Following their sold out Paris season, the internationally acclaimed St Petersburg Ballet Theatre returns to Perth in July and August to present their full-length classic production of the world’s most famous ballet – Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.

It has been almost 10 years since Australian balletomanes last enjoyed performances by the 55-member company of the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre who last toured in 2004, collecting rave reviews and hanging out the “Sold Out” sign at almost every performance.

Now the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre is coming for a limited season at His Majesty’s Theatre. The seven performance season premieres on Wednesday 31 July 2013, with tickets now on sale.

With the famous Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov version of Swan Lake first performed in St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre in 1895, Swan Lake, has a rich history in St Petersburg; so it’s only fitting for the company of the city’s namesake to bring the ballet to Australia.

The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre is renowned globally not just for beautiful dancers but also for stunning and grand full-length productions.

Founded by Konstantin Tachkin in 1994, the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre is one of the leading Russian ballet companies. It is based right in the heart of St Petersburg and gives on average 200-250 performances per year.  It claims to be the only classical ballet company in the world that is completely independent of government financial aid or sponsor’s funding.

Tour Producer Andrew Guild said, “Not only does the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre bring their troupe of Vaganova trained dancers, they also bring their magnificent scenery – scenery that has audiences applauding even as the curtain rises – along with sumptuous costumes, dozens of dazzling white tutus and hundreds of pink pointe shoes. The St Petersburg Ballet is truly traditional Russian classical ballet at its very best.”

International media have called the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre “a company with style, restraint and elegance” (Sunday Telegraph, London) that has “left a considerable mark on the history of world ballet” (Danse Magazine, Paris).

“This is the real thing, a grand-scale Russian Ballet – a complete classical full-length work. This is not a concert program. This is not a small group of dancers performing unrelated pas de deux and party pieces. This is Swan Lake, the world’s most-famous ballet and classical ballet performed the way it was intended by one of Russia’s leading classical companies. If you see only one ballet in your life, let it be this,” Guild said.

To book tickets, visit www.ticketek.com.au or call Ticketek on 132 849.

By Rain Francis.

Rudolf Nureyev was one of the single most influential people in the history of dance. This year marks 20 years since his untimely death, but also 75 years since his birth. In celebration of this great man, special events, gala performances and tributes are taking place worldwide in 2013.

There has been so much written about him, and he has become something of an enigma. But what was he really like? We ask two professional dancers who knew him personally, Frederic Jahn and Patricia Ruanne.

Jahn and Ruanne are both involved with The Nureyev Foundation, and worked with Nureyev for many decades during their illustrious careers.

Tell us, how did your involvement with The Nureyev Foundation come about?

Patricia Ruanne
In 1986, I was asked by Rudolf to stage his Sleeping Beauty in Istanbul. This led to my appointment as ballet mistress for The Paris Opera Ballet, at the time when Rudolf was director of the company. I was specifically brought in to help Sylvie Guillem in Rudolf’s new production of Cinderella. Initially I was responsible for all the principals in all of his productions, extending later to other selected choreographers and full company staging.

Frederic Jahn
We, and other principals of The English National Ballet (then London Festival Ballet), created Rudolf’s Romeo and Juliet. He was filming Valentino at the time, so we would start working after nine every night, when he returned from the studios. He was plotting the ballet, and we all changed characters to help him set it. This eventually taught us every role in the ballet, and later he gave Patricia and I sole responsibility for this production.

Will you be involved with any of the events or production in this year of celebration?

Frederic Jahn
In Toulouse, France, we will be doing a Nureyev Gala programme. It will be a selection of his works, including the Balcony Pas De Deux from Romeo and Juliet, the third act of Don Quixote and La Bayadere Act 3.

Rudolf Nureyev with Patricia Ruanne and Frederic Jahn. Photo courtesy of Patricia Ruanne and Frederic Jahn.

There has been much written about Rudolf Nureyev, but how would you describe him?

