Innholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2017 i Dance Australia

“This issue concentrates on the class.” AUDITIONS are the job interview of the dance world but oh! – if only they were as simple as sitting opposite someone at a desk! Instead of convincing your prospective employer with words, you have to spend at least an hour, stripped down to your most revealing clothes, physically demonstrating what you can do. And, unlike a job interview, you rarely get a personal, one-on-one chance to convince your employer that you are the best person for the job: instead you are usually in a room full of similarly determined candidates all vying for a place! This goes for auditions for training institutions or professional companies. Our audition feature has become an annual fixture in Dance Australia mainly because our readers show such keen…

CHUNKY Move has been invited to perform at the Theater der Welt 2017, an international theatre festival dedicated to works that push forward the development of the performing arts, held triennially in Hamburg, Germany. The company will present Anouk van Dijk’s An Act of Now at the festival, from 2-4 June. Theatre de Welt 2017 will see 40 productions from around the world presented in Hamburg, from a range of genres, including drama, performance, dance, literature, visual arts, film and music. Presented inside a glasshouse with the audience listening in via headphones, An Act of Now was created by van Dijk back in 2012, during her first few months as artistic director of Chunky Move. “I started to connect the old with the new, continuing an investigation I had begun…

1 DOMINIE LYTHGOE SHINES AT YOUTH AMERICA GRAND PRIX After gruelling rounds of solos and coaching, Dominie Lythgoe, from Classical Coaching Australia, made the top 12 in the Junior Division. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/dominielythgoe-shines-at-youthamerica-grand-prixdominielythgoe-shines-at-youthamerica-grand-prix 2 NZSD RELEASES 50TH ANNIVERSARY BOOK The New Zealand School of Dance has published a beautiful commemorative in book in celebration of its 50th anniversary. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/nzsd-releases-50th-anniversary-book 3 AND THE AHA WINNERS ARE... The Alana Haines Australasian Awards were held over five days, 13-17 April in Wellington, New Zealand. See our highlights, including photographs of the winners. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/and-the-aha-winners-are…

A Ballerina’s Tale is a film documenting the rise of Misty Copeland, one of the world’s best-loved ballerinas. Copeland’s story is one of success against the odds, as an African-American ballerina. While it is tough for any dancer to make it to the top in the world of classical ballet, it is even tougher for black dancers. Copeland is the first African-American to become a principal in American Ballet Theatre. Following Copeland’s journey from 13-year-old beginner to prima ballerina, A Ballerina’s Tale is now available on DVD. We have a special offer for our readers! Subscribe for 1 year / 6 issues (print + digital) and receive a free copy! Plus you’ll go in the draw to win a pair of pointe shoes signed by Misty Copeland herself! You pay…

Kip Gamblin is one of Australia’s most accomplished multi-faceted performers. An actor, dancer and choreographer, he has carved a career across performance genres and continents. He is most known to television audiences for roles in Australian television dramas like Home and Away, All Saints, Dance Academy and Neighbours but has also garnered international acclaim for his work in BBC London’s drama series, Casualty. Prior to life in front of the camera he wowed audiences as a dancer, in productions for the Australian Ballet, West Australian Ballet and Sydney Dance Company. Now Gamblin returns to the stage whilst making his musical theatre debut, in the Australian production of The Bodyguard: The Musical. Here he’ll star as ex-secret service agent, Frank Farmer, opposite Paulini Curuenavuli, (known to television audiences from Australian Idol)…

Conlan College Susan Anderssen, executive director Course: Full time training How long will the audition class be? Will it be a full class? We invite students to spend a whole day with us to audition. That allows the students to settle in to the day and to relax their nerves. The day will consist of a variety of classes. At what level are the classes pitched? Approximately RAD Intermediate level, although this will depend on the class being run. We also try to mix it up a bit and to challenge students. Will I need my pointe shoes? Female students will need their pointe shoes. Will exercises be demonstrated on both sides? We usually demonstrate exercises on one side only. A vital part of having a career in dance is…

