Audiences across Queensland will have the chance to experience the grandeur of Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet via live simulcast from the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) on Tuesday 4 June 2013.

The Bolshoi Ballet will present two productions, Le Corsaire and Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Bright Stream, which have never before been performed in Australia, both accompanied by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

The Bolshoi Ballet has not visited Australia in almost two decades and they are performing exclusively at QPAC from May 30- June 9 as part of the QPAC International Series, a partnership with Tourism and Events Queensland to bring the best companies in the world to Queensland.

QPAC Chief Executive John Kotzas said this simulcast will be the first ballet to be simulcast by QPAC and will go to eight regional centres around Queensland. It follows on from previous successful simulcasts of performances by Opera Australia, Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra with the Hamburg State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Kotzas said that “the Bolshoi Ballet is one of the biggest and most well-known performing arts companies in the world. Many people will no doubt be excited to see them perform.”

“Our research has shown that audiences feel a strong sense of being connected to the live performance even though they may be halfway across the state. QPAC’s live simulcast program is an important part of how we engage with regional audiences and how we can ensure that exclusive performances such as this one by the Bolshoi Ballet are seen by as many people in Queensland as possible.”

“There are many people on stage and off who make these simulcasts memorable for our audiences. Aside from the dancers and orchestra members you see, there an expert team of directors and crew that craft the experience for the audience.”

“In many ways audiences get a more intimate look at the production than they would if they were in the theatre. And with a production like Le Corsaire which is a huge ballet with massive and intricate sets, regional audiences will be able to see those sets and dancers up close and in detail,” said Mr, Kotzas.

QPAC works with regional performing arts centres across the state installing equipment and providing technical expertise enabling venues to receive performances live from QPAC.

In previous years live simulcasts as much as doubled the number of people able to experience the performance.

Queensland venues participating in the live simulcast of the Bolshoi Ballet are: Burdekin Theatre (Ayr), Moncrieff Theatre (Bundaberg), Cairns Civic Theatre (Cairns), Marquee Gladstone Marina (Gladstone) presented by Gladstone Entertainment Centre, Mackay Entertainment and Convention Centre (Mackay), Seafront Oval (Hervey Bay) presented by Brolga Theatre and Convention Centre and Fraser Coast Regional Council, Pilbeam Theatre (Rockhampton) and Empire Theatre (Toowoomba).

This free event is a treat for regional audiences. Make sure not to miss it!

The Bolshoi Ballet - Le Corsaire via Live Simulcast
Tuesday 4 June 2013
Live coverage from 7 pm, performance from 7:30 pm.
Tickets are free.  Bookings may be required.

Regional Venues:

• Burdekin Theatre – Ayr – Book at www.burdekintheatre.com.au or by calling 07 4783 9880.
• Moncrieff Theatre – Bundaberg – Book in-person at box office only. For information, visit www.moncrieff-bundaberg.com.au or call 07 4130 4100.
• Cairns Civic Theatre – Cairns – Book in-person at ticket office or phone 1300 855 835.  For information, visit www.cairnscivictheatre.com.au.
• Marquee Gladstone Marina – Gladstone – (Presented by Gladstone Entertainment Centre). Book in-person at box office or phone 07 4972 2822. For information, visit www.gladstone.qld.gov.au/gec.
• Mackay Entertainment and Convention Centre–Mackay- Book at www.mackaytix.com.au or by calling 07 4961 9777.
• Seafront Oval – Hervey Bay- (presented by Brolga Theatre and Convention Centre and Fraser Coast Regional Council) – No bookings required. For information, visit www.brolgatheatre.org or  call 07 4122 6060.
• Pilbeam Theatre – Rockhampton- Book in-person at box office only. For information, visit www.seeitlive.com.au or call 07-4927-4111.
• Empire Theatre –Toowoomba- Book at www.empiretheatre.com.au or by calling 1300 655 299.

Photo: The Bolshoi Ballet in Le Corsaire. Photo courtesy of QPAC

Nutcracker returns to Oz this month for another season of emperor mice, hand-made toys and little girl dreams.

By Paul Ransom.

NOTE: Please read the following with a heavy Russian accent. After all, it is ballet we’re talking about here.

Elik Melikov is still bubbling with energy, despite the fact he is on a late night shuttle bus somewhere in England returning to his hotel after another packed out performance. The company he founded in 1990, The Moscow Ballet of Classical Choreography (La Classique), are not only one of the flag bearers of Russia’s favourite artform but a phenomenally busy company, consistently racking up two hundred plus shows a year. Gruelling schedule notwithstanding, the first thing Melikov says is, “Yes, we are very much looking forward to Australia.”