Patricia Ruanne
Passionate, incredibly hard-working, relentless in the studio but at the same time very tolerant of people’s short-comings, as long as they kept working to improve. He had no tolerance at all for those who gave up or rejected the opportunity to change their habits to their advantage.

He had an endless curiosity about everything related to theatre, from how a costume is made, to which lamps give which effects, to how a conductor controls the orchestra. This acquired knowledge stood him in excellent regard from the point of view of all backstage staff – the man knew what he was talking about.

Rudi was quite childlike in some ways; uninhibited in his enthusiasms, wonderful with children, animals and other people’s parents. He had a great sense of humour and a tangible interest and appreciation of his colleagues.

He was very generous with assistance and information for all levels of the company. He was very demanding of the people who worked closest with him, but never more than he was willing to invest himself. Stimulating, exciting to work with, an unforgettable personality.

What is your favourite of his ballets and why?

Frederic Jahn
Romeo and Juliet was my favourite of his ballets. He made this ballet for a company, and not as a vehicle for himself. Nureyev was a mega-star when he was alive. He was the most photographed person in the sixties; Margot Fonteyn and Nureyev were household names. When he did his own productions he marketed himself in them, hence the numerous variations in Sleeping Beauty. The public and the theatre agents got over and above their money’s worth when a Nureyev production was presented.

In Romeo, he attempted his own choreography for the first time. For Juliet, it was Martha Graham on pointe; extremely difficult choreography. For the corps de ballet, there were real punch-ups created by a fight director. Rudolf did so little for himself and gave the production to the company, so much so that the first night, ballet critics called the ballet, Tybalt and Mercutio. It wasn’t until the theatre critics came that all was revealed. They thought it was a masterpiece – particularly a section in the ballet where Mercutio fakes a false death, which leads his friends to laugh at him, when he truly is dying after his fight with Tybalt. This was his concept, and it’s subsequently been copied in theatrical productions.

His research was impeccable, to the extent that practically every line of the play is interpreted in his ballet. He was right in not making Romeo and Juliet into a romantic ballet – it’s not. It’s about two feuding families, the offspring of which fall in love, in an era of great violence, intolerance and disease.

In what other ways did Rudolf have an influence over dance and theatre?

Frederic Jahn
This story was told by Eugene Poliakov. He was Rudolf’s ballet master at the Paris Opera, as well as the director of Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy. I was his Ballet Master, and Poliakov and I shared an apartment when he came down to Florence once a month.

These were in the days before Rudolf defected and was still with the Kirov. He was dancing Siegfried in Swan Lake, and in those days all the men wore bloomers over their tights. It was not a particularly attractive look, as it cut the line of the leg. Rudolf was in his dressing room after finishing the first two acts, and refused to do the third act of Swan Lake if he had to wear bloomers over his tights. The management were furious but over a barrel, but they let him do it, as he was already an up-and-coming star in the Kirov.

After that incident, the fashion changed in that theatre, and without doubt, the rest of the theatres in Russia. This change was only in Russia; the West was already showing gents’ legs.

For more information about Rudolf Nureyev and the list of tribute events taking place this year, visit www.nureyev.org.

Photo (top): Rudolf Nureyev dancing with Frederic Jahn, courtesy of Frederic Jahn and Patricia Ruanne. 

By Grace Edwards.

In one of the world’s toughest vocations, Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School (VCASS) student Harry Davis, 17, is now one step closer to his dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer after winning a silver medal at the Genée International Ballet Competition 2012. Fellow medallists included Australian Montana Rubin (female gold), and New Zealanders Aurelian Child-de-Brocas (male gold), Kaena Ahern (female silver) and Ariana Hond (female silver and Audience Award).

The prizes were awarded by an illustrious judging panel of three: David McAllister AM, Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet, Li Cunxin, author of the best-selling autobiography Mao’s Last Dancer and newly appointed Artistic Director of The Queensland Ballet, and Christopher Hampson, internationally renowned choreographer and newly appointed Artistic Director of the Scottish Ballet.

