pandemic have been fraught chief choreographer of the Ballett Zürich. ABOVE AND OVERLEAF:
with disruptions that can be traced back by at Some dancers will stop dancing, others will Another scene from
‘Messa da Requiem’.
least two years. Recapping Ballett Zürich’s come with me to Berlin. The company as it
on-again, off-again tour arrangements, Spuck exists now is going to change drastically.” BELOW: Christian Spuck.
states, “I met Adelaide Festival’s former artistic
director, Rachel Healy, in Saint Petersburg. She
said that she would love to have Messa da
Requiem in the festival’s program. I was really
excited about that, but COVID hit, and the tour’s
planning just went forwards and backwards.
“At one point, we were told, ‘Adelaide Festival
can make it work’. But there was a condition –
everybody would have to be in quarantine for
about 10 days upon arrival in Adelaide. That’s
when we decided we could not do the tour. I
could not take on such a responsibility. Although
the dancers would have had the chance to work
together during the quarantine period, our
technicians and people from the costume
department would have had to be in their rooms
for 10 days. And I had just left quarantine in
PHOTO: IDA ZENNA

Moscow. I was in Moscow creating something for

the Bolshoi Theatre and got COVID, before the
vaccination was available.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

28 / Portrait

Moreover, acknowledging the rare occasion substance of contemporary creative work; and a
that Europe-based Australian dancers tour to strong regard for the audience.
their place of birth, Spuck recounts how, “Staatsballett Berlin performs in three different

CAMEO
“When I received the invitation to Adelaide, I opera houses in the same city. There’s no other Christian Spuck will take
was so excited to tell the Australian dancers in company in the world that does that. It makes his position at the
the company. They’re all bringing their friends planning quite complex, but it’s of benefit the Staatsballett Berlin for
and sorting out tickets”. company, too.” (Staatsballet Berlin’s 2004 the 2023/4 season.
Although Messa da Requiem is no ordinary founding is a consequence of the consolidation of British choreographer
evening at the ballet, Spuck encourages his new the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Komische Oper Cathy Marston will step
audience to approach the work with an open Berlin and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.) into the role of artistic
mind. “The audience should just come and enjoy “The ballet is really everywhere, he director of the Zurich
the music and the dance and how everything is continues. “I watched performances of Giselle Ballet. She has a Swiss
combined,” he proposes. “It would make me receive standing ovations. A week later, I saw a passport, and was
happy if the Australian audience were to have a mixed bill featuring a work by Sharon Eyal. previously artistic director
different view on Messa da Requiem than the On that occasion, a completely different of the Bern Ballett from
European audience. And we can share that.” audience was also giving the dancers standing 2007 to 2013.
As a performer of two of Spuck’s earlier works, ovations. The company has such a broad
Coincidentally, she is
this author advises the audience to expect group audience base. And that’s so like the city of
choreographing a new
scenes featuring athletic dancers in near constant Berlin. It’s so diverse. I intend to make the
ballet for the Queensland
motion, performing carefully choreographed Staatsballett Berlin even more diverse, embed
Ballet in 2023, ‘My
sequences embellished with idiosyncratic gestures it even more deeply into the city.”
Brilliant Career’, a first
and angular poses, which make use of their
for an Australian
polished classical ballet technique, nonetheless. ‘Messa da Requiem’ will have four performances
company. (See p.13).
In descriptions of the process of creating dance from March 8 to 11 at the Adelaide Festival Centre.
for the opera stage, Spuck emphasises similarities
to working with dance companies, as opposed to
differences. “The only difference,” Spuck finds,
“is that singers come completely prepared for
their first rehearsal. They know the text, what
they have to sing, what the existing score is about.
And the moment I start creating, they ask me,
‘Why do you want me to act like this?’ When I
work with dancers on a ballet production, early
rehearsals involve creating the choreographic
‘text’. Firstly, you have to create the movement, a
storyboard, with the dancers. Only at the end of
the process do dancers begin to ask, ‘Why do you
want me to do it that way?’”
The harmony Spuck describes in his work with
a large cast of singers and other musicians, who
may not be sympathetic to ballet, indicates the
search for an interface between choreography and
opera was resolved at concept stage rather than in
rehearsal rooms. “When we decided to put Messa
da Requiem on stage, we had to acknowledge that
it is beautiful and strong on its own,” he notes.
“Neither does it need dancers. So, we asked
ourselves, Are we going to put something on top?
Should we tell the story of the writer, Manzoni, to
whom the requiem was dedicated? Should we tell
a story about Manzoni’s lifetime, of the Italian
Risorgimento [unification]? Or should we tell a
fictional story about loss?
“We decided against such storylines, because
we would have to twist the music around to suit an
idea, disrespect it. The conductor, Fabio Luisi, and
I were clear on this. Instead, we made an abstract
work that, by including dancing, lets audience
members hear the music with their eyes and better
understand the composition.”
Spuck’s rationale for his interpretation of Messa
PHOTO: CARLOS QUEZADA

da Requiem touches upon key points that also

seem to underpin his vision for the Staatsballett
Berlin’s future: a respect for historical repertory; a
belief in the adequacy of balletic movement as the

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

30 / Artist

HEN Frances Rings was

appointed as the new artistic
director of Bangarra Dance
Theatre, it seemed the most
predestined of steps. She has been
associated with the company
almost since it was founded.
Outgoing artistic director Stephen
Page gave her her first job as a dancer with the
company; since then she has been a resident
choreographer and, more recently, artistic
associate. Furthermore, she was so close to the
three Page brothers that she was practically a sister
– Stephen Page once referred to her as the “female
energy” of the company. She has shared their
triumph and their grief – artistic, political and
personal – and has been an enduring and
charismatic presence. (Who can forget her
weeping on camera in the documentary Firestarter
over the brothers Russell and David’s suicides?)
“There is a sense of family, absolutely,” she
agrees, “His family embraced me. Stephen is
like a brother and a mentor at the same time.
Those kinships are forged through adversity.”
However, as she points out during our
interview, “people forget that I did take a break
from the company. I stepped away because I was
burnt out. I didn’t know where I began and the
company ended. It was all one thing and I

MEET
needed to separate myself, my own identity
again. I knew I wanted to be a storyteller, I knew
I wanted to choreograph, but in order to do that I
had to step away.”

BANGARRA’S
She worked as choreographer and dancer with
numerous dance companies and institutions
within Australia as well as overseas, and was
Head of Creative Studies at her old alma mater,

NEW LEADER
NAISDA, from 2016 to 2019. She returned to
Bangarra as associate artistic director in 2019.
Something else also happened to her over that
time: she became a mother. “Those two children
became the centre of my universe. I think when
you become a mother, everything becomes
clearer. They gave me purpose.”
Her first major choreographic creation as
artistic director will be Yuldea. Named for a
Frances Rings tells location on the edge of the Nullabor in South
Australia, Yuldea (Ooldea in English) was
her plans to Karen originally a water soak in the desert, sacred to
van Ulzen. the Indigenous inhabitants, and an important
meeting and ceremonial place that connected
trading routes and dreaming stories, particularly
for the Anangu people of the Great Victorian
Desert. But the site was usurped by the building
of the Trans-Australian Railway and used as a
camp and water supply for the workers, with the

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local people herded onto a reserve and the soak
eventually drained dry.
“[The railway] is regarded as one of our greatest
engineering feats in Australia and a point of
progress as a nation but at what cost?” Rings asks.
Rings has a personal connection to Yuldea:
her grandmother was born there. Rings is a
descendant of the Wirangu and Mirning
Tribes from the west coast of South Australia
through her mother’s side. Moreover, she is a
child of the railways: her father was a German
migrant who worked on the railways and Rings
spent much of her childhood travelling with
him as he followed work from Port Augusta to
Albany to Kalgoorlie.
Rings has created several works for Bangarra in
the past but Yuldea will be only her second
full-length (the last one was Unaipon, about the
life of David Unaipon). In keeping with Bangarra’s
ethos, she has a strong commitment to telling
stories – “our works are inseparable from story” she
says – and story is inseparable from culture.
Abstract dance is not something Bangarra is ever
likely to perform; as distinct from most dance
companies, Bangarra is not just a performing arts
organisation, she stresses, it is a cultural
foundation, dedicated to preserving and presenting
Indigenous culture.
“Every story in Bangarra has its roots in culture
and community and the people who care for those
stories, the cultural authorities who ensure they
are maintained, we go to them for permission.”
Rings has many ideas brewing for further
dance works, but creating and putting on shows
is by no means her only responsibility. The
artistic director of Bangarra is the custodian of a
unique organisation: it is a cultural ambassador,
a guardian and nurturer of Indigenous culture,
an educational institution and a precious link
between black and white Australian cultures.
The railway is
regarded as one
of our greatest
engineering feats
in Australia and
a point of progress as
a nation but at what
cost? Rings asks.”
31
Under Rings, Bangarra’s educational and
outreach work will continue apace, such as
the choreographic program “Dance Clan”
and the “Rekindling” youth program (under
the continuing direction of Sidney Saltner).
Rings is keenly aware of the need to nurture
the next generation of Indigenous artists: the
designers, musicians and composers who will
take up the mantle of the present team.
(Yuldea will use the music of one of the David
Page Music Fellows, Leon Rodgers.) She is
thrilled with Warung, a children’s work by
Stephen Page, which will tour nationally,
inspiring the littlest future artists. She has
plans to expand on the company’s existing
education and traineeship programs.
Rings is conscious of the legacy she has
inherited from the Page brothers. “It’s huge,” she
says, “it’s a big weight to carry.” What legacy
would she like to leave of her own?
Given limitless resources, she would like to
see even more educational programs: “We
have one youth program – imagine if we have
one in each state! I look at our [present
educational institutions] and the young
people coming out and I value them all, but it
would be nice to have a graduate program
year of our own,” she smiles.
Bangarra Dance Company, unlike some of
the newer, more politically outspoken
Indigenous companies, has not been stridently
“activist” over the years, instead telling its
stories and quietly and proudly presenting the
beauty of its culture alongside the horrors of its
conflicts. The scope of this interview did not
cover Rings’s political views as such, but when
speaking about her children she said:
“I saw in [their] eyes, the same thing that is
in the eyes of the young people who come into
Bangarra, an opportunity to have a life, and to
live a fair [life]. Indigenous people face
challenges every day, and we can either meet
those challenges with grace and dignity or ...
you just continue fighting.
“When I became a mother I decided, it’s not
about fighting. It’s about working with, and
doing what you do in your little space to create
change ...We’ve got a lot more we can do.”
Yuldea tour dates:
OPPOSITE PAGE: In her
own full-length work,
Sydney Opera House: 14 June to 15 July;
‘Unaipon’.
Canberra Theatre Centre: 20 to 22 July; Her TOP: Early days in the
Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide: 10 to 12 August; rehearsal room with
QPAC: 31 August to 9 September; Arts Centre
Melbourn:e 28 September to 7 October;
Bangarra.
ABOVE: Recently
Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo: 13 to 14 October. directing ‘Terrain’.
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32 / Artist

Karen van Ulzen talks to the

acclaimed choreographer on
the eve of her company’s

THE
visit to the Adelaide Festival.

EXTRAORDINARY
CRYSTAL PITE
RYSTAL Pite is one of the world’s most
acclaimed and sought-after choreographers
but Australia has only really caught glimpses
of her extraordinary talent. Most recently,
audiences saw a sample in the Australian
Ballet’s Kunstkamer – the highlight, in my
opinion. Yet she has created more than 50
works since choreographing her first
professional piece for Ballet Columbia back
in 1989 (and that’s not counting the dances she remembers,
quite clearly, creating as a toddler). When I remark that this
is a lot, she shrugs and disagrees, saying many of her
colleagues are more prolific than she is.
Trained classically, an alumnus of William Forsythe’s
Ballet Frankfurt, she is a dancemaker who makes any division
between classical and contemporary dance irrelevant. She has
been choreographer-in-residence in Frankfurt in Germany
and is currently associate artist with Sadlers Wells in the UK,
Netherlands Dance Theatre and Canada’s National Arts
Centre, all while running her cown
company, Kidd Pivott, which
she established in
Vancouver in her home
country of Canada in
2002. Many of her
works, if not
created for Kidd Pivot, have
been premiered by some of the
biggest and prestigious ballet
companies such as the Royal
Ballet and Paris Opera
Ballet. And soon, thanks to
the Adelaide Festival,
Australian audiences will see
her Revisor, created in 2019.
Pite is especially admired for her
breathtaking facility with large ensembles.
She can carve exquisite patterns of movement

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 33

Kidd Pivot company

in ‘Revisor’.