The Moscow Ballet’s upcoming six-week tour of Nutcracker will feature an ensemble of 40 dancers, suitably lavish costumes and the grand staging of late-Romanov pomp. It’s all part of Melikov’s mission to keep classical ballet front and centre.

“The classical dance?” he begins. “For me every time is number one.” Not an unexpected declaration; but for Melikov and company the commitment is clearly everything. “We make other kinds of performances, we make neo-classical, modern things, but for me it’s like training, like another rehearsal for the dancer. Of course, it’s very interesting because it’s different but every time we are coming back to the classical ballet.”

Russia may well be in the news for Pussy Riot and fallen oligarchs but on the ground and in the dance schools the ballet is still supreme. Melikov contends that this is because ballet is anti-elitist. “Classical ballet is for all the people. You don’t have to have a special knowledge. Everyone can enjoy. This is why it must be saved.”

Melikov would doubtless suggest Nutcracker as a prime example of universal appeal and abiding simplicity. First performed at Moscow’s Mariinsky Theatre in 1892, it has become one of the definitive ballets. Driven by Tchaikovsky’s dramatic score it is ostensibly a G-rated Christmas fairy tale. Featuring the famous Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and The Waltz of the Flowers, it is almost defiantly old world, recalling a time of empire and gaslight.

How this all fits into the touchscreen universe of 2013 doesn’t overly worry the Moscow Ballet. “Nutcracker is a performance for all time,” Melikov states with undiminished pride. “Some people tell me, ‘Sorry, but it’s only for Christmas time,’ but no. Tchaikovsky didn’t just write music for Christmas, he wrote music for all the time, for all the people. For young people, for children, for even the grandmothers.”

As far as Melikov is concerned, tradition is strength not anachronism. “This is a classical performance and the history is important. History is necessary for us,” he argues. “Now we have many shows – modern, neo-classical, everything – and we have many companies coming to Russia and to Australia and we have many, many beautiful shows; but I think it is completely necessary that the old shows keep going. The classical dance is forever, not just for this year.”

However, there is another strain to the narrative, one that might raise eyebrows in some quarters. Melikov openly declares La Classique’s wholly Russian philosophy. “Now in Russia there are many companies with great names like National Ballet and Admiral Ballet but these companies maybe last for one day only,” he scoffs. “Or they are from other countries; not even Russian.”

The Russian-ness of the company and the artform are very much part of Melikov’s modus operandi. “Other countries do classical ballet performance, and they are very good sometimes,” he concedes, before concluding that, “Russia is the mother of classical dance, is the home of the ballet.”

And it couldn’t get much more Russian than Nutcracker (even if the characters have German sounding names).

Photos: Moscow Ballet La Classique performing Nutcracker. Photos by Nadya Pyastolova. Photos courtesy of Lionel Midford Publicity.

Eighteenth-century breakdance? Yes, it is possible; and as Yui Kawaguchi explains, even Japanese ballerinas love breaking to Bach.

By Paul Ransom.

Think of two diametrically opposed things, put them in a blender and call it art. The oft employed fusion/mash-up trick has been tried in everything from post-rock to poetry and disco to dinner time. Sometimes it’s genius; other times it’s … yeah, well – let’s not go there.

In the world of dance we’re used to this approach. Often it’s a cover for a dearth of other ideas. However, every now and then some bright cookie goes out on a limb and creates a little unexpected cross-genre magic. Enter Red Bull Flying Bach, the coming together of breakdance, ballet and Johann Sebastian Bach.

The idea of breaking to Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier is out there enough but to add a classically trained Japanese ballet dancer to a troupe of acrobatic German b-boys and have them pop and lock to piano and harpsichord is, at the very least, worthy of a curious peek.

Speaking from a wintery Berlin, a thoroughly fascinated Yui Kawaguchi recalls how she felt when the idea of her joining an all-male street dance crew was first mooted.

“When I first met Flying Steps I was quite shocked,” she says frankly. “Their attitude, how they rehearsed and thought about a piece was totally different from mine. I was really wondering how it could work; how could I stand on the stage with them?”

‘Red Bull Flying Bach’ is coming to Australia.

Kawaguchi’s background in classical ballet and her huge reputation (she choreographed the opening ceremony of the East Asian Games in 2001) had perhaps not prepared her for such an adventurous project. “I took time to see how they [Flying Steps] reacted to the music, how they co-ordinated their bodies and I actually found a lot of similarity with classical ballet. They are quite strict, on the beat and on the music, and they have names for all their steps.”

Devised by artistic director Christoph Hagel and choreographer Vartan Bassil, Flying Bach features eight dancers (seven boys, one girl), bringing the contemporary rhythmic discipline of breakdance to the less obviously beat driven world of eighteenth century Viennese music.

