Innholdsfortegnelse for December-January 2019 i Dance Australia

When we are immersed in our day-to-day dance routine, we can often daydream about our next holiday. Whilst rest and recovery is an important part of our yearly planning, sometimes the lack of routine in the “off-season” can be even more challenging. So how can you best prepare? Set goals for yourself. This can include personal goals, such as catching up with friends, in addition to professional goals, such as taking classes at different dance studios, summer schools or workshops. Organise your daily routine. Whilst it is important to be flexible and kind to yourself, your body and brain are used to regular dance training. Plan out a daily routine that supports you to achieve the goals you want to focus on during your break. Whether that is some type…

THE 2019 Tanya Liedtke Fellowship program is open for applications from Australian dancers/choreographers between the ages of 20 and 35. The Tanja Liedtke Foundation was established in July 2008 in honour of the dancer and choreographer, Tanja Liedtke. The Foundation draws its focus and energy from the inspiration of Tanja Liedtke, her determination, her passion and her unique vision. The Fellowship is offered in partnership with Berlin’s ada Studio and Australian Dance Theatre’s International Centre for Choreography. The 2019 iteration will take place from July 29 to August 25, 2019. Support material must be received no later than 14 December 2018. For more info, go to www.adt.org.au/calendar /or email Sarah-Jayne Howard: icc@adt.org.au  or call Australian Dance Theatre on (08) 8373 7733…

“I’ve loved building the initiatives and pushing for that full-time ensemble.” IN 2008 Natalie Weir took over as artistic director of Expressions Dance Company (EDC), succeeding its founder Maggi Sietsma. The company’s identity had been closely bound with Sietsma for 25 years, and some wondered whether it would survive without her at the helm. Financially the company was also in a perilous position with the loss of its triennial funding status. But as Sietsma herself predicted, Expressions was big enough to stand on its own, and 10 years on, as Weir herself announces she will be stepping down, there is certainly no talk of the company’s demise. At the time of our interview, which takes place at the EDC studios, Weir is in the middle of rehearsals for her final…

David McAllister (pictured) theorizes that today’s lack of musicality is partly due to all the ambient music around us today, not only in shops and restaurants, but in our headphones as well. Is it possible that the quantity of ambient music in our lives has eroded our ability to listen to the ballet accompanist? McAllister thinks possibly so. “Sometimes the pianist becomes ambient rather than the heartbeat of the class,” he says. “It is something I see in the younger dancers today. They can be doing beautiful work, but it has no relationship to what the pianist is playing or what the teacher set.”…

THE 2019 Perth Festival program has many dance highlights to savour, including a version of Giselle by South Africa’s Dada Masilo, set in a South African village with barefoot dancers. “It’s a Giselle for the ‘Me Too movement’”, says Festival Artistic Director Wendy Martin. From Ireland, Michael Keegan-Dolan presents a version of Swan Lake set in an Irish housing estate, where the women are the victims of a spell cast by a Catholic priest. The ballet features a surprise guest artist from Australia – 84-year-old Elizabeth Cameron Dalman. Perth’s Strut Dance is combining with Maxine Doyle from Punchdrunk in the UK to create Sunset, which will take audiences through the abandoned buildings of Dalkeith’s Sunset Heritage Precinct. Perth’s Ochre Contemporary Dance Company is joining up with Daksha Sheth Dance Company…

AS a dance journalist based in Perth, one of the world’s most isolated major cities, I’m well aware of the challenges that distance imposes on the Australian dance sector. Just getting to the national office of Dance Australia’s publisher, Yaffa Media, involves a four-hour flight and a two-to-three hour time change. But if we’re talking geographic challenges, Australia’s are two-fold. In addition to the fact that our population is concentrated into relatively few urban centres, with massive distances between many capital cities and states, we’re also famously distant from other countries and continents. For Australian dance companies, that means touring, whether within Australia or to other countries is a costly venture. In fact – long haul international flights aside – it could, perhaps, be argued that touring internationally is a…

THE Australian Ballet 2019 season boasts a number of creations by Australian choreographers, including our “greatest living choreographer”, Graeme Murphy. He is applying his fertile imagination to the delightful Oscar Wilde story, The Happy Prince. The ballet will open in Melbourne in March (19-28) before heading to Sydney in May (1-18). Another successful Australian, Stanton Welch, will stage a new adaptation of the 1876 classic, Sylvia. The ballet will debut at the Houston Ballet (where Welch is artistic director) in the US in February before arriving in Melbourne, August 31 to September 10 and Sydney, November 8 to 23. Stephen Baynes, Timothy Harbour and Alice Topp (newly named resident choreographer) will share the bill in “Verve”, exclusively in Sydney in April (5-25). The AB is also playing host in 2019…