CREDIT: MICHAEL SLOBODIAN

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34 / Artist

out of large numbers of individual bodies, melding

them into single, fluid, sculptural formations and
moving them around the stage like murmurations
of birds. As with the classical ballet masters of old,
she brings to the modern stage an architectonic
harmony, similar to the formations of swans in
Swan Lake but with a contemporary inventiveness.
She choreographs with equal skill on smaller
scale, and says she embraces the challenges of
either extreme – from huge spectaculars to
intimate solos and duets.
Aside from her ability with physical language,
her works are also admired for their intellectual
depth, their emotional impact and their
stimulating and complex themes.
She attributes some of her gift for creating
form and shape to her upbringing in the
beautiful landscape of the west coast of Canada.
“It’s humbling,” she says of the landscape (in an
interview via Zoom from Canada). “I’m often
captivated and inspired by the forms of the
natural world around me. I tend to work with
organic forms, things that look like one body, or
flocking or swarming or physical structures like
landscape or wave action, that kind of thing. So
it comes from the natural world as well as my
love of seeing large groups of people working
together, aligned in their task, I find that really
moving and beautiful and powerful.”
Once in the practice studio, however, I ask,
how does she put her spectacles together?
“Mostly trial and error, to be honest,” she
replies. She has the good fortune, she explains,
to have access to a group of up to 40 students
in her hometown of Vancouver where she can
experiment with her ideas. “I use them like a
PHOTO: MICHAEL SLOBODIAN

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU


human sketch pad or a test model. It is quite
time consuming and labour intensive to work
out my ideas – when I have the students with
me I have more courage and I have more time.
I don’t usually have that with a bunch of
professional dancers. Big ballet company
schedules are so tight.”
Pite also stands out from current trend in
contemporary dance in that she is motivated by
telling “story”, with plot and character. She
believes storytelling is the best way to engage
with human emotions and connect with other
human beings, and the best way of exploring
“the larger questions I might be interested in and
to zoom in on a particular issue or content”. She
mentions her ballet, Flight Pattern, which she
choreographed for the Royal Ballet in 2017, as an
example. “It’s theme was the refugee crisis, and
the broad questions of suffering, borders, and so
on. But what resonates most with the audience is
when we zoom in and focus on one particular
story and one particular family. That’s when the
work gets its most traction, its emotional punch.”
In the past she has said that contemporary
dance perhaps threw the baby out with the
bathwater when it rejected narrative. But she
has also said that dance is an “inefficient story
teller”, which is why she likes to work with other
theatrical tools, such as puppetry or voiceover.
Which leads me to Revisor.
Revisor is based on the play The
Government Inspector by the 19th
century Russian writer, Nicolai
Gogol, “a comedy of errors, satirizing
human greed, stupidity, and the extensive
political corruption of Imperial Russia,” to
35
quote Wikipedia, set in a small Russian town FAR LEFT:
with a cast of devious characters. For her Company dancer
version Pite has collaborated with Jonathon David Raymond
and CENTRE Rena
Young, with whom she has collaborated once
Narumi and
before, on Betroffenheit, which was shown at Jermaine Spivey
the Adelaide and Perth festivals in 2017. in another scene
Why that story? I ask, now? from ‘Revisor’.
She laughs. “It’s a preposterous idea! It was
BELOW: Crystal
Jonathon who proposed it. He said I have this idea,
Pite.
it’s a farce, it might be interesting to work on as our
next creation. At first I couldn’t imagine how we
would turn it into a work of contemporary dance
theatre; I was a little bit overwhelmed by the idea
at first. But I did like the idea of working with a
farce. I was very interested in that.”
Revisor is an extraordinary, riveting piece of
theatre. With a cast of eight characters, it begins
like an exaggerated mime show, with the
characters in costume, acting out the play’s script,
which is supplied as a voice-over (spoken by
Canadian actors), including the stage directions.
About a third of the way through the mood
suddenly changes, the costumes change, and the
audience is taken down to the subtext of the play
– the corruption, the oppression, the deceit –
superbly embodied in the twisted, distorted
choreography. The voice-over continues, and so
closely is the spoken text and the silent movement
interwoven that it is impossible to tell which was
created first. One effect of this melding is to
One effect of this melding is to emphasise how
much language uses words for bodily action and
shapes to express human emotion and behaviour.”
PHOTO: ©ROLEX/ANOUSH ABRAR
PHOTO: MICHAEL SLOBODIAN
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
36 / Artist

emphasise how much language uses words for

bodily action and shapes to express human
emotion and behaviour.
“We go down a rabbit hole,” Pite says, “and
underneath the farce somehow. It is a kind of
inspection of Gogol’s play.”
What is it like to dance Pite’s
choreography? Dance Australia writer Belle
Beasley, who has performed in her works in
the past, describes the experience as
thinking of movement in terms of weight
and volume, of the pathways the movement
might travel rather than the shapes being
created. I ask Pite how she conveys her
movement intention to her dancers.

PHOTO: TRISTAN MCKENZIE

“It depends on how much time I have and
what dancers I have in front of me,” she replies.
“If I’m working with a group of ballet dancers,
their centre of gravity is usually higher in their
bodies, so I trying to find ways to help them
connect to the floor, to change the shape of
their spine, to connect to their feet and the
counter-rotations in their bodies in a new way.
That’s one of the things I would focus on.
“There are lots of different principles in the
things I do, and a lot of the learning happens
in the process of learning the choreography
itself. I will use a phrase of choreography from
the piece as a kind of teaching tool as a way
getting at the ideals, the values, I’m interested
in, so move by move, step by step, we learn
what the pathways are and what the physical
relationships are within any process.
“I like to talk a lot about pressure, degrees of
pressure in the body, the amount of muscle we
are using to execute something that feels, for
example, very light or playful, effortless. I like
to work with contrasts that way, to cultivate
different states in the body, such as being in a
state of conflict, two different ideas that coexist
in the body, creating a kind of tension. It’s nice
to go back and forth between those extremes, Strut Dance will perform
just as an example.” Pite’s ‘10 Duets on a
Theme of Rescue’ at the
“I don’t ever want anybody to be held back by
Perth Festival.
my choreography. I want dancers to use it as a
map or tool for them to deliver whatever it is
that they’re are really good at.”
Being “held back” by dancing Crystal Pite seems
an unlikely occurrence. Instead, she seems to free
dancers to be more articulate, more eloquent, than
they may have thought possible themselves.
Adelaide audiences are in for a treat.
‘Revisor’ will he held from March 17 to 19
at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide.
Crystal Pite’s choreography is also being presented
at the Perth Festival, with ‘10 Duets on a Theme of
Rescue’, a series of intimate duets performed by
Strut Dance, twice a night, for free. February 8 to
12, State Theatre Centre of WA Courtyard.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

Performance
on stage
We are an independent, non-denominational,
co-educational Kindergarten – Year 12 school.

Performance streams are integrated into the

school day with students receiving 10 hours per
week of training depending on their Year Level.

Acting
Classical Ballet
Contemporary Dance
Commercial Dance
Music and in the
classroom
Musical Theatre
Technical Production
Elite Tennis
Rhythmic Gymnastics

Find out more at an Open Day or on a Private Tour 02 9752 0500

Open Morning 16 Jan | Auditions 22 Feb | Private Tours by request mcdonald.nsw.edu.au
 38 / Showtime
PHOTO: JEFF BUSBY

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

 39

How do you stay fresh after months

performing the same role? Olivia Stewart
asks dancers in ‘Hairspray’ and ‘Hamilton’.

IN FOR THE
LONG HAUL
CORING a role in a long-running musical is
a dream for many “triple threat” commercial
dancers. But like any job, the reality is that
getting the gig is just the start. The hard work
continues, with demands and challenges the
dancer might not have expected. A job in a
musical can mean a lifestyle of eight shows a
week with only one day off – combined with
living away from home on a touring show –
and the associated physical and mental load.
Capping it off, despite the creative nature of the job, repeating the same
role and movement every day for months or even years can become boring.
All of this means that dancers who want to achieve success and
longevity in musical theatre will need to find ways to keep the routine
fresh and stay at the top of their game.
Dance Australia got the lowdown from two rising talents who know what
it takes to continuously deliver in the ensemble. Hamilton Dance Captain
Kyla Bartholomeusz, an original Australian cast member, is currently
performing in its Brisbane season, and Todd Jacobsson is set to continue as
Fender when Hairspray moves from Adelaide to Sydney in February.
With a decade’s professional experience each, both have learned what
works and what doesn’t, and how to tread the delicate line between giving
it your all and conserving enough energy to go the distance. While
interviewed separately, their advice is remarkably similar.
Now 28, Jacobsson grew up learning all styles of dance, taking private
acting and singing lessons and performing in amateur musicals. After
high school he started working on ships with the plan to afterwards
undertake full-time training.
Instead, he just kept on working. Transitioning to musicals, he
performed more than a thousand shows during two-and-a-half years
in the original Australian cast of The Book of Mormon, starred as
leading man Tony in the 2021 national and international tour of West
Side Story, and performed around the country with Disney’s Frozen
the Musical, understudying Hans.
The cast of Bartholomeusz’ launchpad was a full-time scholarship at Jason
‘Hairspray’: Coleman’s Ministry of Dance in 2012. Her diverse industry credits
Jacobsson is far span musical theatre, concerts, television shows and commercials,
right (in glasses). film and music videos. Prior to Hamilton, in which she also

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40 / Showtime
PHOTO: DANIEL BOUD
For two years he only turned on his right leg.
“You go to turn on the left leg one day and
it’s the strangest thing in the world.”
understudies Peggy/Maria, her longest run had
been a year in Dirty Dancing.
What’s immediately apparent, even offstage,
about these two artists is their professionalism,
passion and enthusiasm. Both admit, however,
that no matter how much you love what you’re
doing, it’s still work.
“At times it is hard, and you do get tired,”
Jacobsson acknowledges, emphasising,
“musical theatre is my favourite thing in the
world, but it’s totally unnatural. No matter how
long you do it, people’s bodies, voices and
brains are not built to be doing something
eight times a week. You’re really fighting uphill
all the time to make it normal.”
Adds Bartholomeusz: “It could be your
dream show and something you’ve always
wanted to do. And then you get it, and it’s
funny because it does become a job. So then
you have to tell yourself, ‘How can I be the
best version of myself, to show up to this job
every day?’”
Managing and sustaining the workload takes
more effort and discipline than simply
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
performing the show. It’s essential, they say, to
look after your physical and mental health, and
establish a good work/life balance.
“Oh, therapy is essential, let me tell you!”
Barthomeusz laughs. “I think it’s the thing that’s
gotten me through some weeks of the ‘unique
beast’ that is Hamilton. “It’s a really good outlet to
tell a non-biased person your problems.”
The 30-year-old also prioritises making
time for friends and family, to avoid a
“Groundhog Day” routine of waking up,
going to work, going to sleep and only seeing
work colleagues. “It’s really really important
so that you have a life outside.”
All his life, Jacobsson had wanted to be in
West Side Story, which he considered “a dream
show”. But gradually its dark, violent themes,
dealing with racism, murder and death,
affected his mental health. “I got to die eight
times a week. You don’t think about the
implications of investing in that for three
hours, eight times a week, for a year.
“It’s not easy to just shake that off. After a while
you find a way, but it absolutely plays with your
head. You’re 10 times happier doing Hairspray.”
Adapting to the workload and pressure is
perhaps the biggest challenge for those new to a
long-running musical. While technical skills and
hunger are primed, the required amount of
stamina can only be developed in place.
Performers also need to learn to pace themselves
– during each performance and the entire season.
 41

PHOTO: DANIEL BOUD

FAR LEFT: The full
cast of ‘Hamilton’.
ABOVE:
Bartholomeusz
with fellow
performer Loredo
Malcolm.
LEFT: Todd
Jacobsson.