According to Kawaguchi, “The heart of this show is that with the classical world and the street dance world you can still translate. They can meet together. It doesn’t mean that they have to become the same. We can stay in our world, but if we meet we can create something unexpected.”

Flying Bach has clearly struck some kind of chord. In Switzerland tickets were selling for up to a thousand euros on eBay. “You can really see the different kind of audiences in the theatre,” Kawaguchi enthuses. “The breakdance kids will come with their grandfathers to listen to Bach, so they can share their ideas and their fascination. This is the kind of celebration in performance that I have been missing for a long time.”

Speaking with Yui Kawaguchi it’s clear she’s been inspired anew by Flying Bach and by her involvement with Flying Steps. Working with dancers like Benni Kimoto (the first person ever to do multiple, consecutive air twists), has both challenged and invigorated her. She also loves working with boys.

Yui Kawaguchi, center, performs in ‘Red Bull Flying Bach’ at the Teatro Carignano in Torino , Italy, on October 6th, 2012.

“I feel really comfortable – really safe,” she says. “It’s good because there are no complicated mental games, so it’s really easy with them. But once on stage they give off two hundred percent, so I have to be really strong. I have to be really careful with my conditioning because it’s like you are alone as a woman on a football team.”

Aside from the stylistic and gender gaps, Flying Bach has also proved itself to be a significant technical challenge. Dancing since the age of six, Kawaguchi needed to call on all her training and pay close attention to detail.

“Bach’s music is really ascetic so it’s not easy to just move with your emotions. I have to be really clear with my steps,” she explains. “It’s quite the opposite to a lot of modern dance pieces, which start with a theme or a story and then the music fits around it. This time we started with a composition that we could not change.”

To work in the more acrobatic milieu of breakdance, Kawaguchi needed to learn a few new tricks. “For example, I can stand on my hands now,” she proudly points out. However, the cross-fertilisation only goes so far. “It was also important that I didn’t become a breakdancer and they didn’t become ballet dancers. It is part of the art of this work that we can stay in our own worlds but also communicate. This is quite poetic, I think.”

Although Flying Bach sounds like a show with bells and whistles, it’s actually quite minimal. As Yui Kawaguchi explains, “For me, dance is music and music is dance, and for this project that is all that happens. We have no big scenery or spectacular costumes. It’s just human. The pianist plays and we dance. Very simple.”

With its daring and imaginative take on the smash-together fashion in dance, Flying Bach has already crossed the high/low culture barrier and generation gap. Its Australian tour will almost certainly bring skate punks to chamber music and grannies to hip-hop.

Who said dance wasn’t for the whole family?

By Rebecca Martin.

Two of Stuttgart Ballet’s rising stars, Daniel Camargo and Elisa Badenes, journeyed to Melbourne to perform at The Australian Ballet’s 50th Anniversary Gala late last year. They performed the first piece of the night, choreographed by Stuttgart Ballet’s own Demis Volpi. It was a challenging contemporary piece that highlighted the dancers’ exquisite bodies and technique.

Ultimately though, it was their performance later in the evening of the Don Quixote Act III pas de deux that blew the audience away and exhibited why Stuttgart Ballet is one of the world’s greatest companies.

Dance Informa caught up with Daniel and Elisa upon their return to Germany following a tour to China with Stuttgart Ballet.

Tell us a little about your dance training.

Daniel Camargo
I began my dance training in my native country Brazil at the Guaira Ballet School in Curitiba. In 2005, I participated in the Youth America Grand Prix and met Tadeusz Matacz, Director of the John Cranko School, who invited me to come to Stuttgart. At the John Cranko School I studied with Petr Pestov, a great teacher who influenced me very much. In 2009, I joined the Stuttgart Ballet.

Elisa Badenes of Stuttgart Ballet in Don Quixote.

Elisa Badenes
I started at age 11 at the Conservatorio Profesional de Danza de Valencia in my home country of Spain. My teacher was Rafael Darder.  In 2008, I participated in the Prix de Lausanne and received a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School where I studied for one year. In 2009, I auditioned for the Stuttgart Ballet and joined the company.

What was it like to perform for The Australian Ballet?

Daniel Camargo
Amazing. The entire company was very nice and welcoming. Of course it is always interesting to see how different companies work. I found the Australian Ballet to be like a big family with lots of positive energy.

Elisa Badenes
It was very nice and a lovely experience. Everyone was working so hard and it was clear from the atmosphere that it was a very important evening for the company. The staff and the dancers made our stay really enjoyable and comfortable.

What did you think of Australia and of the dancing?

Daniel Camargo
Melbourne was fantastic and in general the country reminded me of the USA in terms of the “wide open spaces.” Everything seemed very new and the mix of architectural styles was impressive. The people are very friendly. 