Dance Informa’s Grace Edwards spoke to Harry to congratulate him on his latest achievements and gain an inside look into his competition experience.

Congratulations on your silver medal Harry! How did you feel when you realised you had won a silver medal?

Thanks! It was a huge shock actually, especially because even before the competition I had heard from another girl who had entered the Genée the year before that the panel didn’t have to award medals unless they felt the standard of competitors was adequate. For instance, there were years where the gold medal hadn’t been awarded at all. So yes, it was a shock, but honestly it wasn’t even the best part of the whole experience.

What were your favourite aspects then?

It was really fun performing onstage for the finals. We had had rehearsals just before, so it was nice to actually do our solos onstage at the St. James as we’d already been on there.

And definitely getting to know all the people from around the world and doing class with them. I wish that we could have swapped around a bit more so we could have gotten to know even more people because we were always with the same group, but it was still good. I wish the whole thing was longer too!

For all those thinking of entering the Genée this year, what did you have to do to enter and prepare?

For the Genée there wasn’t actually an audition to go to, so the application process was fairly rigorous. You had to write down past scores from all your exams with the RAD and hand over photocopies, write down who your teachers were, your nationality – everything.

After my Solo Seal exam I had a good month or so to prepare with my teachers. The other Genée entrants from VCASS and I coached our solos every Saturday and sometimes throughout the week. Apart from my “dancer’s own” solo and the commissioned solo, we all had to learn the rest once we got to Wellington. I danced the Royal Ballet’s version of the Black Swan Pas De Deux, the Act III solo from Swan Lake, because I had already learnt it from my preparations for other competitions.

What was your schedule like?

The guys’ timetable was actually very lush and had lots of breaks because we were a smaller group. On the first day we met in the foyer at 7am for breakfast, as classes began at 9am. We had ballet class each day first, for which we were split into three groups as there were 71 of us. Our schedules all involved one of three things: variation coaching, solo coaching or dancer’s own [self-choreographed solo] coaching. So this went on for about five days until Wednesday the next week.

Then we had the semi-finals, which involved a ballet class as a warm-up. We performed a ballet class onstage, and the next day we had our variation and “dancer’s own” to perform.  The three judges judged that and afterwards they announced the finalists.

Following that, on Friday, it was just the group of five of us receiving coaching through our solos because Saturday we had the actual final. We were up quite late that evening because there was an after-party after that!

You had to perform a commissioned solo by Adrian Burnett as part of the competition. What was that like?

Yes, we all had to learn Adrian’s solo. The solo was really cool. It was fairly classical and had heaps of jumps in it, so on the first day it was really exciting. But once we got to the end it was pretty suicidal because it needed so much stamina!

What was it like creating your own solo?

It actually took me ages to choreograph my “dancer’s own” solo because I hadn’t choreographed much ballet before. We got to choose our own music, so I used music from the movie Pina. It was really difficult for me, but it was a good experience.

How did you celebrate?

Pretty much by doing nothing, because I was tired by the end and also, my knee was quite sore because I have tendonitis. So, I just wanted to rest. We all had a little party in the dorms after we went back to the hotel and that was a release from it all, which was nice. There wasn’t much celebration when I went back home, it was just about having holidays. The experience itself was the reward really.

What are your plans for the future?

I’m looking forward to joining the Level Six boys at The Australian Ballet School this year and taking advantage of all the facilities there as I’d like to improve things like my upper-body strength for pas de deux. I’d also love to try and audition again for the Prix de Lausanne. If something amazing did happen and I actually got into the Prix, the prize money I’ve won from the Genée would help me pay for flights without having to worry my parents. Otherwise, it will probably end up as a long-term deposit, maybe for an audition tour at the end of my training. I’m just saving up at the moment for anything that might happen in the next few years. As for long-term plans, I’m not too sure yet. I’m just keeping my options open at the moment and seeing what happens. I’ve still got a good three years of training to go to figure that out!