Striking that balance will depend on the
nature and structure of the show for the
ensemble – whether it’s a sprint like
Hairspray’s eight high-octane production
numbers with offstage breaks in between, or a
marathon of being onstage for most of
Hamilton’s two-and-a-half hours.
In the case of West Side Story, Jacobsson says
its physical and vocal demands meant it was
“just physically impossible” to give 100 per cent
intensity eight times a week.
“A lot of [productions] now do a Friday night
show, followed by two on a Saturday and two on
a Sunday,” he explains. “That’s five shows
back-to-back with no rest. It’s really brutal.
“Come Friday, you’ve got to keep some fuel in
the tank. I’ve had so many people say sometimes
your 80 per cent can be the audience’s 100 per
cent – you find a happy medium.”
To counter the physical impact of repeating
the same movement pattern over an extended
period, regular physiotherapy and cross-
training are crucial.
For Bartholomeusz, Pilates three times
weekly staves off injury and makes the shows
easier. In addition to in-house physio twice or
thrice weekly, Jacobsson goes to the gym daily,
using it as his pre-show warm-up. Jacobsson
also keeps up outside dance classes to maintain
his technique, especially across different styles.
In West Side Story, he recalls, for two years he
only turned on his right leg. “You go to turn on
the left leg one day and it’s like the strangest
thing in the world. I think to myself, ‘What
can I be doing that’s going to benefit me in the
show at night and long term as a performer?’”
The mind is also affected by constant
repetition during a long run. Performers can
find themselves defaulting to “autopilot” or
conversely, “pushing” if audience responses
are muted. It’s vital to find ways to keep
things fresh.
Speaking on the eve of Hamilton’s 500th
show, Bartholomeusz acknowledges everyone
will experience autopilot at some point. “(You
don’t) actually listen to anything that anyone’s
saying. That’s where it becomes stale.”
So during her onstage track she finds herself
asking, “‘How can I how can I find new things
in this? How can I remain authentic to the
story?’ Especially with Hamilton, because there
are so many words, it really comes down to
listening to the text.
“You can draw upon intention so quickly –
actually thinking about what you’re saying and
what you’re doing and why – and that makes the
show fresh every single time.”
The bonus is that is actually less effort:
“You’re not over-exerting (or) overdoing it. It’s
actually more sustainable.”
Jacobsson recognises the potential for
embellishment during long runs, chasing an
audience response. He too recentres his
performance by trusting in the material and
the creative team, and heeding the instruction:
“‘You’re not funny. The show is.’ Meaning, the
text. You don’t need to add anything to it. It
works so long as you go out there and just do
what you’ve rehearsed.”
While the challenges and intensity of their
shows mean boredom simply isn’t possible,
monotony can set in with less stimulating material.
“Sometimes people will ‘phone it in’ – it’s
human nature,” Jacobsson observes. “That’s
not truthful and looks bad. And if you think
it’s bad, what do you think the audience is
going to think?”
His advice is to always remember that the
audience is why you are there.
“They are so excited to see this thing. It may
be your 50th time (or) 500th time; when you
know that for someone out there it’s their first
time, that’s a good mental check-in. If you are
feeling tired, if something is hurting, that’s what
gives me the motivation.”
And if that still isn’t enough, gratitude to be
working when there aren’t enough jobs for every
talented artist, especially after the COVID-19
brought the industry to its knees, is the ultimate
source of conscientiousness.
Notes Bartholomeusz: “We are very lucky to be
in one of the biggest musicals in the world.”
‘Hamilton’ moves from Melbourne to open in
Brisbane on January 27. ‘Hairspray’ moves from
Adelaide to Sydney to open on February 5.

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 42 / Survey

‘Verve and joy’:

a scene from the
Australian Ballet’s
‘Romeo and Juliet’.
PHOTO: JEFF BUSBY

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

 43

Following a hiatus of two years, the

annual critics’ survey is back, but in
a different form. Because of the
continuing restrictions of the
pandemic, to both performances
and attendances, this year’s
iteration is smaller than in the past.
Critics were asked to nominate in
just one category: their highlight of
the past year.

CRITICS’ CHOICE:
HIGHLIGHTS
OF

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44 / Survey
PHOTO: DANIEL BOUD
HOUGH this is a national survey, each
critic has nominated according to what
they were able to see, usually in their
own city. Together, their choices provide
an interesting overview of the state of the
art in Australia.
Lesley Graham
Tasmania
2022 in Tasmania/lutrawita has been a time
to celebrate the wonderful diversity of dance
companies we have in this State. The major
highlight for me has been the bravery of our
small companies and dance projects who are
punching well above their weight, producing
work which challenges preconceptions of
ABOVE: David Hallberg
capability, capacity and connection to
(left) and Adam Elmes community.
in a scene from Living, working and advocating for dance
‘Kunstkamer’. on this island is wonderful but it has its down
sides. There are some works I cannot review
ABOVE RIGHT: DRILL
as I am too close*, or they don’t “fit” into a
dance company in
rehearsal. review category, so miss out on national
recognition. Our two youth dance companies,
LOWER RIGHT: A scene Stompin in Launceston and DRILL
from ‘And the earth Performance in nipaluna/Hobart, create
shall swallow them
strong works, through which the voice of our
whole’.
young people can be clearly heard.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
While Stompin has been included in my
Dance Australia reviews this year, DRILL
Performance misses out on acknowledgement,
so here I will (only) describe DRILL’s
Dissolving Labels. Members of DRILL’s
Senior Company, aged 13 to 25, created the
work collaboratively with Artistic Director
Isabella Stone along with director Davina
Wright, visual artist Billie Rankin and
experimental sound artist Richie Cyngler.
Performed in vast concrete and glass space of
the international ship terminal MAC2, the
work investigated the theme of labels – how
young people make sense of themselves and
each other through pigeonholing or labelling.
Some of the questions the dancers asked of
themselves through the process included
“What labels can I shed? What labels do I
keep? What labels have I been given? And
Who do I see if I remove the lens of the
label?” The 15 dancers expressed some of
their lived experiences during the 50 minute
performance. Dissolving Labels ran from
August 18-20 and included Auslan interpreted
and audio described performances.
*Lesley Graham is the current Chair of the
DRILL Performance Board.
 45

Geraldine Higginson
Sydney
I saw two performances
of this in the Australian
Ballet’s April/May season
of Kunstkamer at the Sydney
Opera House and can still
remember aspects of it quite
vividly. Kunstkamer is a
fabulous work on a grand
scale and it showcased a
diverse range of dancers
throughout the ranks –
from familiar faces to relative
newcomers. Thanks go
to the Australian Ballet
for bringing such an exciting
international work to our
shores following
a period where many
Australians had been
feeling cut off from
the rest of the world due
to travel restrictions.
Alana Kildea
Perth
For me, the highlight of this year
was And The Earth Will Swallow
Them Whole, by Rachel Arianne
Ogle, specifically, the first half
of the show.
This work was performed at
Studio Underground, State
Theatre Centre, Perth, in
February as part of the Perth
Festival, and showcased the
talents of Linton Aberle, Imanuel
Dado, Storm Helmore, Bethany
Reece, Tyrone Earl Lraé
Robinson and Zee Zunnur.
But the real talent showcased
in this piece was the vision and
creativity of Rachel Arianne Ogle.
There were many bold and
deliberate choices made in this
piece, and they paid off.
In the first half, the audience
sat on a balcony that ran directly
above all sides of the square
stage. Composer and pianist,
Gabriella Smart, opened the show
by playing Beethoven’s Moonlight
Sonata on a grand piano. Once
Moonlight Sonata was completed,
Smart continued to play the piano,
but the sound became distorted
by a soundboard, and the dancers
darted across the stage in chaos.
Towards the end of the first half,
large sheets of black silk were
drawn across the stage, and air
was rippled beneath them to
create a sea of black waves
slowly swallowing a lone dancer
into nothingness.
All of these elements combined,
(the melancholic tone set by
Moonlight Sonata, sitting above
the stage and looking down into
the darkness, the ripples of silk
becoming bigger and hungrier,
the dancers’ expressionless faces),
created a completely surreal and
otherworldly experience. It was
utterly captivating, and it felt as
though I, too, was being
swallowed by the performance.
I was so impressed by the vision
and execution of this piece, and I
will certainly be watching for what
Ogle does next. (See Limelight for
more on Rachel Ogle, p. 74.)
PHOTO: EMMA FISHWICK

Guest performances by
Artistic Director David
Hallberg were an
additional highlight.

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 46 / Survey
BELOW: Mia Denise Richardson
Heathcote as
Manon, Alexander
Brisbane
Although the performing arts scene,
Idaszak as Lescaut
and Vito Bernasconi particularly dance, fared better in Queensland
as Monsieur GM in than in other states, with fewer lockdowns and
the Qld Ballet’s an earlier, albeit gradual return to the stage last
production. year, 2022 has nevertheless been bursting at
the seams with performances from the
RIGHT:
contemporary to the classical.
Dancenorth’s
‘Wayfinder’, ‘a Picking one highlight is difficult as there
tonic for our times’. have been a few, including Dancenorth’s joyous
The dancer is work Wayfinder, a feature of the Brisbane
Nelson Earle. Festival. However, the gong is going (twice) to
the Queensland Ballet (QB) as it marks 10 years
under the artistic direction of Li Cunxin. In July
the company reopened its headquarters, the
Thomas Dixon Centre, after a splendid $140
million dollar refurbishment. The centre’s
intimate Talbot Theatre has, in the few months
since, become a performance hub for dance,
both by QB and the Academy, but also by
outside hirers of the space. It’s a welcome
addition to the performing arts landscape in
Brisbane, which has limited theatres, sadly
suffering a predilection for tearing them down.
QB also bravely programmed Sir Kenneth
PHOTO: DAVID KELLY
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
MacMillan’s seminal work, Manon, as part of
its 2022 season. Manon demands both
technical and dramatic authority from the
dancers to tell its tragic tale of love, lust, greed
and betrayal. The company delivered on both
counts, marking the season a critical triumph.
The opening night performances by Mia
Heathcote (Manon) and Patricio Revé (De
Grieux) were compelling – Heathcote
convincing as a mercurial, impulsive but easily
corruptible Manon, and Revé the
embodiment of romantic but forsaken love.
However, guest artist Alina Cojacoru’s
performance in the title role was undoubtedly a
highpoint of the season. Compelling in her
interpretation (refined over many iterations) of a
very human, albeit misguided Manon,
Cojacoru’s innate musicality gave crystalline
clarity to the often very detailed movement,
allowing the luscious score to soar in synchrony
with it. Principal Artist Victor Estévez as De
Grieux was a good match for Cojacoru, and
together they gave a performance that had the
audience out of their seats.
In more ways than one the Queensland
Ballet continues to raise the bar!