WEST Australian Ballet (WAB) has announced a new collaboration with Darwin-based Indigenous choreographer and artistic director of NT Dance Company (NTDC), Gary Lang. WAB and Lang will work together on a project that will culminate with a world premiere at the 2018 Ballet at the Quarry season. The project will feature Indigenous opera singer Deborah Cheetham AO, Indigenous (Bungal) dancers, NTDC dancers, WAB dancers, a traditional song man and didgeridoo (Yidaki) player. The project’s creative development began in October, 2016. Lang, Cheetham and three NTDC dancers will come to Perth for a second creative development in October. During this time Lang will meet with local Noongar elders and artists. The project will include cultural awareness training for all West Australian Ballet staff and dancers. Lang will also hold masterclasses to…

BANGARRA Dance Theatre will premiere a new work by artistic director Stephen Page this June. Entitled Bennelong, the work will open at the Sydney Opera House on 29 June and travel to Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne through August and September. Bennelong explores the life of Woollawarre Bennelong, a senior man of the Eora, from the Port Jackson area in Sydney. Living in the days of first contact between Aboriginal people and European settlers, Bennelong was one of the first Aboriginal men to be taken from his people and introduced to European ways. He was also one of the first Aboriginal people to have his life story recorded and documented through the early diaries of the British military. A celebrated and mythologised figure, Bennelong led his community to survive a clash…

N August, the Australian Ballet will perform Alice Topp's latest ballet, Little Atlas, in Melbourne. Topp is a coryphee and the ballet is her fifth creation for the company. Little Atlas first premiered in May in Sydney last year, commissioned for a main season triple bill on the strength of other works she has created for the company's annual choreographic season, "Bodytorque". To have a ballet in a “main stage” season is a big achievement in a large company which regularly commissions choreographic greats from around the world. Little Atlas received strong reviews – Limelight magazine said it had the “wow” factor. Topp is a rarity – a female classical choreographer. In an artform that is otherwise so dominated by women, it is strange that female choreographers are so far…

If Reed Luplau seems very much at home in a café in the heart of the Broadway theatre district, it's because that neighbourhood is where he has worked for the past 18 months. The stage door of his current “office” – the Imperial Theater – is right across the street, and his previous job was a few blocks north. In the invigorating surprise hit musical Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Luplau is a dynamic member of the frenetically active, delightfully spontaneous ensemble, and also a featured dancer in several scenes. He was previously in the 50th-anniversary revival of Fiddler on the Roof, one of Broadway's tried-and-true classics. In March, the Perth native marked the seventh anniversary of his move to New York. They have been busy years…

AUDITIONING for the Australian Ballet School must be a scary process – right? One day – one chance – for a child to prove that he or she is top classical dancer material? In short, no. Certainly, the Australian Ballet School (ABS) is the elite ballet school in the country and classical ballet has stricter requirements of its dancers than any other dance style. And yes, every year only a select few are chosen. But the ABS is now a broader institution than its early days, with its Interstate/International Training Programme, After School Programme and summer and holiday schools as well as its Full-Time Programme. There are many chances for young pupils to access the School. To begin with, anyone (aged 9-18 years) can audition, explains Marijke Franken, the executive…

About Jessica Jessica trained at Terri Charlesworth Ballet Centre (now Charlesworth Ballet Institute) and then WA Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), dancing professionally in two seasons with WA Ballet whilst at WAAPA. After graduating, Jessica went on her first audition tour of Europe and the UK in 2015, attending auditions for companies and schools such as Dresden Semperoper Ballett, Staatsoper Hannover, Dutch National Ballet Academy and Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. She was accepted into Akademie des Tanzes in Mannheim, Germany, and spent a year living in Germany dancing with Badisches Staatsballett Karlsruhe while completing a masters in dance. After completing her year in Germany, Jessica auditioned for major companies in Europe, America and Australia, including Hamburg Ballett, Staatsballet Berlin, Leipzig Ballett, Ballet Ireland, LINES Ballet (US), Bucharest…

