Innholdsfortegnelse for April-May 2020 i Dance Australia

“The archives record not just the artists but attitudes and ideologies too...” WELCOME to our 40th anniversary issue. How do you choose the best highlights from 40 years of dance writing? It’s impossible, especially when having to squeeze them all into a single article with a deadline looming. Where to start? The archives of Dance Australia contain so much history – dancers, companies, choreographers, teachers, schools – myriad artists involved with dance have come and gone during the 227 issues that have been printed. The archives record not just the artists but attitudes and ideologies too, changes in politics and governments, shifts in Australia’s cultural landscape. A range of publishing technologies have come and gone as well. The first issues of Dance Australia were quarterly, laid out by hand with…

THE West Australian Ballet is presenting an Australian premiere of Javier Torres’s The Sleeping Beauty in May. Torres is a Mexican-born freelance choreographer, who is closely associated with the Finnish National Ballet. His version of Sleeping Beauty is based on the Petipa original classic. “To me,” he says, “the entire story of takes place in Princess Aurora’s heart. That means all the characters are her feelings personified, particularly Syrene, the Fairy of Love, and Carabosse, the Fairy of Fear.” ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ will run from May 8 to 23 at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Perth.…

THE heartwarming tapdance musical, Stepping Out, is making its professional Australian premiere in Melbourne, in a production by the Sydney-based, independent company, Nineteen 98 Productions. The show stars Annie Aitken, Debora Krizak and Deone Zanotto, with direction and choregraphy by Madison Lee. The musical, which began life as a play, is written by Richard Harris, best known for TV writing for shows such as A Touch of Frost. The story centres on Mavis, the role portrayed by Liza Minelli in the popular 1991 Americanised film adaptation, a mid-30s out-of-work professional dancer/actor who runs an amateur tap class to support herself between few-and-far-between paid gigs. ‘Stepping Out’ runs from April 15 to May 3 at Chapel Off Chapel.…

Raewyn Hill BORN in New Zealand 1972, Raewyn Hill asked her mother if she could start ballet at age five but was told she needed to wait until she was six, her first lesson in patience. She is a Distinguished Graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance (1992), but considers her training as ongoing to this day. Renowned for her work as a dancer and choreographer, Hill’s career to date spans 27 years. She was appointed Artistic Director of Dancenorth in 2010, where she remained until her appointment as Artistic Director of Co3 Australia in 2015. In 2017 she returned to the stage in Ochre Contemporary Dance Company and The Farm’s production of Mark Howett’s Good Little Soldier. Have there been times when it was hard to stay committed…

MARCUS Morelli and Jade Wood are senior artists with the Australian Ballet, and good friends. They are well-matched in terms of height and build, and are frequently cast to dance together in roles varying from the classical (eg. Bluebird pas de deux in David McAllister’s The Sleeping Beauty; the Diana and Acteon duet) to the more contemporary (Red Couple in Jiri Kylian’s Forgotten Land; the Firebird and Kostchei in Graeme Murphy’s Firebird). Sitting in the Green Room at the Sydney Opera house one morning before their company class, we discussed their early years and career highlights, what makes their partnership work and their respective strengths as individual dancers. Morelli is a little younger than Wood, graduating from the Australian Ballet School into the company in 2014. By comparison Wood (who…

1 STONE FOR DRILL Tasmanian youth dance ensemble DRILL Performance Company has announced Isabella Stone as its new artistic director. A WA-based dance artist, Stone is an alumnus of STEPS Youth Dance Company (which was amalgamated into Co3 in 2014) and the WA Academy of Performing Arts. In 2019 she was a member of the Tasdance ensemble. 2 PRIX DE LAUSANNE LIVE STREAM Dance Australia streamed the annual prestigious international competition live from the Auditorium Stravinski in Montreaux in Switzerland. Dance Australia’s Emma Sandall, who writes our Ask Emma column, was host. 3 COLLABS FOR CO:3 Co:3 Australia’s 2020 launch saw WA’s flagship contemporary dance company announce a new two-year approach to programming. The first year will be focused on partnership presentations, the second on staging new works by Co:3’s…