Photos courtesy of Harry Davis. 

By Rebecca Martin.

The Imperial Russian Ballet’s lead dancers will be returning to Australia in April as part of OperaMania – a fusion of ballet and opera. OperaMania features ten singers from Moscow Novaya Opera, a 44 piece symphony orchestra and four Imperial Russian Ballet soloists.

Ballerina Yaraslova Araptanova trained at the Perm Ballet School in Russia before joining the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre firstly as a soloist for nine years, then as a lead soloist. She was then invited to work in the Imperial Russian Ballet as a lead dancer alongside her husband Alexander Volkov. They have both enjoyed great success with Australian audiences on more than one occasion and look forward to returning to our shores with OperaMania, where they will perform two adagios from Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker. Yaroslava will also dance the legendary Dying Swan by Saint-Saens.

This will be Yaroslava’s third tour to Australia, but on this trip she is hoping to find time to visit one of our wildlife parks and to meet with the Australian public. In anticipation of their tour, Yaraslova and Alexander spoke to Dance Informa from Moscow…

Yaroslava Araptanova performing in ‘Swan Lake’ with The Imperial Russian Ballet.

What has been your favourite role to dance so far?

Yaraslova
I love all of my roles. It’s just that some are performed more often. I dance almost the entire classical repertoire. I really like performances where the drama is brighter and where throughout the performance the character of my role develops.

Alexander
I really like the role of the Poet in the one-act ballet by George Balanchine, La Sonnambula, directed by Bart Cook and Maria Caligari from the world famous New York City Ballet. The music is by Vittorio Rieti and uses themes from various operas of Bellini. In the duet Balanchine shows a psychological relationship between the Poet and La Sonnambula (the sleepwalker). It ends sadly when the Poet is stabbed, but the audience is much more struck by how the fragile singer La Sonnambula is able to raise the Poet from the floor and hold him in her arms.

From the classical repertoire, I especially like the role of Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake and the brilliant work for the character of Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty. Of character dances I enjoy the Spanish roles, such as Basil in Don Quixote.

What role would you most like to dance and in which theatre?

Yaraslova
That would be Giselle. My dream is to perform the entire ballet. I have danced fragments and single acts, but I have not done the whole ballet. I look forward to any new role. It is always a great gift. With a new role there is the birth of a new character who uncovers something new in me – it’s hard to compare it with anything.

Alexander
In the course of my work my dream has been to teach. I have a huge repertoire and I bow to the entire group of my brilliant, great teachers. I could speak about each of them without end. I have studied in Japan and in America. I want to pass on the experience I have gained as I have something to share.

Yaroslava Araptanova performs in ‘Swan Lake.’

What is the hardest thing about being a dancer?

Yaraslova
I think it is the discipline – every day maintaining your diet, the work regime and rest. On tour every day we have make-up, costumes, performances and travel, and all by the clock.

What is the best part?

Yaraslova
That would be the gratitude of the audience. It’s a good performance when the viewers are pleased and you understand that your labour is in demand. Flowers and creative fulfillment!

How do you spend your time when not dancing?

Yaraslova
On the road, when there’s free time, I try to see the country and get to know new culture, monuments and museums. At home, my baby Yaroslav is my most important treasure. I study arts part-time at a university, specifically how to run a ballet troupe. In the future, I want to teach. I have a lot to share but I need a degree and am working on it now. And both at work and in leisure, I spend time with my husband of the past nine years.

Have you danced in any other opera productions before?

Yaraslova
In operas there are dance segments. Many operas include ballet scenes. There are always a lot of people with the choir and soloists, so you have to be very careful not to get lost on stage and avoid crashing into the crowd. If a ballet is inserted into an opera to add meaning, they adorn the action. In some operas ballet divertissements can be seen. In previous centuries, this tradition was extensive.