Elisa Badenes
I always wanted to travel to the “other side of the world,” so this was a dream come true for me! Everything was exciting. We really loved the people.  Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to travel around but when we left we had a very positive overall impression of Melbourne. The level of the dancers was very good and it was especially nice to see how supportive the audience is of the dancers.

What is your favourite piece to perform?

Stuttgart Ballet’s Daniel Camargo in Don Quixote

Daniel Camargo
So far, definitely the full length Don Quixote!

Elisa Badenes
It’s hard to say…. I just love all the pieces I have danced so far.

Do you prefer traditional ballet or modern pieces?

Daniel Camargo
Both. I love the traditional pieces, the classics, as well as contemporary works. It is the most challenging to be involved in the creation process for brand new works, but it is very exciting.

Elisa Badenes
I simply can’t choose because the biggest pleasure is to be able to do both. I can’t imagine dancing just classical or just modern. I love dancing different styles and different works. That is one of the big pleasures of our job, that we are changing roles, characters and styles.

What would you do if you weren’t a dancer?

Daniel Camargo
Sports – soccer, skateboarding or snowboarding.

Elisa Badenes
I could imagine studying, but it would surely involve the arts or a profession where one has contact with many people.

Top photo: Stuttgart Ballet Soloists Daniel Camargo and Elisa Badenes. Photos courtesy of Stuttgart Ballet.

This year is the 75th anniversary of ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev’s birth, and 20 years since his death. How much do you know about one of the most celebrated dancers of the 20th century?

1. With which ballet did Nureyev make his directorial debut?

a) The Afternoon of a Faun

b) Petrouchka

c) Pineapple Poll

d) Don Quixote

2. Nureyev’s first performance in Britain was held to support which organisation?

a) The Royal Academy of Dance

b) The Royal Ballet School

c) The Royal Ballet

d) The Royal Opera

3. Giving his mother a shock, Nureyev was born prematurely in a

a) boat

b) train

c) car

d) plane

4. Nureyev danced with many of the best ballerinas of his time, but with whom did he say he danced with “one body, one soul?”

a) Eva Evdokimova

b) Margot Fonteyn

c) Gelsey Kirkland

d) Antoinette Sibley

5. Nureyev danced with Miss Piggy on the Muppet Show (check it out on YouTube – it’s a classic!). Which ballet did they perform a parody of?

a) Cinderella

b) The Nutcracker

c) Swan Lake

d) Manon

6. In which company was Nureyev director, dancer and chief of choreography during the 1980s?

a) The Royal Ballet

b) The Paris Opera Ballet

c) Dutch National Ballet

d) American Ballet Theatre

7. Which ballet by Sir Frederick Ashton was premiered by Fonteyn and Nureyev, and would become known as their signature piece?

a) Marguerite and Armand

b) Baroque Pas de Trois

c) Romeo and Juliet

d) Les Sylphides

8. To which country did Nureyev defect in 1961?

a) America

b) United Kingdom

c) Austria

d) France

9. In the 1970s, Nureyev toured the USA in a production of which musical?

a) Fiddler on the Roof

b) Cats

c) Kiss Me Kate

d) The King and I

10. Nureyev played a violinist in the 1983 film Exposed, alongside which Hollywood actor?

a) Harvey Keitel

b) Marlon Brando

c) Robert De Niro

d) Russell Crowe

Answers:
1 – d; 2 – a; 3 – b; 4 – b; 5 – c; 6 – b; 7 – a; 8 – d; 9 – d; 10 – a

Photo: Rudolf Nureyev by Jack Mitchell. Photo source http://onlyartimages.blogspot.com/2011/04/rudolf-nureyev.html

By Linda Badger.

With an enviable career, Kristina Chan is one of Australia’s foremost independent dance artists. Having worked with so many of Australia’s most influential contemporary and classical companies and choreographers, Kristina won the Australian Dance Award for  Outstanding Female Dancer in 2009 for her work in Tanja Liedtke’s Construct. She has taught in many dance companies, universities, dance institutions and the like and is an artist to watch, and be inspired by.  Even after many years of a full career, Kristina is still at her peak as a dancer and collaborator, seemingly going from strength to strength with each project.

Dance Informa’s Linda Badger had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her work and career.

You began serious dance study with full-time classical ballet. Was that the path you thought you wanted to take?

I started ballet at the age of three and then did a full-time classical ballet course in 1994 and 1995. I thought that I wanted to pursue classical ballet, but halfway into the course I discovered contemporary dance and found that it was more suited to me. I found it much more inspiring and engaging.

What have been the formative moments in your career?

Getting my first professional job with Australian Dance Theatre in 1999 probably kicked me into gear and was a big learning curve for me at the age of 19.