Olivia Stewart
Brisbane
The reopening of the Queensland Ballet’s
home proved to be an experience as
exciting as any performance. The expansion
of the historic Thomas Dixon Centre, adding
state-of-the art facilities including the
300-seat Talbot Theatre, is world class with
alluring ambience.
Any time we get to see Alina Cojocaru is
a treat, even more so with COVID having
restricted international production visits.
Welcomed back by QB for just two
performances as Manon in a production
that was already superb, the Romanian’s
effect was revelatory and transformative.
That’s because the work’s greatest
challenge – for titular ballerinas and
audiences – is not the physical expression,
but the character’s mercurial contradictions.
On opening night, Mia Heathcote framed
her impassioned interpretation with youthful
impetuousness that made Manon’s extreme
emotional leaps more plausible than I’d
previously found, earning her a post-
performance promotion to Principal.
Yet not all the blanks had been filled in.
Cojocaru’s legible face was the key that
unlocked Manon’s thought process for the
viewer, so that those problematic choices
could be completely understood and
believed (for me, for the first time). This
was Oscar-worthy acting, and a
masterclass in dramatic artistry and
character development. While this
rendered a more understated Manon,
Cojocaru’s nuance and depth made her
richly expressive.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
47
Dancenorth comes tops again for its
ability to create ingenious intellectually-
driven works that engage and connect
broadly. Dubbed a “tonic for our times” by
artistic director Kyle Page, Wayfinder gave
us rainbows. Literally, with artist Hiromi
Tango’s bright and imaginative set and
costume designs.
The inflatable stage facilitated a novel
vocabulary (curated by Page & associate
AD Amber Haines) of gravity-defying
manoeuvres and extended ranges and
effects. With the music and sound design
(Bryon J. Scullin, Hiatus Kaiyote and lead
singer, Nai Palm) and lighting (Niklas
Pajanti), Wayfinder’s aesthetic and sensory
environment invoked wonder, awe and
delight.
PHOTO: AMBER HAINES
 48 / Survey
PHOTO: JEFF BUSBY
Maggie Tonkin
Adelaide
Two things stood out in the Adelaide dance
scene in 2022: the renewal of Australian Dance
Theatre under the artistic directorship of
Daniel Riley, and the flourishing of Restless
Dance Theatre despite its defunding by the
Australia Council. ADT’s history has been
marked by repeated changes of artistic
direction, and after 22 years of Garry Stewart’s
brilliant custodianship, it was time to change
course yet again. When Daniel Riley took over
this year, his aim was to re-engage the
company with Adelaide and South Australia,
particularly with First Nations communities,
and to make work that is intensely grounded in
PHOTO: LORNA SIM
the here and now. With two successful
Adelaide seasons now under his belt, and
showings in Canberra and in the Australian
Ballet’s DanceX program in Melbourne, Riley
is clearly finding his feet and there’s a real
sense of excitement and renewal around the
company.
When the Australia Council withdrew
TOP: Restless Dance
funding for Restless in 2020, the company
Company in ‘Rewards for
was in danger of folding. But just how much
the Tribe’, a collaboration
with Chunky Move. Adelaide treasures this unique company was
immediately evident in the highly successful
ABOVE: Ashlee Bye of crowd funding campaign that followed, and
Australian Dance Party in the past two years Restless has gone from
performing ‘LESS’.
strength to strength. A number of exciting
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
new works have been produced, with seasons
interstate and overseas, and new
collaborations forged. A new training regime
has been introduced and the company has
never been stronger, either technically or
artistically. Hats off to the triumvirate of
Michelle Ryan, Roz Hervey and Julie Moralee
who have steered the company through the
defunding crisis to these successes!
Michelle Potter
Canberra
Canberra’s resident professional dance
company, Australian Dance Party (ADP), has
made its name creating site-specific works. I
have never seen the company perform in a
theatre, rather its works constantly reveal
Canberra’s buildings, landscapes, sculptures
and interiors in ways that shine new light on
the city and its surrounds. LESS, a work made
in and around a monumental sculpture
named LESS by its creator, the Chilean-based
architect Pezo von Ellrichshausen, was a
highlight of 2022.
The sculpture graces a space in Canberra’s
Dairy Road Precinct, an area devoted to mixed
and emerging businesses. It is a structure of 36
towering concrete columns and a circular ramp
leading to a viewing platform. In front of it is a
water feature, which consists of large
rectangular ponds of shallow water.
ADP’s use of the site for LESS was
something of an adventure for the audience,
with some seated on the ramp, while others
dangled their feet in the water while sitting
on chairs positioned in one of the watery
rectangles. Choreographically the work
explored the space around and within the
sculpture with the dancers moving through
water-filled spaces, across the base of the
sculpture and between columns, appearing
and disappearing unexpectedly. Sometimes
the choreography reflected the upright nature
of the columns but sometimes it ignored this
structural aspect and became quite free and
adventurous.
LESS was also a remarkable collaborative
venture especially in terms of music and
lighting. The score included a saxophonist and a
vocalist who moved through the space in a
similar way to the dancers. The vocals, created
by Liam Budge through a hand-held
microphone, were a blend of grunts, moans,
shouts, whispers and other assorted sounds that
often seemed to reflect the dancers’ movements.
Lighting by Ove Mcleod added a range of
colour and pattern and, remarkably, at times
allowed what was happening on the sculpture to
be reflected in the water giving a sensation of no
beginning or no end to the dance.
ADP, directed by Alison Plevey, has a
different approach to dance from many other
companies, but LESS was a triumph. Every
aspect of the production contributed in a
theatrical way to give a totally absorbing show.
 50 / Survey
Karen van Ulzen
(Melbourne)
I am surprising myself by writing this, but my
highlight of the year was the Australian Ballet’s
Romeo and Juliet.
That is despite the absurdist brilliance of
Kunstkamer, which for me peaked at the end of
the first act, but lost impetus after that. And
despite the strength of the company’s entire
2022 season, which included the Melbourne
premiere of Anna Karenina – which did not
tell its story very clearly or manage to create an
empathetic character of its heroine – and the
conviviality of DanceX, which gave audiences
an illuminating glimpse of eight dance
companies. It is also despite the sleek
sophistication of Sydney Dance Company’s
Impermanence, whose very fluidity and
ephemerality, breathtaking to watch at the
Brodie James time, unfortunately leaves me struggling to fix
with fellow actual moments in my memory. And despite
jesters in ‘Romeo Bangarra’s Terrain, which demonstrated the
and Juliet’. company’s usual brilliant theatrical flair.
PHOTO: RAINEE LANTRY
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
Is Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, created in 1962,
the perfect ballet? I had expected it to look dated
after all these years, for the choreography to be
too predictable, the sentiments embarrassingly
old hat. But that was not the case.
Perhaps it is the current popularity of
swashbuckling, historical movies, but this ballet
seems almost fashionable again. The whole
production was fresh, vibrant and gloriously
musical. The story and the characters are clearly
drawn, the ensemble dances sweep around the
stage with verve and joy, and the fight scenes are
genuinely menacing and testing of the dancers’
skills. The story is as powerful and relevant as
ever, the bitterness and hatred all too familiar.
As for that famous balcony pas de deux: even
though I prefer the MacMillan version, it is
unquestionably a masterpiece of the ballet canon
– a perfect marriage of movement, emotion and
music, and makes me choke up every time I see it.
I am certain others feel the same: on the two
nights I attended, the audience was so hushed and
spellbound you could have heard a tear drop.
2023 Season

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52 / Debate
IS THERE A
BETTER WAY
TO APPROACH
SYLLABUS?
ECENTLY, a post on Facebook by an Australian
teacher undertaking a teacher’s course at the
Royal Ballet School (RBS) caught my attention. I
immediately wanted to know more about this
course called the Affiliate Teaching and
Assessment Programme (ATAP) which was
launched in London in February last year.
What I discovered was a bold, innovative and
exciting new program which I believe has the
potential to change the way training and
assessment is conducted in many private ballet
schools in Australia and throughout the world.
The program is suitable for both recreational and
vocational students from grade levels upwards.
Teachers who are accepted for this program
attend a short but intensive course which is based
on the RBS model. Upon completion, teachers
John Byrne suggests a attain probationary affiliate status and can
better balance can be implement the program in their schools. They
then submit a video of a sample lesson they have
found in the classroom prepared, which is assessed by the RBS, after
between the which they can achieve full affiliate status and
may style themselves as “An Affiliate Teacher of
contributions made by the RBS”. When their students are ready to be
assessed, usually after about two years of study,
syllabus and those teachers video a class based on the RBS prescribed
made by the teacher. criteria and guidelines. This class, plus the
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
teacher’s own assessments of the student’s
performance, is loaded on to the RBS platform.
The results awarded by the teacher to their
students are moderated by the RBS, which
provides feedback and either confirms the
teacher’s own results, or alters them up or down
as required. The RBS is thus the final arbiter of
standards.
The main feature which sets the ATAP apart
from all other UK- based ballet organisations is
that it has no set examination syllabus. This
change of focus from a syllabus-based approach to
a teacher-based approach is a highly significant
one – some would say a long overdue one – and
contains within it huge potential for improved
standards in both teaching and assessment. It also
empowers teachers by giving them a large degree
of autonomy and, in so doing, provides them with
the means for greater career satisfaction.
Why has the RBS launched this
program?
During a long career in teaching and
examining I have often thought about whether
the prevailing syllabus-based model adopted by
most of the examining organisations embodies
the best approach to either training or

assessment. After considering various
scenarios, the conclusion I reached
turned out to be very similar to the main
features of the ATAP. While I cannot speak for
the RBS, readers may find it interesting to
follow the rationale which led me, without any
prior knowledge of this RBS program, to the
same sort of conclusion.
For about 100 years now, teachers in private
ballet schools have relied heavily on set syllabi
provided by the major ballet organisations. Having
studied the exercises within these syllabi for a year
or more, students present the same exercises so
that their standard can be assessed. In this scheme
of things, the set exercises have been expected
satisfy the needs of both training and assessment.
The major ballet organisations sometimes point
out that their syllabi are basically for exams only
and that the actual training of students is the
responsibility of the teacher. By and large,
however, teachers, while adding something of their
own to the process, have used the syllabi for both
training purposes and examinations.
How effective is this approach?
One can certainly make the case that this is not
the best approach to either training or
53
PHOTO: PIERRE TAPPON PHOTOGRAPHY.
I think we need to consider gradually
expanding the role of free
enchaînements in examinations.”
assessment. The process of repeating the same
set of exercises throughout the year has
considerable limitations in terms of both the
breadth and depth of the study undertaken. It is
also a form of rote learning and suffers from all
of the disadvantages of that process. How
accurate and realistic is it, therefore, to assess the
achievements of a student based on this process?
How much of what they show in examinations is
a reflection of how well they have learnt the set
syllabus exercises and how much of it is a
reflection of their standard in absolute terms,
independent of the syllabus? From my
observation, the technical standard of free work
both inside and outside the examination studio
is often well below that of the set examination
work seen in the examination studio.
Given these limitations, why has this The photo above is
examination syllabus model lasted for so long? courtesy of the Royal
Ballet School, London.
After 100 years, is it time for a change?
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54 / Debate
Photos immediately above and
right are kindly provided by the
Laurel Martyn Dance System.
Photos top and middle are courtesy
the Royal Ballet School, London.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
PHOTO: KAROLINA WEBB
On a practical level, a set syllabus has been of
considerable benefit to teachers, many of whom
only have access to their studios outside school
hours. Constructing their own comprehensive
training programs and lesson plans for each and
every level might be the ideal, but for most it is
not practicable. Ready-made syllabi are helpful
and convenient and allow teachers to streamline
their work load. While teachers may offer some
“free” work, the need to get the syllabus ready to
be examined usually takes up most of their
time. The success or otherwise of this syllabus-
based approach is therefore largely determined
by the quality of the training within the syllabus
itself. If the syllabus is deficient in terms of
training, then there is a real problem.
I think we need a structure which is based
more on the teacher than on the syllabus. The
aim would be not to eliminate the syllabus but
to achieve a better balance between the
contributions made by the syllabus and the
teacher. A good starting point would be to
regard the syllabus as part of the means to an
end, not an end in itself.
A better balance would be achieved through a
training program with clear indications about what
PHOTO BY RACHEL CHERRY. COURTESY ROYAL
steps should be introduced and when, and how
they should be developed over time. Teachers
would then use this methodology to generate
productive technical classes for their students. At
present, too few teachers “break down” and “put
together” steps. A constructive and systematic
program to both assist and encourage them to do
more of this essential work would make a big
difference. Also, teachers tend to be offered far
more courses on syllabi than they are on the
establishment of technique per se. This piecemeal
approach to technical development needs to be
replaced by the introduction of a much more
comprehensive training program.
Logically, the development of such a program
should take precedence over the development of
new syllabi, as once this training program is
established, syllabi can be drawn directly from
the principles and priorities set down in the
program. Adopting this kind of approach would
result in a more enduring and systematic regime
rather than one which lacks sufficient
pedagogical rigour or relies too much on a
choreographic approach when setting exercises.
It would also ensure that there was a clear line of
development and a logical progression from one