Lisa Pavane, Director, The Australian Ballet School (ABS), Melbourne For me, the balance of having a great education and a great training is really important. I think I see that because I didn’t have it myself. I was given special permission to leave school when I was 13 to attend full time at my ballet school, Tessa Maunder. I completed my School Certificate (year 10) through correspondence when I joined the ABS. Luckily, I was successful in progressing through to the profession, but I did go back to education later on, having never written an English essay! When to start full-time training is an individual question. The Australian Ballet School added Levels 5 (2001) and 4 (2009) to its full-time program so that it could work with younger students (from…

Dancers know how to work hard. We push ourselves to the edge to achieve physical feats that will amaze and astound our audiences. The expectation to excel is one that is learnt early in dance training. But do we need to start questioning if there are better ways to train smarter to avoid the risk of undesirable outcomes like chronic fatigue, injury, overtraining, and burnout? Achieving excellence is not just about putting in long hours at the studio. Dancers can also benefit from monitoring their training to be aware of their individual training and recovery needs. Monitoring training can be as simple as checking your heart rate when you first wake up, keeping a log of how many hours you’ve slept and how rested you feel upon waking, and using…

There is no single term that encompasses what Janet Bridgman does. To describe her as a ballet teacher, ballet coach or Pilates instructor suggests that these are separate activities. On one level, of course, they are. Twice weekly she gives company ballet class to Australian Dance Theatre (ADT); other mornings see her giving class to the pre-professional stream at Adelaide’s Terry Simpson studios, where she has also provided one-on-one coaching for over ten years. Wearing another hat, she is ADT’s in-house Pilates instructor, and she also teaches at her own Dynamic Dance Pilates studio. Yet although these roles may seem separate, each draws on the same knowledge base, garnered from a life-time of performing, teaching, and studying how the body works. This approach can be attributed to Bridgman’s experience of…

Alegria School of Ballet Woolloomooloo, Sydney NSW Course: Full Time Classical Course Auditions: By appointment or by DVD www.alegria.com.au Amanda Bollinger Dance Academy Southport, Qld Courses: Elite Training Programs: Part-Time, Half-Day, Full-Time Auditions: Private only www.vaganova.com.au Annette Roselli Dance Academy Tingalpa/Manly West, Qld Courses: Annette Roselli Dance Academy Elite Training Program (Levels 1 to 3) Audition: Sunday 8 October.www.annetteroselliballet.com.au The Australian Ballet School Melbourne, VIC Courses: After School Programme (Melb, approx. 9-13 yrs); Interstate/International Training Programme (outside Melb & international, approx 9-13 years of age); Full Time Programme: Level 4 (Unacredited); Diploma Of Dance – Elite Performance (CUA50113); Advanced Diploma Of Dance – Elite Performance (CUA60113); Graduate Diploma In Classical Ballet (10296NAT); Teacher Training Programme: Graduate Diploma Of Elite Dance Instruction (Teacher's Course) (10328NAT) Auditions: Melbourne 31 July-2 Aug; Sydney…

Catrina Ralph A role in a Broadway musical is the ultimate goal for Wollongong girl Catrina Ralph. “Any musical would be fine, but Chicago, West Side Story or Singing in the Rain would be incredible”, she says. Catrina will be one step closer to her dream when she heads to New York later this year to take part in the Broadway Dance Centre’s Autumn Professional Semester. The opportunity to take part came as a result of receiving the Brent Street Scholarship for the all-expenses paid trip. The training at the Broadway Dance Centre will cover all dance styles as well as singing and acting tuition. “I’m so lucky to have received this and am so excited to head over in August to extend my knowledge and training.” Catrina will put…