Working with Tanja Liedtke – her dedication and vigour was admirable and inspiring. I learnt a lot from working with her. (Kristina was one of the key dancers in Liedtke’s creative team, working closely with her as a dancer and a collaborator on both of Liedtke’s full length productions, Twelfth Floor and Construct.)

There have been many formative moments and hopefully more to come.

Where are you currently based and what are you working on?

I’m based in Sydney, however work takes me all over the place. I am currently in Singapore Airport waiting to board my flight to Budapest where I will be touring with Chunky Move.

Kristina Chan performs in ‘In Glass’ at Spring Dance 2010. Photo by Ian Bird.

What is the most interesting work you have been involved in?

Because I freelance, my work is constantly shifting with each project I am involved in – that is the most interesting part.

What has been the biggest challenge in your career?

Performing at Tanja Liedtke’s funeral tribute. That was difficult, strange and surreal.

How do you prepare for a role?

With each role comes different preparation. I may work on a piece for several months, researching and creating material for a role. Other times I have to jump into an existing work with only a week to learn and hopefully develop my own feel for it.  It’s a completely different process, but I try my best to give as much as I can to the process so that I can perform it well and not just dance the steps.

What are your influences?

Visual art, movies, music, nature, peers – everything in your life influences you in some way or another.

You have such a captivating stage presence, how have you developed this?
I really am interested in exploring how movement is executed, with less emphasis on what the moves are.  Dance as an experience for both myself as the performer and hopefully, you as the audience.

How do you overcome disappointment in your career?

Put the past behind you… And what could be that disappointing when you have a career in what you love to do?

What is your favourite and least favourite type of choreographic process?
Least favourite would have to be a process in which the choreographer would give me all the choreographic material, it’s quite an old school method of making dance work. I much prefer to be in a collaborative process where the performers are included in the making of the work and get to contribute their own creative ideas. In saying that, I have worked with directors that ask you to create basically everything and don’t seem to contribute much themselves. A balance is ideal.

You created a piece for the IO Myers Studio which was shown at Spring Dance festival this year. Are you moving into choreography as a next step in your career, or was that just something you decided to do for that particular show?

Choreography is definitely a progression in my career but I am by no means labeling myself as a choreographer, not for now anyway. I am still very interested in performing in other peoples’ work. I am looking to find a mix of the two.

Would you ever create a full-length work? What would it be about?

I recently made my first full length work, Kingdom Mourning, on the third year students at Adelaide College of the Arts. In the work I looked at the relationship between an abstract world and it’s inhabitants, the community within it, both as a group/pack and the individuality within the group.

If you could dance with any company, which would it be?

I am very happy freelancing.

Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre
September 19 2012

By Tamara Searle.

‘The most we can ask of any revival is that it not embarrass history too much’
Arlene Croce. Critic from The Past is Prologue.

The Australian Ballet presents the premiere of a version of Swan Lake by resident choreographer Stephen Baynes. It takes a certain combination of maturity and creative vision to choreograph a version of the hyperbole that is Swan Lake. Over decades we have witnessed Baynes’ creative vision in his new works for the Australian Ballet. Baynes has created masterpieces of symbolism with dazzling, daring do, swooping twists and languid bodies tying in knots that then unravel. He is an expert at choreographing from the score. We hear new things in the music watching Baynes’ interpretation of classical scores. Taking on Tchaikovsky seems like it would be possible for few other than Baynes, and it’s not his first full length creation on The Australian Ballet, so he has maturity as a choreographer.  Nevertheless, this production of Swan Lake lacked the audacity necessary to reinvent a classic for a contemporary context.

In the program notes Baynes states that it was his intention to create a new version of a traditional production of Swan Lake that would offer an alternative in the repertoire to The Australian Ballet’s Graeme Murphy production. Leaving aside the fact that to create a new version that is a traditional production is oxymoronic, Baynes states there was no question that the Act 2 choreography should remain as the original Marius Petipa work. And yet, he does not go on to say why some choreography should remain the same and not other sections. Certainly the Petipa choreography is iconic; the first entrance of the white swan is inscribed in ballet goers’ imaginations, audiences love the sublime order of the corps de ballet in Act 2, the great exultation of the Act 2 pas de deux, the virtuosity of the Act 3 pas de deux, and the tragic conclusion of great romantic love in Act 4. But why bother remaking any of it, if not all of it?

It is the court scenes of Act 1 and 3 in which Baynes has sought his most substantial revisions and created new choreography. Here Baynes’ trademark lyricism injected into the court scenes doesn’t allow a juxtaposition between the dispassion of the court and the lyricism of the swans. The traditional choreography mostly sits awkwardly with Baynes’ revisions, neither illuminating the other, but making both uncomfortable bedfellows. The fourth act provided glimpses of what might have taken flight had a greater risk been taken. In Act 4 Baynes choreographed the swans at length, rarely referring to the Petipa choreography. Here in the yearning of the swans against the will of von Rothbart we saw Baynes begin to transcend previous productions.