Participating in the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre production of The Seven Deadly Sins by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht with director Radu Poklitaru was an extraordinary experience. We were on the stage with opera singers who did the dance moves. I not only danced, but also recited phrases. He presented sounds and movements in a modern style. In the Imperial Russian Ballet we do a ballet cantata Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, staged by Mai Murdmaa.

See OperaMania in Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne, Canberra or Brisbane. Visit www.operamania.com.au for more information and tickets.

Interview translation by Tatiana Cherkasskaya.

Photo (top): Yaroslava Araptanova. Photo by Nadya Pyastolova. Photos courtesy of Emma Collison Publicity.

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 Rain Francis.

Second Echo Ensemble, a Tasmanian group of 10 young actor/dancers with and without disabilities headed to New Zealand last month, where they teamed up with New Zealand’s premier disability dance company Touch Compass. The two groups presented a double bill titled Seamless at the Tempo Dance Festival in Auckland.

Before Second Echo’s departure, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard sent them a note of support, saying “This is such a wonderful opportunity to showcase the talents of these gifted young people and the sense of possibility that has unfolded in their lives. I therefore warmly congratulate the members of the Second Echo Ensemble. I wish them safe travels and all the best for their… performance.”

Second Echo Ensemble’s Sally Davis and Charlie Smith. Photo by Iain Lang

Expressions of interest are now open for the Tempo 2013, New Zealand’s dance festival held at Q Theatre. Tempo is tentatively scheduled for October 6 – 13, 2013. For an expression of interest form, contact carrierae@tempo.co.nz .

The Auckland Arts Festival 2013 has just been launched, with some very exciting dance, circus and cabaret acts announced. Kiwis can look forward to the revolutionary circus experience Circolombia (Colombia), as well as a stunning dance-theatre production from leading European choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet. The Royal New Zealand Ballet will present three brand new works that celebrate the joy of dance; the triple bill encompasses works by Javier de Frutos, Ethan Stiefel and Andrew Simmons. Also highly anticipated is the funny, astonishing and deeply touching work Leo from German group Circle of Eleven.

A new, on-demand web-based dance channel was launched last month. Crash2Create is focused on promoting the New Zealand street dance scene. It will be releasing footage and trailers of some of the latest street dance events from around New Zealand, and keeping viewers up to date with the latest happenings in the Kiwi street dance community. Crash2Create will also release exclusive interviews with local and international dancers in the street dance community. www.crash2create.com

The Royal New Zealand Ballet are celebrating 60 years next year and have recently launched an exciting 2013 season. After the Made to Move triple bill, which features in the Auckland Arts Festival, the company will embark on a five-city tour of China. The centre-piece of the 60^th celebrations will be the iconic Swan Lake, and the company will round off the year with a 46-centre tour of heartland New Zealand.

The New Zealand Dance Company is now finalising its 2013 plans, which will include a tour and the premiere of a new work. Their first show, Language of Living will tour the North Island and perform a return Auckland season in May/June 2013. Dates and locations will be announced soon. The company is now accepting expressions of interest from both graduate and experienced choreographers interesting in creating new works. For more details visit www.nzdc.org.nz.

Photo: Royal New Zealand Ballet. Photo by Ross Brown

By Grace Edwards.

Partnering with The Australian Ballet and The Australian Ballet School, Channel Ten will launch the premiere of its new children’s series, Once Upon A Dream, on October 16^th, which will air Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 4pm. Over six episodes, the documentary-style series reveals what it takes to be a part of our national ballet company, taking viewers behind the scenes of The Australian Ballet’s production of Swan Lake. In anticipation of the series’ launch, Dance Informa’s Grace Edwards spoke to Australian Ballet soloist, Rudy Hawkes, who features extensively in the series, about what it takes to become a dancer.

Can you take us through your first memory of dance? What happened and what it was like?

