By Rain Francis.

Do you have an upcoming audition?
Dance Informa wanted to give you a headstart with some top audition advice. And who better to ask than the directors of some of the best dance companies in the world?

Advice from Stanton Welch, Artistic Director
Houston Ballet
www.houstonballet.org

What’s your most important piece of audition advice?
It’s very important in an audition that when you walk in you pay attention. The way that you engage the person and how you look are very important. You need to be dressed appropriately, you need to make sure that you learn the exercises with detail and that you show that you have a level of artistry. Don’t look fearful, and try to give them as broad a range of all the best qualities of you as an artist as quickly as possible.

What’s the biggest mistake dancers make when auditioning?
Trying to show off too much. In a few auditions that we’ve had, a teacher might set an exercise very specifically because we want to see a certain type of ports de bras or an arm or a jump, and then the dancer changes it so that they can show us their thing. Inevitably what they’re showing us is that they can’t learn in detail what you’re presenting.

What do you look for in auditions?
Of course you want a good dancer. I think there are many good dancers now so by the time you narrow it down, what makes you stand out is your work ethic and your artistry. You need to be a smart and intelligent dancer, as well as being someone who can completely transform into any role.

What can dancers do to be prepared?
Somehow I think it’s important that a young dancer gets through a process of practice auditions, so that by the time they walk into the real audition, they’ve somehow calmed their nerves down. I would suggest going to as many auditions as possible, put on as many numbers as possible, and do as many Eisteddfods as possible so that you’re so familiar with walking out and presenting yourself that it’s like a performance.

Advice from Rafael Bonachela,  Artistic Director
Sydney Dance Company
www.sydneydancecompany.com

What’s your most important piece of audition advice?
Wear the appropriate clothing, as a choreographer always likes to see the body of a dancer.  Don’t try to hide under a thousand jumpers and twenty pairs of leg warmers.  It shows confidence in yourself and who you are.

What’s the biggest mistake dancers make when auditioning?
Wearing too many clothes.

What do you look for in auditions?
There are different things I look for.  A strong classical and contemporary technique and being able to mix with a group but to have enough individuality and charisma to stand alone on a stage – after all, I only have 17 jobs on offer.
 
What can dancers do to be prepared?
The only way to be prepared is to work hard, be committed and focused.  To get to the highest level of quality, dance cannot be only a five day week commitment, it’s for life.

Advice from David McAllister, Artistic Director
The Australian Ballet
www.australianballet.com.au

What’s your most important piece of audition advice?
Don’t be nervous! All directors want you to be great and they want to see what you can bring to the company, so turn those nerves into excitement and just enjoy the experience. Always wear practice clothes that are neat and simple. Make sure you don’t cover legs with legwarmers and sloppy trousers as we will think you are trying to hide something. Ladies should always wear pointe shoes as the ladies in most ballet companies spend most of their time dancing en pointe.  

What’s the biggest mistake dancers make when auditioning?
Someone who cannot pick up the exercises and has difficulty with basic technical material will lose my attention quickly, and someone dancing off the music is definitely not destined for a contract.  For ladies, wearing a lot of makeup and too many accessories (hair and jewellery) is also distracting.

What do you look for in auditions?
Musicality is the thing that usually first attracts me to someone in an audition. Confidence in their ability and sureness of technique. I don’t mean that competition confidence, but an inner strength and grounded quality that draws the eye rather than acting as a beacon. Before the audition, I will look at their CV and preferably a DVD of them in action. I look at things like where they trained and who taught them, if they have had any previous employment and if not, any other stage experience. All these things count.

What can dancers do to be prepared?
Don’t do an audition if you don’t feel prepared both emotionally or physically as first impressions count; you’re better to reschedule if you are sick or injured. Do a good warm up and have a copy of your CV just in case.

Advice from Stephen Page, Artistic Director
Bangarra Dance Theatre
www.bangarra.com.au

Why do you choose to hand pick dancers rather than hold auditions?
All of our dancers are indigenous and they generally perform with the company for a minimum of four years, and sometimes for as long as twelve years. Sometimes we have a number of positions available in the same year so when this happens we do conduct auditions. We tend to be aware of indigenous students in tertiary institutions training at a professional level in contemporary dance and from time to time we offer secondments to graduates.