Briefly the traditional story is that of a woman, Odette, who has a spell cast on her by the villain von Rothbart, to remain a swan unless someone vows to marry her for her. Siegfried falls in love with the swan woman Odette, but is deceived into declaring his love for another, von Rothbart’s daughter Odile, so Odette is condemned to life as a swan, or death.

Baynes’ Swan Lake opens (sadly without an overture; the discarding of a convention that provides for the audience a bridge to the other world) with the Prince having a memory of unhappiness in childhood over the death of his father.  This production attempts narratives of psychological realism for the characters of the Prince and his Mother. The unhappy fate of Prince Siegfried remains a theme across the ballet. Baynes returns to Siegfried’s fate, rather than Odette’s fate, as a central narrative thread. In Baynes’ production, von Rothbart’s entrance with Odile is re-imagined as the entrance into the court of a gang of gothic new romantics, ready to seduce and deceive the Prince into declaring his love for one other than Odette. Baynes has shifted the divertissement Spanish dancers in Act 3 to become gypsies in Von Rothbart’s company.  In a somewhat strange addition the Queen is also seduced by exotics from von Rothbart’s consort. But when von Rothbart mimes playing the violin as part of the mechanisms of seduction, the action becomes comic. If the love story and tragedy of Siegfried and Odette is to be felt by the audience, it requires a real villain, not a parody. And so these narrative turns run into trouble. Siegfried, Odette and Odile, and the Queen are epic heroes, and Swan Lake is an archetypal fairytale, a myth which lives in symbolism, not in the domain of realism. Attempts to infuse it with realism only reveal the insubstantiality of the story.

The performances by The Australian Ballet dancers on the evening of the 19^th of September proved their technique.  Notable dancers were Lisa Bolte as the Queen Mother and Chengwo Guo as Benno, who both interpreted their roles with artistry and intelligence.

This production of Swan Lake by The Australian Ballet is a re-staging rather than a display of new choreography, a remix rather than a reinvention. Of course there is no one true Swan Lake possible, there are only ever versions. This version attempts to find new narratives within the fairytale, without enough interrogation of their thought line. The residual question is what prompted Baynes to work with the material of Swan Lake, leaving so many sequences untouched, cobbling together an unfulfilled patchwork, when he could be creating entirely original masterpieces? Of course the box office generated by presenting a traditional Swan Lake, over a new work, is a likely consideration.

Photo: The Australian Ballet’s Ty King-Wall and Amber Scott in Swan Lake. Photo by Georges Antoni

By Kristy Johnson.

Infinity sees choreographers Graeme Murphy, Gideon Obarzanek and Stephen Page, collaborate in a powerhouse triple bill, for The Australian Ballet’s 50^th Year Anniversary.

Murphy takes a turn from his established narrative style with an abstract piece aptly titled The Narrative of Nothing. This piece allows audience members to appreciate a pared back ballet from which they are able to draw their own stories.

Having known the company intimately as a dancer and choreographer, Graeme returns to The Australian Ballet to open its milestone 50^th year.

Prior to the Melbourne premiere, Dance Informa journalist Kristy Johnson sat down with the iconic Australian choreographer.

Firstly, congratulations on your last work choreographed for The Australian Ballet, Romeo and Juliet.

Oh, thank you. I have to tell you, I really enjoyed that work. I’m so happy to hear, because I thought it was going to be hard for some of the diehard fans. They’ve had that one for a long time. I had to shake cobwebs off, you know? It’s a beautiful ballet, but this was not going to be a replica of that. There’s no point. I think it paid off because it brought in a really different audience. I think there were a lot of people who weren’t necessarily ballet people in the audience, because it was visually sort of everywhere.

Trained dancers are the best audience; they actually know how hard it is. A lot of people love ballet, without sort of knowing. And it’s not just about knowing how hard it is, it’s about knowing how much brainpower goes into making those things work. It’s about making hard things look easy. I often tell my dancers, ‘make it look harder’ (laughs).

Graeme Murphy. Photos by Lynette Wills

With your next choreographic work The Narrative of Nothing falling more on the abstract side, were you keen to break away from a pure storytelling piece?

I used to always alternate doing a storytelling work and doing a pure dance piece at Sydney Dance Company, because if you do one storytelling piece after another, you just get into this sort of really difficult deep world of ‘how do I tell this in dance?’ It’s so hard because you let the music put you in free fall. The dancers are a huge motivation in this one, because they’re all beautiful.