It was my mum’s idea – she had always had a passion for ballet and asked if I wanted to go along. I had no idea what I was in for, so my first memory was me jumping around a class full of girls and getting really tired. I remember really enjoying it and wanting to do more, which I think took my mum a bit by surprise! It was a good surprise though, because I was a really hyperactive kid and she wanted something to tire me out.

When did you make the transition mentally from dancing for fun and deciding this was the career for you?

I was fairly into it when I moved to Melbourne to attend the Australian Ballet School. It was probably about half way through my first year of ballet school that I decided I wanted to make dance my career – watching the men of the Australian Ballet Company and seeing what they were doing every day for a job and getting paid for it inspired me. They were all fantastic dancers and I thought, “Yeah, that’s what I want to do, that’s where I want my dancing to take me.”

Australian Ballet Soloist Rudy Hawkes. Photo by James Braund

Growing up, was there ever a time when you thought, ‘Can I do this? Is this the right career for me?’

Yes definitely, there was always doubt, but I definitely wasn’t one to think, “Oh, am I going to be a doctor or am I going to be a dancer?” I was never that good at school or focusing my attention to books, so it was either I really try hard at dancing or knuckle down and do school work properly. I decided to knuckle down and become the best dancer that I could, so there was never really doubt about that, I suppose.

In Once Upon A Dream we get to go behind the scenes of the Australian Ballet, witness the dedication of the dancers and the team that supports them. Who are the unsung heroes of the ballet, in your opinion?

Our coaching staff and dancing staff put so many hours into making everything look right and they don’t always get the mention that I think they deserve. There are so many unsung heroes – once you get to the theatre, it’s the backstage crew that make things come alive, and wardrobe too. That’s why I think Once Upon A Dream will be interesting because it doesn’t just show the ballet dancers in costume, it shows everything else too, like the medical team who look after us if we get injured, and the choreographers. I think it will be a good insight into our little world.

What is the most challenging aspect of life as a professional dancer that you think audiences often don’t see?

It’s all pretty challenging – rehearsing every day, and even class! We always do ballet class in the morning just to keep moving and keep our technique strong. I was struggling a bit today. Things that you can do one day, the next day make you feel completely silly or uncoordinated, for instance, realising you can’t turn more than three times because you’re falling over yourself. It’s an on-going battle to keep your body doing what you want it to do and training it so that when you’re on stage it comes naturally. At the end of the day, the goal is to make everything look effortless. The audience might not realise how hard some of this stuff really is.

What do you love most about life as a performer?

Performing! You get a chance to transport the audience into a new world, help them escape the daily grind, go somewhere else and hopefully enjoy themselves. In doing that, I also get to escape by becoming a different character and to feel free whilst dancing. You feel alone in your own world even though there are many people watching you.

We look forward to seeing you on our screens Rudy. No doubt there will be a lot more people watching you soon!

Top photo: Rudy Hawkes performs in The Australian Ballet’s Nutcracker. Photo by Jess Busby 2010.

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

How well do you know the ballet classic?

By Rain Francis.