level of the syllabus to the next. Syllabi tend to be
changed every 20 odd years, and while a certain
amount of evolution is desirable, changes which
bring about a completely different approach
based on the fashion of the times or the personal
preferences of those who produce them are not
consistent with good pedagogical practice. In my
view, it is not possible to talk about a “method” or
a “system” when examination syllabi are created
in this rather capricious and inconsistent way and
in the absence of a codified training program.
Having strengthened the training,
how can we improve assessment
procedures using the syllabus?
I think we need to gradually expand the role of
free enchaînements in examinations. This would
give a clearer idea of the standard achieved by
candidates than the present execution of mostly set
syllabus exercises only. Free enchaînements tend
to make both teachers and students apprehensive
but I think that is because many teachers so rarely
work outside the syllabus that their students never
build up the confidence to deal with them.
Teachers could concentrate on teaching their
own work based on the training program for the
first half of the year and introduce the syllabus
itself in the latter part of the year leading up to
the examination. In time, once they get used to
this regime, the more senior students can learn
the syllabus as an extended free class, having put
in the relevant underlying training beforehand.
When given non-syllabus work regularly, students
begin to find their classes more stimulating.
Endless repetition of syllabus exercises
throughout the year numbs the mind of the
student and in time they switch off. They no
longer really listen to the music. Time is wasted.
Perhaps one day we might arrive at a point
where teachers generate their own examination
classes for assessment. These classes could also
contain some obligatory and definitive syllabus
settings so that the heritage of any particular
organisation is maintained, but they would be
mainly based on guidelines contained in the
training program and on other strict criteria, so
that the content and level of difficulty are
standardised. The job of the examiner would
then be to assess the standard achieved based on
the class presented. A teacher’s mark based on
the student’s attendance, application and
achievement over the year might also be included
as part of the assessment. This would give
appropriate credit, assessable only by the teacher,
to what has been achieved by the student during
the lengthy process of preparing for an
examination. Assessment of a year’s work should
not come down to what a student delivers on one
day of the year – examination day!
Are these utopian ideas? What is
your view?
John Byrne has had an extensive international
career as teacher, examiner and director. He has
created several ballet syllabi.
Responses
John Byrne’s article generated many responses on our on-line platforms.
Here are edited extracts of just two.
Open Minds
It is a sign of good health
that new initiatives
stimulate discussion,
PHOTO: DAVID TETT
debate and re-evaluation
of the core values in any
sector, but particularly in
dance and education.
The RBS offering is an affirmation of
the same values that the RAD and many
others wish teachers to embrace.
Although the RAD, as an awarding body,
does offer examinations our focus for
over 100 years has always been on
improving standards of dance teaching.
I feel this is a good opportunity to
reaffirm that inspiring teaching is, of
course, at the heart of happy and
successful dancers of all levels.
All RAD teachers are independent
and, as such, are free to teach how they
wish. Our most successful teachers
take a student-centered approach,
focusing on the student’s personal
development, and only work on setting
the syllabus closer to the time they may
take an exam. As a useful comparison,
when learning a language, it is important
to first understand what the words
mean and how they link together before
trying to have a conversation; so in
dance, we wish our dancers to fully
understand how they engage with the
movements before they perform the
choreography. The process of repeating
the same set of exercises over and over
throughout the year is far from what I or
the RAD would advocate for, and is
indeed counterproductive.
Examinations may not be right for all,
but for many students they do provide
needed goals to work towards, a chance
to show their work to others (a
performance if you will), and a sense of
achievement when accomplished …
The reality is that many students do not
attend with the regularity that is needed in
order to achieve what is expected. Many
teachers still have to make hard decisions
about the most important things they
have the time to work on.
Teachers are as varied as their students,
so although there is no single best way to
approach the transfer of knowledge, having
a wide range of skills at your fingertips is an
absolute asset. And certainly, as teachers,
regardless of our experience, we should
never stop learning.
– Gerard Charles, Artistic Director, Royal
Academy of Dance.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
55
A Vision for Learning
Raising the profile of a
holistic approach to
dance education that
fosters progressive
training for every
student through
programs shaped by their own teachers
is most timely.
Did you know that such a method has
already been successfully practised in
Australia for around 40 years – The
Laurel Martyn Dance System (LMDS).
This comprehensive and logical system
was developed and codified by Laurel
Martyn OBE, an Australian dance icon.
Laurel’s holistic method has its
foundations in the Ballet Guild School
which Laurel opened in Melbourne in
1947 in conjunction with the Ballet Guild
Company and evolved into a complete
systematic approach. She brought this
concept together in her teaching
manuals, Let Them Dance (first published
1985) and Help Them Dance which
followed soon after.
A thorough systematic approach will
help both the teacher and the dancer to
understand all aspects of what they are
working towards, facilitating the
development of artistry, musicality and
technique for a well-rounded dance
education right from the start. The
purpose, progressions, and correlations of
movements are fully explained in the
LMDS Manuals, while the LMDS
Standards provide comprehensive
bench-marking. Students may present any
compete progression for assessment,
showing content set by the teacher…
As Laurel said about her approach:
“It doesn’t put exercises together; it
tells how to do each movement, what
it’s for, and how the development
happens – a comprehensive theory of
teaching dance so that teachers can
fully understand their responsibilities,
the artistic side of what they’re doing,
and not just the technical side.”
“The flexibility of this approach
means that we can move at the pace
required.”
This teacher-based approach enables
teachers to create individualised learning
pathways that answer the needs of their
own students and also result in greater
rewards for the teacher.
– Jane Andrewartha, Director:
Movement and Dance Education Centre;
Executive Trustee: The Laurel Martyn
Technique and wellbeing 57

PHOTO: ANGHARAD GLADDING, COURTESY OF QLD BALLET ACADEMY.

SAFE-STRETCH
TO SUPPLENESS
HEY say the heat of the summer months, combined with the
relaxing nature of holidays, makes the end of the year break the best
time to work on your flexibility. For students getting back to the
studio after holidays, or professionals returning to their work
schedule after some well-deserved rest, knowing how best to restore,
maintain and improve the elite levels of flexibility needed for dance
can be tricky, especially as the demands placed upon the body by
differing repertoire and physical conditions can be in a state of
constant flux. Keeping abreast of the latest in training and
conditioning techniques can help you develop a safe stretching
routine that works well for your individual body.
When maintaining and improving flexibility in a harm-free way,
there are a few factors to consider. While it can be difficult to resist
the temptation to engage in unsafe stretching practices that promise a
“quick fix”, the reality is that there is no “one size fits all” approach to
Qld Ballet’s Joseph
increasing flexibility. Furthermore, flexibility is an important aspect
Moss (Jette Parker
of developing your dance practice and artistry that should be taken
Young Artist) and
Samantha
Everybody wants to be seriously and engaged with carefully. In general, aiming to improve
your flexibility requires a careful and holistic combination of
Grammer flexible, but don’t rush into strengthening, stretching and massage, complemented by a relaxed
(Pre-Professional
Program) limber up. it, advises Belle Beasley. state of mind. Experienced dancers know that finding a blend of tools

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

PHOTO: JOSHUA HOGAN
58 / Technique and wellbeing
Find that sweet and techniques that work best for you takes
time – your journey with flexibility will be
spot in the filled with trial and error. But with body-
stretch or awareness, advice from respected
professionals and an open-mind to differing
position where self-care techniques, your joints will thank
you in the long run.
you can relax So, what actually is flexibility, and how do
and let go of you improve it safely? The International
Association for Dance Medicine and Science
tension. And (IADMS) defines it as “the range of motion at
a joint in association with the pliability of a
breathe into it.” muscle”, in their public resources for dance
fitness, noting the importance of flexibility in
“complementing muscular strength, building
efficiency in movement, coordination, and
preventing injuries”. The resource also
highlights the significance of the way you
stretch, not just the type of stretch you do,
emphasising a relaxed and gentle approach,
rather than an aggressive or ballistic technique.
This mindset may be at odds with some
teaching practices – but an important part of
being a dancer is that you respect your bodily
limitations to ensure the well-being and
longevity of your most vital tool.
Interestingly, the IADMS also notes the
relationship of flexibility to neuromuscular
ABOVE: National coordination, the nexus of “balance, agility,
College of Dance coordination, and skill” which supports
(Newcastle) students dancers to move efficiently and activate only
stretch at the barre. the most necessary muscles. Imagery and
OPPOSITE PAGE: visualisation are vital techniques for improving
Transit Dance neuromuscular coordination, and these
(Melbourne) student techniques can similarly be applied to
Chloe Taylor. increasing flexibility and range of motion.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
Visualisation techniques help the body
understand which muscles it can and can’t
relax while moving, enhancing your ability to
reach full extensions.
One of the most important aspects of
developing your physical range of motion is
through fostering your intuitive body
awareness and knowledge. The University of
Melbourne Bachelor of Dance program
dedicates a whole course to the development of
body knowledge, emphasising movement
techniques stemming from scientific and
somatic practices in both Eastern and Western
cultures such as Feldenkrais, Ideokinesis,
Alexander Technique, Pilates, Tai Qi and Body
Mind Centering. Such a diversity of movement
approaches demonstrates the plethora of
methods available to dancers looking to
develop their flexibility.
Sydney-based ballet and Pilates teacher
Darren Spowart, who has worked with the
likes of Sylvie Guillem, Rafael Bonachela and
Cathy Goss, says that dancers should be
considerate of existing tightness in the body
when they go to stretch.
“When you have an excessively tight
muscle, or if something is spasming, take this
as a cue to reduce the intensity of your
stretches,” he says. “Intensive stretching into a
spasming muscle can increase risk and your
chances of injury. Instead, look to the use of
varied size exercise balls to help massage out
and gently relieve tension. In combination
with some gentle mobilising movement, the
use of balls to stretch and massage into tight
muscles can be safer and more effective.”
 59

Top Tips for Safe

Stretching
1. Take time to relax your
mind and body over the
holidays –
accumulated mental
tension will result
in physical tension.
2. Don’t compare your
progress to social
media stars – an image
only shows a small fraction
of the reality. Listen to your
own body.
3. Use visualisation techniques as
you return to full fitness – this
will help you develop the neural
pathways needed for full
extensions.
4. Look to exercise balls of
diverse sizes to help massage
out any sore spots, instead of
over-stretching tight muscles
and causing gradual weakening.
5. When stretching, don’t look for
pain – find a position you can
relax in, and breathe into it.
6. Engage in a diversity of
cross-training and movement
styles to develop body
awareness – you never know
what new ways of moving you
might learn!