 What sort of process do you use for recruiting?
Because highly trained indigenous contemporary dancers are reasonably rare we are generally aware of them through their years of training and we are always open to hearing from dancers who are keen to work with the company.

What do you look for in potential dancers?
I look for someone with contemporary dance training who has an understanding of traditional Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander culture. The dancers I find particularly interesting are those that respond well to Bangarra’s cultural philosophy and choreographic style.

What’s your advice to dancers hoping to find work in the industry?
I would advise all dancers, including indigenous dancers, to have a breadth of experience in all forms of dance so that they are creatively flexible and open to new ideas. Most important is for a dancer to have a great sense of themself as a person and as a performer.

Playhouse, QPAC, Australia
Review of Program 1
14-18 September,  Brisbane Festival 2010

By Elizabeth Ashley. 

The Baby Cubans
Brisbane had the privilege to present exclusively both the Ballet Naçional de Cuba and Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, affectionately nicknamed the ‘Big Cubans’ and the ‘Baby Cubans’, as part of its 2010 festival line-up.

Both companies formed during the revolution of 1959, but while the ‘Big Cubans’ have enjoyed world-wide acclaim for many years, it was not until international choreographers were commissioned to collaborate with Danza Contemporánea that the ‘Baby Cubans’ gained enthusiastic recognition outside of Cuba.

Audiences experienced this collaboration in Program 1 with Demo-n/Crazy by Rafael Bonachela, Carmen by Kenneth Kvaström and Mambo 3XXI by Cuban choreographer and dancer George Céspedes. In Program 2, Carmen is replaced by Jan Linkens’ Folia.

Bonachela’s Demo-N/Crazy opens Program 1. The stark simplicity of minimally clothed dancers on a bare stage provides the perfect setting for the highly demanding and complex choreography. Tactile intimacy dominates – bodies embrace and touch, fold and unfold as relationships form and dissolve. Boldly the dancers launch themselves into space with an animal-like fatalism, leaving both dancers and the audience breathless. Bonachela explains ‘These dancers have the technique of Martha Graham with Afro-Cuban rhythm…they are totally fearless.’

Dance is the powerful medium of communication in this relational exploration that moves from poignancy to witty, camp comedy.

The title Demo-N/Crazy is a play on words inspired by the crazy recklessness of the Cubans and one of the soundtracks; Julia Wolfe’s ‘Arsenal of Democracy.’ This violin/techno music combined with the pathos of Estrella Morente’s flamenco soundtrack of ‘Ne me Quitte pas’ provides contrasting musical moods.

A perfect antidote to Bonachela’s dynamic intensity and grounded lyricism is the wonderfully entertaining spoof of the Spanish opera ‘Carmen’ by Scandinavian choreographer Kenneth Kvaström. Imagine a Paso Doble designed by a slightly mad, gay uncle who loves West Side Story.

The work is performed by 7 male dancers dressed in their best (and tightest) black pants, waistcoats and jewel-coloured satin shirts who parody card-playing, panatella-smoking, sex-obsessed Spanish macho-men.

The witty piece showcases the dancers’ versatility as they perform perfect classical arabesques, lunges and sweeping arms as well as bravado-style flamenco footwork,  cheeky hip-swinging and blatantly camp moves.

Appropriately, the closing performance, Mambo 3XXI by George Céspedes, is the most Cuban.  Remixing the music of Perez Prado with seventies disco, electronica and trip-hop creates a streetwise ambience – Mambo for the 21st Century.

It opens with geometric lines of dancers breaking into various patterns whilst accentuating the quick footwork of the traditional mambo. The distinctive Cuban body types and rhythmic facility are a joy to behold. One feels only a Cuban company could perform this choreography with the right balance of seriousness and natural abandon.

Throughout most of Mambo 3XXI all 21 company dancers are on stage creating a sense of rush; the crowded and public nature of modern life. Thematically the dance is the continuous search for relationships within that life.

Festival Artistic Director, Noel Staunton says ‘Danze Contemporánea de Cuba…write their own rules and dance to a completely unique beat and flourish.’  The ‘Baby Cubans’ are certainly the revolutionary face of Cuban dance and could well outshine the more illustrious ‘Big Cubans’.

Photos by Justin Nicholas

Published by www.danceinforma.com

Sydney Theatre
April 2010

By Nicole Saleh.