1 LOVE FROM L.E.V. The Sydney Opera House has announced that Israel’s world-renowned L-E-V Dance Company will be paying a visit this summer. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/ it-s-all-aboutlove-at-the-sydney-operahouse-this-summer 2 BRISBANE DANCE PRIX The first Brisbane International Contemporary Dance (BICD) Prix took place in Brisbane in September, and proved to be an outstanding event. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/ results-of-the-firstbrisbane-contemporary-prix 3 DV8 AUDITIONS DV8 is holding an open audition in Sydney for male dancers to work with Lloyd Newson on a new production of DV8’s Enter Achilles. The audition is on Sunday 21 October with recalls Monday 22 – Wednesday 24 October. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/yafevent/dv 8-open-audition-for-male-dancers…

QUEENSLAND Ballet (QB) will continue its inspired collaboration with UK choreographer Liam Scarlett next year, with the world premiere of Dangerous Liaisons, a co-production with Texas Ballet Theatre (March 22 to April 6). The ballet will also tour throughout regional Queensland in June and July taking to the Gold Coast, Cairns, Toowoomba and Mackay. From May 17 to 25 QB will present a triple bill called “The Masters Series”, with George Balanchine’s Serenade, Jiri Kylian’s Soldier’s Mass and a new work by acclaimed American choreographer Trey McIntyre. Another triple bill, called “Bespoke” (November 8 to 16) will feature new creations by Lucy Guerin, Amy Hollingsworth and Loughlan Prior. The company’s My First Ballet series will return with The Little Green Road to Fairyland (July 11 to 21), a co-production with…

RAFAEL Bonachela first met the man who was to become his good friend and artistic collaborator when he came to Australia from Spain in 2008 as a guest choreographer for Sydney Dance Company, before he had been appointed as the company’s leader. It was about five years before the pair began working together. Rafael What was your first impression of Nick? I remember this really funny, smiling person. I really only started talking to him in the last week I was there because the time was so intense for me. He invited me to meet some friends. He was really sweet, welcoming, and had made an effort to talk to me and make a friendship. So when I came back I got in touch and that was the beginning of…

WHAT personality traits are needed to become a great dancer teacher? Reading this year’s Teachers’ Spotlight interviews, generosity is one that’s a common thread. While the teachers profiled come from a wide variety of schools and contexts, they all feel that desire to hand on what they’ve learned, that drive to facilitate the development of the next generation of dancers. As David Mack (Pevnev Ballet Academy) puts it, “Seeing a dancer understand a concept you’ve been sharing and putting it into practice is hugely satisfying both for them and for me.” Another sentiment that is echoed throughout this year’s Teachers’ Spotlight is a love of dance. In the words of WAAPA’s Michael Whaites, “Dancing is magic!” Find out how our teachers share that magic and inspire their students in the…

OVERALL WINNER Mia Atacador (Tracey Boyd) MALE ONLY #PROJECT B Luca Pezzimenti (Brian Nolan) AWARD FOR MOST POTENTIAL GRADES 1 – 3 Paris Fisher (Brian Nolan) RUNNER-UP GRADES 1 – 3 Darcy McDonough (Alanna Patridge) AWARD FOR MOST POTENTIAL GRADES 4 – 5 Mia Antoniou (Jasmina Stefkovski) RUNNER-UP GRADES 4 – 5 Leon Bowman (Brian Nolan) GRADE 1 FIRST PLACE Paris Fisher (Brian Nolan) ARTISTRY Jasper Zajacek-Tieu (Alida Endrigo) SECOND PLACE Addison Shepherd (Emma Madden) THIRD PLACE Macy Harvie (Brian Nolan) ENCOURAGEMENT Eve Vlahodimos (Jasmina Stefkovski) GRADE 2 FIRST PLACE Jade Nehill (Phillipa Sprague) ARTISTRY Milla Rigazzi (Christine Allison) SECOND PLACE Chloe Lahood (Jasmina Stefkovski) THIRD PLACE Darcy McDonough (Alanna Partridge) ENCOURAGEMENT Anita Zambetta (Brian Nolan) GRADE 3 FIRST PLACE Charlize Duck (Emma Madden) ARTISTRY Elodie Lamont (Kathryn Trapani) SECOND…

A love of Venetian masks, an eye for detail and a dancer’s pursuit of perfection are behind an emerging headdress and mask business started this year by Waynne Robenn. Tiauru Arts – Handmade Masks and Headdresses specialises in customised designs for ballet and stage – pieces, Robenn says, that “add the magic ingredient to live performances”. As a former professional dancer with the New Zealand Ballet (before the “Royal” days) and later the Queensland Ballet (in the Charles Lisner days), Robenn gained an appreciation of the importance of costumes and headdresses to a performance. He also learned how important it was that headdresses were functional. “It’s pointless creating something unless someone can actually dance in it,” he says. Following his performing days, Robenn worked in stage management and in stage…

“I started to realise that hip hop had given me a dance form that had its own history, rituals and connection to culture.” Where did you grow up? I was born and grew up in the regional Queensland town of Toowoomba. I live in Sydney these days. Do you come from an artistic family? My brother, Damien, is a comedian. He does shows all around the world and appears on TV regularly. I’m so glad I have a brother in the performing arts, we can compare notes and support each other. My mum loves the arts, she paints in her spare time. I also have a brother, Will, who is a world champion Indycar driver. How did you discover break dance? I discovered breaking through an Australian underground hip hop…