PHOTO: CHRIS CURRAN

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

 60 / Technique and wellbeing

It can be hard to resist comparing your

When stretching,
flexibility with others in the hyper-saturated
don’t look for
pain, emphasise a digital world, particularly when there is so
relaxed approach. much conflicting information about stretching
shared on-line. When you Instagram search for
“flexibility”, the tag comes up with over 10
million relevant posts! On YouTube, videos
promising quick and easy fixes for improving
flexibility accumulate millions of views. It’s
clear that the pursuit of a more limber
physicality is desirable for all, not just dancers,
and it can be hard to not carried away with the
profusion of overstretching and hypermobility
content across different social media channels.
Amsterdam-based Pilates teacher Leila
Kester, the pilates-guru for the stars of the
Dutch National Ballet and Netherlands Dans
Theater, encourages an anti-stress approach
to stretching. “Don’t look for pain or a
position that causes you to tense up,” she says.
“Find that sweet spot in the stretch or position
where you can relax and let go of tension. And
breathe into it.”
Kester also recommends that young dancers
look for positive improvements in their
stretches, rather than focussing on comparing
themselves to others. “Don’t look for a
confirmation of what you can’t do or adhere to
the expectations of others. Instead, focus on
yourself and notice the improvements in your
movement capabilities, however small.”
For experienced dancers heading back to
class in the new year, one of the biggest
challenges can be those pesky old injuries that
rear up just as class intensity builds. Those
niggles are a natural protective response that
tell you that an old injury may not be fully
healed. This is your cue to seek professional
advice about how to best manage the
inflammation or instability. Rushing back to
an intensive regime of stretch, massage and
cross-training to counter tight spots will likely
be a Bandaid solution to a deeper weakness
that needs attention. Although easing back into
your training may see a more gradual return to
your full physical capacity, you can rest assured
that the results will sustain you in the long run.
Finally, it’s important to keep in mind what
the goal is, and whether stretching is really the
best method to attaining that goal. Sometimes
attempting a shape, position, or step that
challenges your physical extensions requires
more power and strength than it does
flexibility. Consequently, shifting your
cross-training to focus on strengthening your
muscles to support an increased range of
motion might be the most efficient approach
to improving your ability to achieve extended
positions, rather than lengthening your
muscles and subsequently decreasing your
ability to control your range. Most likely, a
PHOTO: JOSHUA HOGAN

balance between strengthening and stretching

will be the most efficient and injury
preventative method to increasing flexibility in
the new year.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

NZSD 2nd Yr Classical Ballet Students - Joshua Douglas & Joshua Linkhorn. Photo by Stephen A’Court

SINCE 1967
WORLD CLASS TRAINING
Director Garry Trinder MNZM
62 / Musings

A building
that flies
Matthew Lawrence takes us on
an exclusive tour of the Qld Ballet’s
new state-of-the-art home.

HIS building will be here when I and my

sons have long passed away, as a
monument of pluck and indomitable
perseverance.” (Thomas Dixon)
What once started as a “minor renovation”,
led by Queensland Ballet’s Artistic Director Li
Cunxin, has ballooned to a $100 million plus
reimagining of QB’s old home: the Thomas
Dixon Centre (TDC). Against a backdrop of
COVID, El Niño, significant delays, rampant
inflation and rising costs, QB’s new home was
finally completed in July last year. It is a
spectacular new arts hub for Brisbane. After
getting the insider’s titbits from QB’s precincts
manager, Julia Urbanska, let me take you on a
behind-the-scenes tour.
One hundred and fourteen years ago – if your
maths is good, that’s 1908 – Yorkshire
immigrant Thomas Dixon relocated his boot
tannery, after fire and floods had shifted him
around various West End locations, to its
present Drake Street location. Today, walking
down adjoining Montague Street, you will be match the body’s circadian rhythms, and a showcasing the hard work of the many behind-
struck by a lovely example of Georgian revival state-of-the-art rehabilitation centre – with the-scenes”. After all, ballet is traditionally a
architecture. Unusually, for warehouses of this plunge pool, gym/Pilates space and multiple little like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory
period, it has an open-lit space with large sash consultation rooms (an inviting environment – without the Oompa Loompas, or chocolate
windows, patterned red bricks, and impressive that is hard to leave!). – with its enigmatic processes.
ceilinged king trusses; clearly Dixon looked Upon entering the building through large Further along the ground floor is a chic
after his employees well. glass doors, you will be impressed by the champagne bar and the entrance to the jewel in
As a heritage-listed site, all elements of the expansive, light-filled foyer. Overhead, the old the TDC’s crown, the Talbot Theatre. Once
original building had to be painstakingly building is cleverly linked to the new upon a time, the Theatre’s present site was a
restored. Urbanska shared with me that the extension via a glass skylight. Urbanska noted narrow carpark. Now, miraculously defying the
existing bricks were cleaned and reused, with that this design feature was inspired by a 2018 natural laws of space – like Doctor Who’s Tardis
even historic graffiti – one from a World War episode of well-liked TV show, Grand – there sits a 350-seat auditorium with a stage
2 veteran – preserved. Because of the Designs. At the entrance is the community wider than Queensland Performing Arts
uncompromising details of the build by the dance studio – one of six dance studios – Centre’s Lyric theatre. You would be most
architect firm, Conrad Gargett, the which hosts various dance programs, from impressed viewing the stage from the lofty
complementary internal timbers were sourced Dance for Parkinson’s to Petit Pointers for tiny 22-seat viewing gallery, which plays host to
from several sawmills throughout Queensland tots. Accessibility – such as a level entry way, board and corporate events. From that elevated
and New South Wales. ground-floor café and disabled amenities viewpoint, my attention is drawn above to an
Another world class feature of the build is – have been tailored to meet needs. industrial “catwalk” used by technical
WELL: a new international, research-led Walking on, what will strike you next are production for access to the lighting rigs. Far
building measure for employee well-being. large windows displaying tutus with costumiers below in the auditorium there is a good view of
According to Urbanska, the new TDC features busily stitching for the next production local indigenous artist Judy Watson’s carpet,
the latest in wellness initiatives: green spaces deadline. It is a sneak peek into the inner inspired by Queensland’s natural environment
utilising recycled water, filtered air that is sanctum, and an introduction to, as Urbanska – casuarina branches and bunya leaves wrapped
cleaner than outdoors, lighting designed to put it: “Uncovering the mysteries of ballet and around a tutu’s tulle.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU


Now heading up the cleverly designed
staircase – with its angles and gold
embellishments – to the first floor, we enter
the heartbeat of operations. Along an open
floating causeway are five light dance studios,
named after the company’s five directors, from
Charles Lisner to Cunxin. The studios and
first floor facilities house 60 company dancers
and a large cohort of pre-professional academy
students. A private greenroom space, kitchen,
outside balcony and dressing-rooms with
theatre-styled make-up desks make a
comfortable retreat for the dancers.
Circling up the stairs on the second floor is
my home, the Artistic Suite (I am the messy
desk in the corner), which overlooks the
Cunxin studio. A feature of the space is a
dedicated soundproof music studio (which is
helpful if anyone needs to scream).
And now the “wow” moment. Up past the
third floor, which is dedicated to QB’s
costume archives, the fourth floor leads to a
trendy bar and open terrace with
unobstructed city views – perfect for the
Riverfire festival. It has been named the Kite
63
PHOTO: CHRIS WARDLE
terrace – inspired by Cunxin’s childhood of Clockwise from left
making and flying kites with his dad. bottom: studio interior;
Attached to their tails were written messages dressingroom and
sharing his hopes and dreams to the clouds. main entrance.
Buildings are more than just bricks and
mortar. As philosopher Alain de Botton puts it
in his book, The Architecture of Happiness:
“We depend on our surroundings obliquely to
embody the moods and ideas we respect”.
Enabled by a community of supporters and the
state and federal governments, the new TDC is
a building which embodies, for me, ideals of
beauty, ambition, passion, respect and
financial security. It is a building that flies with
Cunxin’s vision for QB’s continued success: to
infinity and beyond!
Tours of the Thomas Dixon Centre are held
once a month, hosted by Julia Urbanska. The
promo code for the dance community is Matthew Lawrence is a former
TDCOffer, which will reduce the price to $15pp. principal artist with the
Go to: https://www.thomasdixoncentre.com.au/ Australian Ballet, Birmingham
whats-on-events/guided-building-tours/ Royal Ballet and Queensland
For private tours for groups up to 20 people, best Ballet. He is currently Ballet
to inquire at hello@thomasdixoncentre.com.au. Master at the Queensland Ballet.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
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 Film
THE REMAKING
OF ‘CARMEN’
HE opera Carmen has inspired many adaptations.
Written by the French composer Georges Bizet in
1875, its dramatic story of sexual jealousy, its
tempestuous heroine and its gorgeous, singable
melodies has made it one of the most popular
operas in the repertoire, even today, and a rich
subject for reinterpretation. Most recently, it has
been made into a new feature film, directed by
dancer and choreographer, Benjamin Millepied.
Millepied was born in France and Carmen is
an opera he grew up with. “There was a lot of
music around our house and my father’s side of
the family are all musicians,” he says.
“Somehow it was a story that resonated with me
as a child, and I eventually became interested in
other versions of it, such as Carlos Saura’s film.
It always stayed with me.”
A new film of this Millepied was a principal dancer and
famous story has choreographer with New York City Ballet from
1995 to 2011 and artistic director of the Paris
been created by Opera Ballet from 2016 to 2016, after which he
left to pursue his own choreographic projects.
choreographer Benjamin He has his own dance company, LA Dance
Millepied. It was filmed Project, which he founded with Charles Fabius
in Australia with
Australian dancers.
PHOTO: GOALPOST PICTURES/BEN KING
Melissa Barrera and Aidan Paul-Mescal
as the two lovers Carmen and Aiden.
INSET: Director, writer and
choreographer, Benjamin Millepied.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
65
in 2012. His sidestep into film came about when
he choreographed for the Oscar winning
Hollywood feature film, Black Swan (directed
by Darren Aronofsky), in 2010. Since then he
has worked in various film projects. Carmen is
his debut as a director.
Millepied’s version of the Carmen story is very
much set in the present, drawing together some
of the world’s most entrenched political crises.
Set on the Mexican border, it follows the journey
of Carmen (Melissa Barrera) as she makes an
illegal crossing into the US to escape from
murderous drug cartels. Aiden (Paul Mescal), a
border guard, who is returned soldier tormented
by his time in Afghanistan, should arrest her, but
instead he helps her escape. Together they flee
across the desert toward LA to seek sanctuary
with Carmen’s mother’s best friend, Masilda
(Rossy de Palma), who runs a nightclub.
The movie was made in Australia during
November 2020, at locations in NSW. “There
was a real issue with Covid in the US at that
time,” Millepied explains over Zoom from his
home in the US. “The budget only allowed for a
66 / Film
Wherever the camera is there is always a
choice. I can go from wide or focus on a
detail, or move to the right or left because
it enhances the dance.”
Melissa Barrera
in the title role.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
PHOTO: GOALPOST PICTURES/BEN KING.
very short schedule, and I was nervous about that.
Then when Covid hit and my wife [Natalie
Portman] was scheduled to come to Australia to
shoot Thor I realised that I could [also] shoot my
movie there because in America it was so
complicated. I looked at the landscape in
Australia and thought it would be quite suitable.”
He made contact with Sydney Dance
Company and watched rehearsals. “It was clear
that they were outstanding,” he says. “Raf
(Bonachela) opened the doors to the company
to me and was very gracious, gave me time and
the dancers I wanted and it was very, very
special.” For a fight scene toward the end of the
movie he found some “very talented crumpers
in Sydney”, in particular four of them “who had
an interesting language of their own. Then I
would basically make up the structure and let
them choreograph the movements”.
His film is neither an opera or a musical, but
music and dance play an important part. Much
of the most fervent emotion is expressed through
dance and many of the climactic moments and
key spoken lines are in the dance scenes.
“Yes, dance and music tell a lot of the story,”
he says. “Carmen expresses her relationship to
life with dance. I think she expresses this
larger-than-life quality, she expresses her power
through dance and her freedom in dancing, the
freedom she’s seeking when she goes across the
border and wants a better future for herself.”
It is perhaps no surprise, given Millepied’s
background, that the film has a very “theatrical”
look. The deliberate staginess of the settings,
the exaggerated light and acute camera angles,
give the film an almost hallucinatory quality,
reminiscent of Fellini’s more operatic films.
Millepied is an admirer of the seminal 1961
film of West Side Story, with its innovative
design (he sites Jerome Robbins as a mentor),
and you can see its influence on his own choice
of scenery and sightlines. Locations around
Broken Hill stood in for the Mexican desert.
Asked about the difference between
choreographing for stage or film, Millepied
says one of the advantages about
choreographing for film is having more
choices and control over the viewpoint.
“Wherever the camera is there is always a
choice. I can go from wide or focus on a detail,
or move to the right or left because it enhances
the dance.
“Also,” he adds, “you’re creating something
for perpetuity. The proscenium is an open
frame where anything can go wrong on any
night.” (He laughs rather ruefully). “You have
just one perspective from the front, whereas
with film you can go 360 degrees, you can go
behind, you can be intimate, it actually gives
you more possibilities and more control, which
is one of the reasons I love it.”
Sydney dancer Holly Doyle, who was
associate choreographer on the film, agrees.
“One dance scene would have maybe four
camera angles,” she says, “and take about two to
three hours.” One of her many responsibilities
was to help the steady cam find a path through
the dancing, diving in between outflung arms
and legs. “That way Benjamin was able to
capture exactly what he wanted,” she says.
Millepied’s Carmen is most likely a long way
from what audiences expect from a film of that
name. Although he is hardly the first to have
diverged from the original story, “Mine may be
one of the more extreme ones,” he admits.
“But in the end I think it’s about the essence of
her character, about the representation of what
it means to be this fearless, freedom-seeking
woman who has this magical quality that
transcends life and death.
“She has a real love story that’s not just about
her dominating men and moving on... I give
her the capacity to love, unlike in the opera,
where she is just an object of desire and not so
likeable and also gets punished for expressing
her sexual freedom.”
– KAREN VAN ULZEN
‘Carmen’ is a French/Australian co-production.
It received its Australian premiere at the
Adelaide Film Festival last year. Details of
forthcoming seasons are yet to be announced.
Reviews 67