There will be 1500 people in that auditorium and there will be 1500 different narratives applied to my non-narrative work. That’s how it should be. Human beings are not capable of accepting abstraction. That’s human nature to tell stories.

You must be excited to be choreographing this piece as part of The Australian Ballet’s 50 Year Anniversary.

It’s like being part of a family of dancers, because I’ve been working pretty solidly here for the past thirty years. This is one of the greatest companies in the world and it’s not necessarily about standards and techniques. It’s about the fact that it lets people grow. It’s a beautiful network of individual dancers. There’s such a variety of people I like to work with and in some companies you don’t get that. You get that fabulous uniformity but you’re just hanging out for a rebel (laughs). I do love this company.

How can you tell when a dancer has that X-factor?

I think you don’t always tell when someone walks into the room. I think it’s something you learn and sometimes someone who you just saw dimly in the background pulls your eye and you store him or her in your memory for a work like this. This is a great work. To work with some of the more established people and the more unknown. I keep pushing because if I see the spark, I’m going to break your comfort zone. I’m going to push you out of your warm fluffy slippers (laughs).

Why do you think your partnership with your wife and Creative Associate Janet Vernon works so well?

We know each other so well and she was my muse for so many years. She’ll see me demonstrate the step and the dancer perform the step, but she sees beyond those things and she sees how that step should be. She was the person who would be the icing on the cake or put that level of perfection up a notch. She’s fabulous and the dancers love her because when she gives direction, they know it has the potential to push the level. The dancers want it. You’re not in this profession if you’re lazy, are you?

How does it feel to be working alongside Gideon Obarzanek and Stephen Page?

That’s extraordinary. I’ve got to keep up with the young guns (laughs). Both those choreographers have found their signature and found their stride. You see their hunger to create, and that’s what choreography needs. That’s the mark of choreography.

You have had such an amazing career to date. How do you ensure your creative ability is always flowing?

I’m very lucky. I’ve always had a good variety. I’m so blessed my job has led me and hasn’t stuck me into one mould. But at the end of the day my greatest joy is creating one one-on-one dance in the studio. That’s more thrilling than the opening night. That process as opposed to the finished product is what keeps you interested; hoping that I can sometimes break out of what comes naturally and what comes easily, and find another direction to extend my vocabulary and find some new words. It’s the same in life. You can sit comfortably in one level but occasionally you have to break the mould, find some new friends and do something that scares you. This has afforded me all of that. That’s why I’m still interested.

Infinity closes on March 6 in Melbourne. Sydney shows will commence from April 5-25. For bookings visit australianballet.com.au or call 1300 369 741.

Published by Dance Informa dance magazine – everything dance in Australia – dance news, dance auditions & dance events.

Test your dance knowledge…

By Rain Francis.

With which name would you MOST associate Ginger Rogers?

a) Gene Kelly

c) Mikhail Baryshnikov

c) Fred Astaire

d) Donald O’Connor

For which ballerina was the Dying Swan choreographed by Mikhail Fokine?

a) Anna Pavlova

b) Natalia Markova

c) Alicia Makarova

d) Anna Karenina

Who did Lucette Aldous dance alongside in the 1973 filmed version of Don Quixote?

a) Mikhail Baryshnikov

b) Rudolph Nureyev

c) Anthony Dowell

d) Carlos Acosta

Which of the following names would you LEAST associate with contemporary dance?

a) Martha Graham

b) Jose Limon

c) Cyd Charrise

d) Merce Cunningham

Which king is best associated with the origins of classical ballet?

a) Louis XIV (King of France from 1643-1715)

b) Henry VIII (England, 1509-1547)

c) Ferdinand III (Italy, 1637-1657)

d) Phillip III (France, 1270-1285)

Which of the following was Gene Kelly the star of?

a) Singin’ in the Rain

b) An American in Paris

c) Ziegfeld Follies

d) All of the above

Which American ballerina wrote Dancing on my Grave?

a) Maria Tallchief

b) Gelsey Kirkland

c) Darci Kistler

d) Cynthia Harvey

Who’s daughter is Liza Minnelli?

a) Elizabeth Taylor

b) Debbie Reynolds

c) Margot Fonteyn

d) Judy Garland

Who choreographed Cabaret, Chicago and Damn Yankees?

a) Bob Fosse

b) Jerome Robbins

c) George Balanchine

d) Alvin Ailey

What nationality is renowned dancer Sylvie Guillem?

a) Italian

b) English

c) French

d) Canadian

Answers:

1 – c, 2 – a, 3 – b, 4 – c, 5 – a, 6 – d, 7 – b, 8 – d, 9 – a, 10 – c

By Brian Nolan 

In the Australian dance world, there is a very privileged assembly of leading and influential teachers. In Victoria, we are fortunate to have three standout Divas of Classical Dance. Over the next three issues Dance Informa will be highlighting these talented teachers who have helped shape ballet in this country.