New Creations is the world premiere of two contrasting works for Sydney Dance Company. It fulfils the vision of artistic director Rafael Bonachela, delivering diversity to audiences with a commissioned dance work from Australian choreographer Adam Linder, programmed alongside Bonachela’s own distinct creation.

Inspired by the unconscious act of breathing, 6 Breaths is a collaboration by choreographer Rafael Bonachela and Italian composer Ezio Bosso. The original musical score draws upon Bosso’s personal experience of discovering the importance of breath after undergoing surgery.

Bonachela uses the dancers’ physicality, creating clean movements and shapes to bring to life the simplistic beauty of the musical score. The sounds of the piano and cellos guide the choreography and mood of the piece through a cycle of 6 types of breaths, from the breath of life through to the last breath. The dancers’ quick and swift movements to the staccato of the piano are contrasted to the sounds of the cello propelling the dancers’ effortless lifts and turns.

The video art by Tim Richardson enhances this captivating work. Puzzle-like pieces fly through space to create a statue of first a man, then a woman. The statue formations on screen are still and lifeless, while the dancers on stage show that where there is breath, there is also life.

As the piece builds, layer upon layer, so does the choreography through each formation of the dancers. The twelve dancers are impeccable in their unison and their fluid movements create a breathtaking and beautiful piece of work, captivating the audience from start to finish.

Are We That We Are is a significant piece of work for internationally recognised choreographer Adam Linder. It is the first time that this award winning choreographer is showing his work in his home country after leaving ten years earlier to pursue his craft overseas. Linder is both choreographer and guest artist, exploring the psychology of human altered states of consciousness. This provocative piece showcases six strong and commanding dancers who in contrast to Bonachela’s work, perform on stage with sharp, convulsed and sometimes ugly movements. In this piece an echoing voice asks the question over and over “do you not think reality is too obvious to be real?” Linder explores this thought provoking question as the piece heightens with red pulsating lights that build in momentum as the music crescendos and entrances the audience.

New Creations showcases the versatility and strength of the Sydney Dance Company dancers, who succeed in bringing to life two very exciting yet different choreographic works.

By Dolce Fisher.

Sydney-born Adam Linder is a talented dancer and dance-maker. At age 16 he left Australia to dance abroad, working with The Royal Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, and with choreographers Michael Clark, Rafael Bonachela and Jeremy Wade. Currently residing in Berlin, Linder has created several dance works that have toured across Europe, winning The Place Prize for Choreography in 2008 for the duet Foie Gras.

This year Adam returned to home soil, choreographing a new work for Sydney Dance Company, Are we that we are, currently showing at Sydney Theatre as part of the company’s New Creations season. Are we that we are is Adam’s first commission from Rafael Bonachela and Sydney Dance Company, and the first time that his talent has been seen in his home city, both as a choreographer and as a performer in the work.

Dance Informa’s Dolce Fisher asked Adam some questions about his experiences and his new work.

Choreographer Adam Linder

How have you found living and working overseas?
Wonderful. Living in Europe for the last 10 years, where performance is so deeply embedded in the heritage and social fabric of the countries I have been in, has exposed me to many very inspiring people and situations.

Can you give us a glimpse into your new work for Sydney Dance Company?
Ritual, trance, sexual union, hallucinogenic transfiguration and electric energies.
Weird and wonderful beings, moving toward togetherness.

What was your inspiration for your choreography?
The piece is about altered states of consciousness. The work has been informed by the readings of (not exclusively) Aldous Huxley, Daniel Pinchbeck, western psychology of altered states and many more images, music and personal experiences. I felt most compelled to make this work, though, observing how our society favours the rational, automated and controllable parts of our psyche.

How does it feel returning home and being invited as a guest choreographer?
I’m pleased to have the challenge of making work in is this milieu. Mum and Dad can come watch my work for once, which is very cool. The dancers are totally rad. Bring it on…

What is next for you?
Premiere of my new solo Early ripen early rot at Springdance in Utrecht Holland in April and a handful of projects with Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods around Europe. I will be continuing my collaboration with new media artist Jordana Maisie. I want to make a new film with Will Davidson. I am vaguely thinking about making a new piece in 2011… you know, anything to keep me off the streets…

To find out more about Adam’s new work and Sydney Dance Company’s New Creations, now playing at Sydney Theatre, visit www.sydneydancecompany.com