This photo by Jacqueline Mitchell is of Isabella Jordan, a student at the Tanya Pearson Academy in Sydney. “I wanted to create a bold and vibrant mood to match Isabella’s bright personality and dynamic movement quality,” Mitchell says. “The lights were deliberately placed in a way that would highlight her athleticism and line. I adore how relaxed her hands and upper body are despite the difficulty of achieving this during a posé onto pointe with a slight backwards cambré.” Photo: Everline Imagery. Website: www.everlineimagery.com Instagram: everlineimagery Email: info@everlineimagery.com Would you like to be featured here? JUST DROP AS LINE VIA FACEBOOK MESSENGER OR EMAIL DANCE@YAFFA.COM.AU.…

When Jerome Robbins choreographed West Side Story, I’ve been told he did not tell the dancers, “…on the count of seven, I want you to put your hand in exactly this position like this”. Rather he directed more along the lines of “on this accent in the music I want you to throw your right arm towards this actor in this direction in reaction to what they are doing to you”. This is apparent in a scene like “Cool” in the movie. All the dancers appear to be doing the same movement, but if you look very closely you can see that each enacts a similar movement but with an intent relevant to their own character. Each dancer might not have their arm in exactly the same position, or have…

RAEWYN HILL If I am honest, I don’t consider it a passion: I consider it my life – my reason for existence– my reason for being. When I am in performance, dance is the settling of my “self”. I’m in harmony; I’m truthful; I am complete. Now, in my role as an artistic director, I have a deep sense of responsibility and desire to leverage my position in the community to empower, support and nurture our next generation of artists, be it through my choreographic practice, my pedagogy or my role as a director. KATRINA RANK Older dancers have a lifetime of experiences in both life and art. They have loved, raised families, suffered, grieved. They draw on decades of embodied knowledge and sensation. Their unique challenge is to accept…

Jade Wood BORN: Cairns When Jade was accepted into the Australian Ballet School’s Interstate Junior Programme, she travelled to Melbourne a few times per year. She was promoted to coryphée in 2015, to soloist in 2017 and to senior artist in 2018. Marcus Morelli BORN: Melbourne SOME REPERTOIRE HIGHLIGHTS: Stanislav Nijinsky in John Neumeier's ‘Nijinsky’ (2016); Actéon in ‘Diana and Actéon’ Pas de deux (2016); The Bluebird in David McAllister's ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ (2015). He was promoted to soloist in 2017, after dancing the Bluebird in ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ and promoted to senior artist after the 2018 season of ‘Spartacus’.…

NOW in its fourth year, Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance continues to evolve; this year moving its performances away from a theatre setting into the streets of Brisbane, and featuring local, interstate and overseas artists. As well as performances, including works in development by local independent artists, there were artist-led workshops with profits going directly to the artists. Apart from the workshops, all events were free. The reach out, part of the organisers’ push for ‘low-carbon impacts’ and a wider audience base, is in line with the Festival’s mission statement to “engage, inspire and connect audiences and artists.” I saw five of the seven scheduled performances, which were diverse in their content and location. Shade was hard to find on a very hot afternoon in the Queen Street Mall for…

ARE students’ attentions spans getting shorter? Are politeness and courtesy outdated concepts? Just how do teachers compete with digital distractions in a class? These are just some of the questions swirling around the complex issue of discipline in the dance studio. For dance teachers, expectations of creating an encouraging, positive and safe environment for young dancers can sometimes clash with the requirement to set firm expectations about behaviour and conduct. Contemporary guidelines promoting safe and effective dance teaching practices (such as those published by Ausdance) mean that the days which many older dancers recall – of students cowering in fear of an unyielding, exacting and terrifying teacher – have, thankfully, been relegated to history. Yet, for dance teachers, the challenges of managing behaviour in a modern dance studio remain. On…

THE Queensland Ballet has been forced to withdraw its planned performances of Dangerous Liaisons as planned for its 2020 tours, following revelations of sexual misconduct allegations against the ballet’s choreographer, Liam Scarlett. The company was to perform the ballet in Melbourne from April 17-18 as well as take it on a Queensland regional tour in June/July. Scarlett, 33, is based in the UK and has been Artist-in-Residence at the Royal Ballet since 2012. He was appointed the Queensland Ballet’s Artistic Associate in 2017. However he has now been banned from the Royal Ballet while an inquiry is being carried out by independent investigators about allegations the choreographer had been sharing naked photographs with students, according to The Times. The Royal Opera House was made aware of the allegations and had…