In our first interview we’ll be going 120 kms north of Melbourne, to the home of Sovereign Hill, the Gold Rush, the Royal South Street Competitions, and our first Classical Diva. In the Cecchetti world there is a lady who stands heads and shoulders above the rest – Carole Oliver. Carole is renowned for her indubitable and assiduous attention to detail, her stunning routines, her signature tutus, her students’ flawless eye make-up and the incredible ‘ballon’ that is synonymous with her pupils.

Carole or ‘Miss Oliver’ is known for the standard she has achieved in her Cecchetti based school in Ballarat. Supporting Carole is her sister Cheryl who choreographs many of the wonderful routines we see performed in competitions all over the state. The propinquity of these two sisters is what has made Carole Oliver and her school so very successful. Carole has trained many successful students from the Australian Ballet Company to Stuttgart Ballet in Germany and many of her past and present students represent Australia in Cecchetti and International Ballet competitions all over the world.

This year in August 2011, Carole celebrated her 50th year of teaching. In a reception honouring her 50 years, Carole was flattered and thrilled when past student, Amy Harris, who is currently a Soloist with the Australian Ballet, paid tribute to her.

Carole Oliver FISTD, FCBA – CICB, CERT V1 Examiner, Life Member

Who influenced you to become a dance teacher?

It was my mother and her passion for ballet. She had studied for many years herself as a girl, and because I grew up before the days of television, I recall spending most Sundays choreographing dances for my sister (Cheryl). We would perform in the living room for our family that evening.

When you first started teaching what were your aims and ambitions?

In my early years I really only taught students under the age of about 12, as I wanted to develop my own style and I constantly found it difficult with older children as I had to strip away too many technical problems before I could even begin.

Have you achieved your aims?

Let me just say that I feel very, very proud when I am watching my students perform on the stage.

What is your proudest moment in all your years of teaching?

There are so many, but I think one of my proudest moments probably came on the evening of my 50th anniversary celebration. Throughout the evening it gave me the opportunity to reflect back on the past 50 years and to see what I have managed to achieve.

What is your favorite step and why?

There are many. To select just one would be too difficult. However, a correctly placed pas de chat is high on my agenda, as well as a beautiful and sensitive port de bras, an exquisite arabesque or attitude. A fabulous jump will certainly lift my emotions!

If you could meet anyone in history who would it be and why?

The last Tsar (Nicholas II) of Russia. I would love to have received an invitation to one of his Grand Balls held at the Winter Palace (the Hermitage) in St Petersburg.

What do you think is the most important thing that has happened or influenced dance in the last 10 years?

YouTube, because it brings the world of dance right into your home!

What would you like to see happen in the next 10 years?

I feel there is a great need for us to offer and provide more opportunities for our aspiring and many talented dancers – more ballet companies would help.

What is your favourite ballet?

La Fille Mal Gardée. I just love Ashton’s choreography, it has so many beautiful moments. Also, Graham Murphy’s Swan Lake. I adore his work and his modern take on it.

What is your favourite piece of music?

Vivaldi and his Four Seasons. It has the passion and emotion to transcend me to a very happy place. Raymonda by Glazunov is another. All that beautiful music in one score – heaven!

You have produced many wonderful dancers throughout your career, is there one that stands out?

There are so many and for so many different reasons, but, two stand out. One is Amy Harris (Soloist Australian Ballet) because of her commitment and the determination that she showed from a youngster and still shows today. The other is Andrea Briody (ex Sydney Dance Company) because she never gave up. When classical opportunities didn’t happen for her she changed her focus and became very successful.

Do you think ballet competitions are necessary?

Yes, I think they provide a wonderful opportunity and foundation in stage performance. On a more personal level, it also allows students to deal and cope with disappointment and/or success, which are skills they will need to carry through life. In addition, children love to dress up and perform. It can also provide many friendships from within their peers. Just as long as it is not taken too seriously and for the wrong reasons.

Tell us about your role as a Cecchetti examiner.

Like my mother, my training was in the Cecchetti method of classical ballet. I was appointed as an examiner 30 years ago and today I am a Senior Examiner as I examine all levels within the Cecchetti system.

How would you like to be remembered?

I hope that I will be remembered as a passionate lover of ballet. Classical ballet has been my whole life and I am honoured and grateful to have been able to share my dream – especially with my family!

Next Issue: An Interview with Audrey Nicholls.

Photo: Carole Oliver and Amy Harris of The Australian Ballet at Carole’s 50th anniversary celebrations