West Australian Ballet William Greenwood, is a greedy businessman

with plans to build on the land, and Odile’s
The corps of 16+ black swans were perfection
in both angles and timing, and the cygnets were
objective is to seduce Sebastian to prevent his clone-like with crisp, tight batterie.
SWAN LAKE interference with her father’s plans. As a result, The elaborate set by Phil R. Daniels really
HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE, PERTH Odile and Odette are played by different gave the show wow-factor; the set of
REVIEWED: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18 dancers, which I think was the right choice, Fremantle Harbour in Act 1, which featured a
given that they are no longer direct opposites of moving sailboat big enough for several
This innovative version of Swan Lake each other. I found the slight shift away from dancers to stand on, was particularly
is not only entertaining, but a step romance to be a modern, refreshing twist. impressive. The costumes by Charles Cusick
towards reconciliation for Oscar Valdes created a believably joyful and Luck were equally detailed and masterful, as
Western Australians. • earnest character of Sebastian. Both his solo and
partnering work were superb. Kiki Saito embodied
was the lighting by Jon Buswell.
This innovative version of Swan Lake is not
the fragility of Odette through her floaty port de only entertaining, but a step towards
bras and unshakable extensions; a great start for reconciliation for Western Australians. This
her first major role. Of course, Chihiro Nomura season will be a momentous time for the WA
HAT a way for the West Australian was utterly captivating as Odile. During the Black Ballet, and I commend Barry McGuire, Kyle
Ballet to conclude its 70th year! Swan variation, one audience member audibly Morrison and the men of the Gya Ngoop
The WA Ballet’s Swan Lake has gasped “wow” (and I agreed wholeheartedly). Keeninyarra for sharing their stories and
raised the standards of modernising Matthew Lehmann gave an intense and villainous driving the creative process.
old, perhaps outdated, storylines. Artistic Director portrayal of William Greenwood, and Kyle – ALANA KILDEA
Aurelien Scannella and choreographer Krzysztof Morrison, while not a ballet dancer, kept pace with
Pastor have once again (with the help of Noongar his characterisation of Mowadji, creating a ‘Swan Lake’ ran from November 10
leader and guide, Barry McGuire) created a fresh, generous and brave persona. to December 11.
detail-oriented work that will, no doubt, be a fan
favourite for years to come.
Set in Fremantle in the early days of
Chihiro Nomura as
settlement, this work, like many versions of Odile and Oscar
Swan Lake, runs over four acts and includes a Valdes as
prologue. The prologue, however, does not tell Sebastian perform
the story of how Odette became cursed (as the the Black Swan
prologue usually does). Rather, the Pas de deux in
performance opens with members of the Gya ‘Swan Lake’.
Ngoop Keeninyarra (One Blood Dancers)
performing their Black Swan dance,
accompanied by the voice of Boodja Wiirrn, the
Spirit of the Land (played by Barry McGuire). It
is notable that this specific dance dates back
thousands of years, but has not been performed
publicly since the early 1900s.
After the Black Swan dance ends, a wealthy
young settler called Sebastian Hampshire
(performed by Oscar Valdes) appears. Sebastian
meets his friend, Mowadji, a Noongar elder
(performed by Kyle Morrison). The two men
embrace and Mowadji ties a blue string on
Sebastian’s arm to show he is an ally of the
Noongar people.
Opening the show with traditional Noongar
story, song and dance, as well as depicting the
mutual respect and friendship between the
white and Aboriginal men, was a truly special
moment, and foreshadowed the themes that
emerge throughout the piece.
True to the original, this adaptation depicts a
love story, has a tragic ending and includes most
of the usual characters including a large corps
PHOTO: BRADBURY PHOTOGRAPHY

of swans – all black swans in this version.

Odette is the only white swan in the entire
performance and her role is altered slightly; she
is loosely portrayed as a metaphor for the land
of Western Australia, which redesigns the story
to be one of respect for Country. The villain,

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

 68 / Reviews
Amy Ronnfeldt and Matthew
Solovieff with students of the
Australian Ballet School. (This
photo is from the Sydney season.)
PHOTO: LYNETTE WILLS
Australian Ballet School
BUTTERFLY
PLAYHOUSE, ARTS CENTRE MELBOURNE
REVIEWED DECEMBER 9
This program demonstrated the wide
variety of choreography that is now
demanded of the classical dancer. • more contemporary style.
UTTERFLY, created by Lucas Jervies
especially for the Australian Ballet
School, really is a very clever creation.
It takes the conventions of a traditional
classical ballet and gives them a new
angle. There is the journey from the human
world to the supernatural world, where the
"hero" (like a hapless Siegfried or Albrecht)
finds himself in an enchanted world of
supernatural beings; there are "fairies" – in this
case butterflies, the enablers of love, who assist
the humans in their quest. There are the set
pieces of the classical ballet format: the grand
pas de deux, the divertissements, the
humorous characters. There is a transforming
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
kiss but (spoiler alert) the transformation is not
of a girl into a princess but a gauche young
man into a handsome butterfly. And as a whole
the ballet gives opportunities for the students
to shine, demanding the technical skills of the
standard repertoire works – such as a
synchronised corps, pas de deux, virtuosic
allegro and batterie from the males,
particularly the Butterfly Men – as well as a
The cast in the leading roles, Sophie Burke
(as Sophie), Mathew Solovieff (as Jack) and
Amy Ronnfeldt as the Monarch Butterfly
performed these roles in the
June season in Sydney and dance
with confidence and personality. Looking for a review? sophisticated ballet, yet the young
The "prince" role of Jack
GO TO WWW.
Butterfly was performed by a DANCEAUSTRALIA.
guest artist from the Australian COM.AU
Ballet, Hugo Dumapit, who
stepped in at the last minute
because of injury. Ronnfeldt has a well-
rounded technique – she is strong, flexible,
has quick footwork and looks entirely
comfortable on pointe. Burke and Solovieff
spark off each other well, and manage their
more contemporary style of choreography
with lightness and ease. Burke is particularly
lithe. Also notable were the Mantis Guards
(Charlton Tough and Jeremy Hargreaves) for
their lovely jetes and the quarreling Pink and
Blue butterflies (Evangeline Beal-Attwood
and Indiana Scott respectively), paired for
their contrasting physiques – together all four
made good humour of their roles that were
reminiscent of both the Ugly Sisters and the
Rose Adagio courtiers in the Sleeping Beauty.
Stealing the show, however, were the Queen
Bee (Sophie Wormald) and her three tiny,
cute-as-buttons bumblebees.
The two-act Butterfly was preceded by a
number of short works. I arrived late (thanks to
heavy traffic) and unfortunately missed the
first item on the program, The Jewellery Box,
for Level 5 students. Next was El Tango,
choreographed by Stephen Baynes for Level 8,
a sleek work in red and black to the music of
Astor Piazzolla, consisting mostly of pas de
deux of restrained sensuality and a sense of
yearning. My favourite section was the trio for
three men (Benjamin Cartwright, Matthew
Solovieff and Joshua Ballinger).
Next came Pi (created by Lucas Jervies and
Oliver Northam) for Level 6 students. The
large cast of dancers in green all-overs created
their own percussive soundscape while they
danced, slapping the floor or their own bodies
or shouting and hissing. They somehow
managed very complex rhythmic patterns
while at the same time dancing in equally
complex patterns. This was an impressive
display of precision timing and skill as well as
being hugely entertaining, and a surprise
stand-out of the evening.
Pi was followed by Wolfgang Dance,
choreographed to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by
Simon Dow for six girls and three boys from
Levels 4 and 5, a charming spoof in
Baroque-style wigs and costumes that still
displayed beautifully placed classical
technique amid the fun.
The final work of this section was In the
Memory of the Moment, by Paul Knobloch for
the Level 7 students to the music of Einaudi.
Costumed in sleek black with a bronze
metallic sheen, and on a dimly lit stage, this
ballet evokes the cosmos, with its circling
patterns and lofty partnerwork. With its
difficult, acrobatic choreography
and slinky body ripples, it is a
dancers handled it superbly.
This program demonstrated the
wide variety of choreography that
is now demanded of the classical
dancer. So good was the quality of
the dancing that it was difficult to remember
that these dancers are still only students. Bravo
to the ABS – the future of classical ballet is in
good hands.
The Australian Ballet School's 'Summer Season
with Butterfly 2022' ran from December 9 to 10.