1. Who composed the original score for Swan Lake?

a) Prokofiev

b) Mozart

c) Stravinsky

d) Tchaikovsky

2. Who choreographed the original production, which premiered in 1877, one year after the composer’s death?

a) Marius Petipa

b) George Balanchine

c) Michel Fokine

d) Julius Reisinger

3. The black swan’s name is:

a) Odette

b) Odile

c) Ophelia

d) Octavia

4. Name this character from Swan Lake:

a) Siegfried

b) Carabosse

c) Von Rothbart

d) Dr. Coppelius

5. Matthew Bourne’s version of Swan Lake is well known particularly because:

a) The corps de ballet consists of black swans, not white swans

b) The swans are danced by men instead of women

c) It does not use any of the original score

d) All of the above

6. As part of their 2012 season, The Australian Ballet will present Swan Lake. Who is the choreographer of this version?

a. Stephen Baynes

b. Graeme Murphy

c. Meryl Tankard

d. Natalie Weir

7. In the 2011 film Black Swan, which dance company was used as the corps de ballet?

a) New York City Ballet

b) Miami City Ballet

c) Pennsylvania Ballet

d) Mariinsky Ballet

8. Who danced the roles of Odette/Odile in the premiere of Petipa/Ivanov’s Swan Lake?

a) Pierina Legnani

b) Olga Nikolayeva

c) Anna Pavlova

d) Tamara Karsavina

9. How many dancers traditionally perform the dance of the Cygnets?

a) two

c) three

c) four

d) six

10. True or false: Swan Lake was the first ballet to be performed by The Australian Ballet?

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

Top photo: Adam Bull & Amber Scott in The Australian Ballet’s Swan Lake. Photography Jim McFarlane.

Character photo: Christopher Saunders as Von Rothbart. Copyright John Ross. Photo source: www.ballet.co.uk/gallery/jr-royal-ballet-swan-lake-roh-1008/jr_swan_saunders_onsteps_067_500

By Kristy Johnson.

Renowned Australian choreographer Stephen Baynes, most notably recognised for his work with The Australian Ballet, is lending his hand to the opera.

An epic new outdoor production of Verdi’s tragic love story La Traviata, will see 16 dancers become a part of the visual spectacle, taking place on Sydney Harbour this March. Perfect for first-time opera-goers, you can expect beautiful costumes, fireworks, spectacular sets and well-rehearsed choreography, all under a 9-metre chandelier made with Swarovski Elements.

Dance Informa sat down with Stephen during rehearsals to discuss the process and challenges of choreographing for the opera.

Stephen Baynes

How have rehearsals been so far?

It’s such an unusual set-up with this amazing huge stage and quite an unusual configuration too. We’ve had a week out at Olympic Park with the singers, but this is actually my first time with the dancers today. And the dancers are great. It’s been good.

Is there any difference choreographing for an opera, as opposed to the ballet?

Oh yes. As far as making up steps, it’s not that different really. I think the particular thing about this situation is that in a way, the actual choreography is the actual steps. Whilst they’re important, we want to have something that looks good. It’s more like the atmosphere you create and how it’s going to combine with the chorus in this particular thing, how it’s going to come together as a whole. In fact, I didn’t really want ‘oh here come the dancers to do their little debut’. I want it to be really organic, but this party is a really out there party. It’s quite an underground type of thing and these people are all dressed up. They’re dressed up as gypsies and matadors, and they’re putting on a show.

During the audition phase were you looking for dancers with a strong contemporary or ballet background?

They had to have a bit of a classical background I think. It’s like singing; you need someone with that basic training. Contemporary wasn’t so important. It was more important that they had a good schooling and that they would be able to pick up the choreography. I wanted to see a lot of style and pizzaz and they came with that straight away.

Are the dancers from contemporary based companies?

A few of them have told me that they’ve worked with the opera quite a lot before. I think some of them are more commercial dancers, and a few girls look like they’ve come from contemporary companies.

Stephen Baynes rehearsing for La Traviata with the dancers

Were you already familiar with the story of La Traviata?

Oh yes! I’ve seen the opera many, many times, so I certainly know it well, which was a help. If I was choreographing for an opera that I had never seen or heard before, that might have been difficult (laughs). I go to the opera a lot, although this is the first production I’ve actually worked on. I jumped to the challenge because I do like the opera.

And will you be returning to choreograph for The Australian Ballet in their 50th anniversary year?

Oh yes, I will be choreographing for Swan Lake. It premieres in September in Melbourne.

Get your tickets to Handa Opera On Sydney Harbour: La Traviata
To find special deals on accommodation, travel and dining packages, visit operaonsydneyharbour.com.au. Shows run from the 24^th of March to 15^th of April, and tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

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