Behind Ballet

Heidi Martin, Karen Nanasca, Brooke Lockett and Halaina Hills, New York City. Photography Lisa Tomasetti
Madeleine Eastoe, Paris. Photography Lisa Tomasetti
Lucinda Dunn and fans, Tokyo. Photography Lisa Tomasetti
Andrew Wright and artists of The Australian Ballet rehearse in the "bento box". Photography Lisa Tomasetti

Seven countries; 13 cities; ten years. Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake has flown many miles in its short life. From its first international outing in 2005, which garnered the Best Foreign Dance Company award from the UK Critics’ Circle Awards, to performing to standing ovations in New York in 2012, this modern masterpiece has been danced around the globe by a changing cast of stars. These artists have shared hotels, buses, planes and trains – and moments they will remember forever. (more…)

19 June 2013

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Rudy Hawkes and Amber Scott in The Four Temperaments. Photography Branco Gaica

Pay what you can ballet!

By Behind Ballet

Behind Ballet

Back by popular demand: Pay What You Can Ballet! For one night only (Fri 14 June) we’re letting you set the ticket price to Vanguard at Arts Centre Melbourne. The Age dubbed this stunning program “The Australian Ballet at its fiercest”. Pay what you can – $10 minimum. Tickets available ONLY by phone (call our Customer Services Team on 1300 369 741) or in person at both The Australian Ballet Box Office and Arts Centre Melbourne Box Office. Act now! (Please note: Bella Figura contains partial nudity)

The Four Temperaments Choreography by George Balanchine
© The George Balanchine Trust

11 June 2013

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David McAllister. Photography Kate Longley

Ask David!

By Behind Ballet

Behind Ballet

Ever wondered what it’s like to run a ballet company? Here’s a unique opportunity to ask our Artistic Director, David McAllister, all about it! On Thursday 13 June, David will be chatting LIVE on Twitter (@TheAusBallet) from 6.30-7.30pm. Post us a question on Twitter (use #askdavid) or as a comment on this post, and we’ll choose the best for him to answer!

7 June 2013

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Rudy Hawkes and Vivienne Wong in Bella Figura. Photography Branco Gaica

Vanguard from the orchestra pit

By Behind Ballet

Behind Ballet, Vanguard

In a recent company initiative, a small number of dancers and staff members were kindly invited by the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra to observe performances of Vanguard from the Sydney Opera House pit. Company Manager Jasmine Moseley relates her experiences.

I was a spectrum of emotions: excited, nervous, curious (most of all excited) to be sitting in the orchestra pit at the Sydney Opera House, watching the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra perform the musical program for Vanguard. It was a unique opportunity, afforded by virtue of working in this special theatrical place, with those who are willing to share their knowledge, and open the doors to hidden spaces. (more…)

5 June 2013

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Kurt Seligmann's designs for The Four Temperaments
Maria Tallchief in one of the original costumes for The Four Temperaments
Eise Reiman and Herbert Bliss in the Seligmann costumes
Kurt Seligmann's Sarabande, 1949

How the Four Temperaments used to dress

By Lorelei Vashti

Costume, Vanguard

Lorelei Vashti looks at the original 1946 costumes for George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments

For any ballet-goer, seeing dancers clothed in sleek black-and-white “practice” outfits on stage means one thing: Balanchine. This stark costume is shorthand for a particular period of Mr B’s professional output, and elegantly allows the logic and precision of his movements – the jutting hips, splayed legs, thrusting pelvises and hieroglyphic arms – to be viewed in their most pure and focused form.

What many people don’t know is that it was a Swiss-American Surrealist artist called Kurt Seligmann who helped create the famous look – but not on purpose. (more…)

28 May 2013

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Steven Heathcote and Kirsty Martin. Photography David Kelly
Amber Scott and San Francisco Ballet's Damian Smith. Photography Jeff Busby
Adam Bull and Lana Jones. Photography Jess Bialek

After The Rain: A Dancer’s Perspective

By Rose Mulready

Behind Ballet

The pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain© is famous for wringing the heart. Rose Mulready asked three dancers for their memories of performing it.

STEVEN HEATHCOTE, FORMER PRINCIPAL ARTIST

You danced this pas de deux as your final performance – was it a good piece to go out on?
I couldn’t have had a more perfect final performance. Arvo Pärt creates music that is quite extraordinary; I’ve always been a fan. I don’t know what it is but there’s something about the kind of cadences that he uses in his music and the structure, it always captivates you.
Chris Wheeldon created this pas de deux for [New York City Ballet’s] Jock Soto’s final performance, so it was kind of fitting. I think, for me, what it encapsulates is the relationship that’s developed between a man and a woman who are dancing, moving, thinking, breathing together. There’s something very special about that connection in ballet and it’s something that I’ve enjoyed so much throughout my career, that special chemistry that’s created with each and every partner. I think the After the Rain^© pas de deux, for me, captured all of that beautifully. It doesn’t just capture the essence of dance partnerships, it captures the essence of partnership in ordinary life too, the relationship between two people. It’s so sensitively and beautifully handled in the way that the pas de deux is structured; I think that Chris has just created this little piece of gold. (more…)

22 May 2013

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