SDC Pre-Professional
Year
PPY22 REVEALED
BAY 20, CARRIAGEWORKS
REVIEWED DECEMBER 5.
This large-scale performance that gave its
the graduates ample space to collectively
shine across five different works. • precision from its performers that must surely have
PY22 Revealed" was a large-scale
graduation performance that gave its
49 graduates ample space to
collectively shine across five different
works. Now in its ninth year of operation,
SDC’s Pre-Professional Year has a growing
number of graduates who are making their
marks across the dance scene.
The first work, arrival in s.a.r.s.h,
choreographed by Sam Coren, was a darkly
humorous yet vibrant and engaging work. Set in
the year 3045, the cast took us through several
scenes in an imagined artificial
recreation sector that allowed these
unfortunate people of the future to Looking for a review? level of musical precision and an
escape from whatever real-life
GO TO WWW.
horrors one might imagine to be DANCEAUSTRALIA. of dynamic possibilities. Overall, the
taking place 1000+ years from
today. The electronic voiceovers
that guided the dancers (and the
audience) through changes in the program gave
this work a coherent narrative and Alice Joel’s
costume designs were believably futuristic. The
dancers allowed the underlying humour of the
work to come through by playing their roles
straight, and showed their ability to move
cohesively as an ensemble. I admired the way
Coren flipped the fears and assumptions about
what a dystopian future might look like, by
focussing solely on how people might seek to
escape it, if only temporarily, and how this
could be monetized in a capitalist system.
The program notes for IVY, choreographed by
Melanie Lane, described this piece as, “a
re-imagined folk dance for the future”. It starts off
at a cracking pace, requiring a level of speed and
tested their stamina. The cast rose to the challenge
and maintained the technical precision required
by this piece until the tempo slowed and they were
able to physically slow down and breathe with
softer, slower movements. As a work, IVY feels
quite dense and compact – you can sense how
much thought Lane has put into this piece, and I
suspect further viewings would reveal much more.
Costumed solely in black, but all in different
variations of type, at times Bronte Hilder’s costume
designs saw the dancers blend into their shadowy
surrounds rather than stand out against it.
The last work before interval was an excerpt
from Rafael Bonachela’s Variation 10. This
technically demanding piece requires the lines
and shapes of a fully developed
classical technique, as well as a high
ability to physically embody a range
COM.AU cast of dancers performed this
challenging piece well, while in the
closing duet Ronan Armstrong and
Carmelita Buay shone in a delightfully lyrical
portrayal. Toni Maticevski’s costumes emphasised
each cast member’s athletic physique, adding an
occasional flounce or frill only where it would not
obstruct the audiences view of their lines.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
69
Returning to the theatre after interval, it
appeared that Cloe Fournier’s piece, Tout ce
[-‘sa] All of this [That] had already begun to
take shape. One dancer laid out several pairs of
chorus shoes downstage while another who
had stood, barefoot, wearing a long gold dress
in the foyer during interval eventually returned
to the stage with a microphone. At several
points in this work, this same dancer proffered
the microphone, asking another cast member
to speak – but they never did. There were some
interesting sections of choreography where
smaller groups stepped out from the ensemble
before merging back into the group, and Bel
Campbell’s costume design showed the
dancers as individuals in a range of everyday
outfits which wouldn’t be out of place on the
street. Perhaps in keeping with this, it
remained very much an ensemble work and a
team effort without any undue emphasis on
one dancer over another.
The final work, James O’Hara’s We have been
here before but never like this emphasised the
companionship and teamwork between the cast
by framing the beginning and the end with a
semicircle of every cast member holding hands.
Bronte Hilder’s costumes were brighter and
bolder in colour, giving this piece a cheerful
and uplifting aesthetic that, nonetheless,
continued to emphasise the dancers as the
diverse individuals they are. It was a very
appropriate piece to finish the show with.
Lighting designer Alexander Berlage lit every
work in this program to great effect.
Congratulations to both this year’s graduates
and choreographers of PPY22.
– GERALDINE HIGGINSON
This program was performed over
December 5 and 6.
The ensemble in
‘We have been here
before but never like
this’, choreographed
by James O’Hara.
PHOTO: DANIEL BOUD
70 / Reviews
Lucy Guerin Inc evening with a piece exploring the ways in
which witchcraft has been persecuted. Lane was
costumed in a black skirt, which billowed with
‘PIECES’ her movements like a dark storm cloud. Poetry
SUBSTATION, NEWPORT, MELBOURNE and magic combined with a mystical
REVIEWED DECEMBER 14 soundtrack of bagpipes and spoken word to pull
us into the depths of the occult.
Each choreographer had 20 minutes The second offering of the night was Rachel
to enthral the audience with a solo Wisby’s Roses, a whimsical and enchanting
performed in the post-industrial hall sojourn into the world of 19th century ballet. The
plinky piano music and bright morning lighting
of endless ceilings and tall heavy- enhanced the saccharine yet doomed feeling of
curtained windows. • the piece as she whirled around the stage in an
anti-ballet fashion, her head often in her arms or
on the floor. Her sheer, sky-blue tulle and
mustard skirt swayed behind her as she swept the
IECES is an annual artist development floor with her body, and ran on tiptoes with
program of choreographers dangling arms. The performance of
commissioned by Lucy these movements was perhaps a
Guerin Inc. Each little protracted but the
choreographer had 20
Looking for a review? performance became more
minutes to enthral the audience GO TO WWW. interesting as Wisby narrated a sci-fi
with a solo performed in the DANCEAUSTRALIA. version of the classical ballet
COM.AU
post-industrial hall of endless Giselle, highlighting the ghostly
ceilings and tall heavy-curtained and unnerving themes of madness
windows; it was a challenging space to fill. and abuse. A particularly striking image from this
Melanie Lane’s Into the Woods opened the soliloquy was of Giselle’s foot being crushed by
Amber MacCartney’s
performing her solo,
‘Tiny Infinite Deaths’.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
Albrecht, seemingly echoing the brittleness of
Wisby’s choreography.
The final performance of the night was the
most provocative perhaps, flirting with and
sometimes diving headlong into revulsion. Amber
MacCartney’s Tiny Infinite Deaths saw her creep
artfully around the stage in a yellow, maggot-like
suit, designed by Andrew Treloar, to an unnerving,
distorted soundtrack by Makeda Zucco. Her
bodily isolations and sinuosity were engrossing and
intentionally disgusting in equal measure.
Ultimately, the three performances were a
provocative arrangement that seemed to explore
common themes of liminality and
otherworldliness. There was skill and physical
strength in each of the works that can only
come from dedicated training. The recourse to
fragility and disgust in each of the works
reminded me of the infamous words attributed
to street artist Banksy:
“Art should comfort the disturbed and
disturb the comfortable”, with perhaps a little
more pronounced a focus on the latter than
the former.
– LEILA LOIS
‘Pieces’ ran from December 14 to 17.
PHOTO: GREGORY LORENZUTTI
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VICTORIA
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Directors Sakura Shimizu Demasson
With experienced guest teachers
Melbourne’s original adult and
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Mornings: open professional classes
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4/2 Bromham Place, Richmond,
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www.citydancecentre.com.au
E: sakura@citydancecentre.com.au
P: 0402 890 645
BEAUMARIS/BLACKROCK
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Experience • Purpose-Built Studios
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VET VCE Dance Certificate II • Part-Time
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Bell-Rose Academy of Dance
Principal: Julie Bell-Rose.
Classes available in classical, character
and jazz ballet. Pre-school through to
teenagers and adults. Preparation for
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Queensland’s leaders in classical and
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• Offering full-time Government
accredited courses and excellence
programmes 7yrs +
• Artistic Director: Martyn Fleming –
former Principal, English
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• Patron: Maina Gielgud – former Artistic
Director, Australian Ballet Company
• Ballet Master: Chris Lam – former
dancer, Les Ballets Trockadero de
Monte Carlo, Les Grands Ballets
Canadiens de Montreal, Gothenburg
Ballet - Sweden, Ballet du Grand
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• Outstanding premises, the Old
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Danielle’s Studio of Dance
Principal: Danielle Williams RAD RTS
• Delivering quality training from
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• RAD, CDA, Contemporary, Character,
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• Part time program & Eleve junior
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Sayers Dance Centre
Principals: Vivianne & Nadine
Sayers- ARAD (Solo Seal) RTS.
RAD Ballet, Jazz, Tap,
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WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Charlesworth Ballet School (CBS)
Formerly the Terri Charlesworth Ballet
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highest quality from 4 years of age.
Classes located around the Perth
metropolitan area.
74-76 Goodwood Parade,
Burswood WA, 6100
P: 08 9 475 0320
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ballet.com.au
Youth Ballet WA (YBWA)
YBWA delivers a pre-professional
programme that provides training at
an international level in the Russian
Vaganova method. Academic and
dance training available full time from
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Contact us to arrange an audition
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Terry Simpson
Studios
Terry Simpson Studios offers a
well-rounded dance curriculum that
includes Ballet (RAD), Contemporary
Dance, Full-time Vocational Training,
SACE Dance, Jazz, Tap, Hip-hop,
Childrens Program from 3 years old.
Principal: Terry Simpson, ARAD, LRAD
Senior School: 212 Gays Arcade,
Adelaide SA 5000
Junior School: 103-105 Princes Road,
Mitcham, SA 5062
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73
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Classes in ballet, pilates, jazz funk,
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Coming soon
Visit our website Preparing for professional life
for the Latest on Not every dancer will get a full-time contract. They have to
News, Reviews, create their own work. The April/May/June issue will carry
advice and tips on how to thrive in the gig economy.
Auditions,
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much more. Contemporary dance is as diverse as the people who create
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JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
74 / LimeLight

Rachel Arianne Ogle

is a multifaceted dancer/
choreographer/teacher who has
just been awarded a 2022 Sidney
Myer Fellowship.

here were you born?

I was born and raised in Boorloo
[Perth], on Whadjuk Noongar boodja.

You began your performing career in

calisthenics. What made you move to dance?
I somehow always knew that I wanted to be a
dancer, but I had no knowledge of the
pathways available to make that happen, or
what a career in dance might entail. One day a
coach from calisthenics recommended that I

PHOTO: PEDRO GREIG

look at the dance courses on offer at WAAPA.
Her encouragement inspired me to audition,
and my whole world suddenly expanded
through the discovery of contemporary dance.
I fell instantly and deeply in love.
What has been your most unique
performance experience?
In 2013 I created Where You End & I Begin for
Proximity Festival – a one-on-one performance
festival in Perth. My work was set in a 2x2m space
defined by four large suspended mirrors, so that
myself and my audience member were reflected
in multiplicity in all directions. I performed the
work 106 times to 106 audience members across a
two week period. Each performance was uniquely
intimate, and I learned about the work through
the response of each audience member.
You have enjoyed three overseas
residencies – at EMPAC in New York, an
Asialink residency in Singapore, and at Cite
Internationale des Arts in Paris. What was
the main benefit of these experiences?
The New York and Singapore residencies
allowed me to create specific works – at
EMPAC in collaboration with Australian
artists Benjamin Cisterne and Luke Smiles,
with the support of a state of the art venue; and
in Singapore in the context of an artistic and
cultural exchange with a small dance
company. Paris was unique in that it offered
three months to invest in my practice without
any specific outcome required. The value of
having extended time and space to deepen my
creative thinking and practice both in and out
of the studio – in one of the most culturally
rich and historical cities of the Western world
– cannot be underestimated. It was a fantastic
time of reflection, rumination, germination
and cultivation.
Describe a “pinch me” moment.
Having my most recent work And The Earth
Will Swallow Them Whole commissioned by
and premiered in Perth Festival in 2022.
Do you have a regular practice or exercise
regime?
I underwent hip surgery seven months ago, so I
currently have an intensive daily rehabilitation
program – a combination of studio pilates, a
gym program and a home program. I am also
starting to gently reintegrate my yoga practice,
and am looking forward to returning to regular
dancing in 2023.
As a choreographer, what inspires you?
I have an ongoing fascination with our
interconnectedness to the universe, the
impermanence of nature, notions of death and
realms beyond, and our rituals surrounding
these concepts.
Do you have any mentors or people
you admire?
There are two artists who have left an indelible
print on me:
Firstly, Melbourne choreographer Phillip
Adams. I was a dancer in Phillip’s company,
BalletLab, for five years early in my career. I have
always admired Phillip’s unapologetic and bold
embrace of experimentation, while challenging
and extending form, alongside his impeccable
eye for design and the role it plays in his work.
Secondly is Venezuelan artist, David
Zambrano (based in Brussels). I have studied
intensively with David at various intervals across
the past 17 years in many locations around the
world – most profoundly in his international
project 50 Days in Costa Rica in 2010. His
Passing Through practice in particular helped to
clarify and give context to my choreographic
inquiries, while offering a physical framework as
an entry point for my conceptual interests. David
is very inspiring and energising to share the
studio with, and he always reignites and further
deepens the intensity of my love for dance.
Describe a treasured object in your home.
My parents bought a wall clock when they got
married in 1966. It is a vintage retro “sunburst”
style wooden clock with 12 spikes extending out
from the edges. It lived on the kitchen wall in
our family home for 52 years. It now lives in my
kitchen, and is a quintessential symbol of family,
time and honouring where I came from.
What are your plans for the Fellowship?
This fellowship offers the incredible ability to
give time and space to my practice without being
tied to any specific outcomes. This feels like an
especially precious gift when I am learning how
I move again post-surgery. I am excited to spend
time reinvesting in and deepening my physical
practice and exploring my renewed and
increased physical facility.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2023 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

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