SUBMISSIONS have opened for the new Inspired Dance Film Fest Australia, which is aimed at providing a platform for dancers, choreographers and filmmakers to explore their creativity on film. The co-founders are Ian Knowles and Rohan Seinor, both highly seasoned professional dancers who boast extensive careers both nationally and internationally. They believe there has been a missed opportunity in Australia to celebrate dance on film. Organising this festival is a way to give back to the industry they love. The inaugural Festival will be held at Hoyts Cinema Paris, Entertainment Quarter, Sydney, November 8, 2020. Tickets for the Festival will go on sale later in the year. The Festival is also supported by ambassadors Todd McKenney, Kelley Abbey, Aaron Cash, and Stephen Tannos. Submissions opened on February 29, with an…

THIS year Dance Australia celebrates its 40th anniversary – an incredible achievement for an arts publication. Founded in Melbourne by Dally Messenger back before the internet, the magazine is now owned by the Sydney-based family company Yaffa Media, one of Australia’s largest independent media organisations. Beginning as a quarterly print publication, then a bi-monthly, Dance Australia has now expanded and adapted in line with the all the expectations of the modern digital media, with a website, weekly e-news and associated social media. 1980  “I THINK it’s about time that we had a national magazine. It has been far too long.” Thus was quoted the late, great classical dancer Kelvin Coe in the first issue of Dance Australia, in an article written by the founding editor, Dally Messenger. Vol 1, No…

YOU should do this job… you should get a job like this one.” Funnily enough, it was an off-hand comment in a post-performance chat with his then boss David McAllister that first turned former Australian Ballet dancer Robert Curran’s thoughts towards the possibility of a future career as the director of a ballet company. As a dancer with the Australian Ballet for 16 years (10 of which he was ranked as a principal) Curran drew attention for his consummate partnering skills. Looking back now he notes that partnering was always the favourite part of his job as a dancer, saying, “I enjoyed telling stories with other dancers on stage.” “30 week contracts are the norm for ballet dancers in America...” Curran came to the Australian Ballet a couple of years…

Vito Bernasconi (pictured) is a soloist and has been with Qld Ballet since 2013. Criticism as a word can have a negative connotation. I’ve always preferred to consider it as information to learn, develop and grow. When I receive feedback, I remind myself that the purpose is to make me a better dancer and, while it can affect me, it’s only because I wholeheartedly believe in what I’m producing. We take it to heart because we aim to shine and show our best, but we must accept that sometimes what we’re showing isn’t our best and we need correcting. One technique I use is focusing on what is being said as opposed to how it is being said. Ironic as it sounds in an arts industry, a good technique is…

OSCAR Wilde’s The Happy Prince is a very short allegorical story about compassion versus contempt and greed. At the time allegedly written for children, it also carried a potent message for adults, pointing a finger at the inequities of Victorian England, where the rich were filthy rich and the poor starved to death. Likewise, choreographer Graeme Murphy has endeavoured to appeal to both child and adult in his 90-minute ballet about the statue of the Happy Prince and the Little Swallow who helps him give to the poor by stripping his statue of jewels and gold. This is a visually striking ballet. The set and costume designs by Kim Carpenter, who also worked with Murphy in adapting the story, are almost cartoonish; simply drawn, they have a skilful clarity that…

• Create a code of conduct for teachers, parents and students which formalises the expectations of all • Ensure all teachers and older dancers model the required behaviours • Document the requirements in terms of dress standards and the rules on technology use • Set expectations for different spaces in a studio. Anderssen explains: “We have places within our environment where fun and games are not only ok, but encouraged. However once they go into the studio and into class, there needs to be a change in behaviour that demonstrates respect for themselves, their peers, their teachers and their parents.” • Start out as you plan to continue. For instance, if you’ve got a rowdy bunch of littlies that likes to chatter, introduce a “Take 2 Approach”, by taking them…