Melbourne-based film duo The Apiary have been busy producing The Australian Ballet’s latest mini doco. Featuring dancers Vivienne Wong and Calvin Hannaford, the doco follows Bodytorquechoreographer Alice Topp, and designers Georgia Lazzaro and Crystal Dunn, as they come together to create a steamy pas de deux. Trace focuses on the elasticity and malleability of everyday undergarments; the dancers carve the air with their limbs and shed the fabric as if it were an extension of their very flesh.
Watch the video, then take a peek at the photo gallery capturing the doco in the making.
I’ve been looking forward to this programme all year. It has just come in from the store and Marsia, Jessie and I unpacked it today. Personally I love a man in a ballet jacket and pair of tights, and this programme is all of that. For me, ballet is all about bling and the men in bling. I pulled out pink velvet jackets with silver bows, green waistcoats with peplums, and cream puff-sleeved shirts to go with them, and got very excited. Most of these costumes are from another era, a time when ballet looked like ballet and, well, people were generally much smaller back then. These days my boys are men and they’re built like men. Think ‘couture for hard yakka’. So when I pulled out beautiful silver brocade (dyed purple) jackets covered with silver trim my eyes lit up and I thought: we’ll get to remake that!
I also get to see these jackets on bodies in a different setting; sometimes over rehearsal clothes, sometimes with jeans. It can get a little Adam Ant; a little bit glam-punk; a little Gaultier. Read the rest of this entry »
The tutu motif is often difficult to avoid, especially in fashion, and the spring/summer 2011 collections at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week were no exception. As ballet muscled its way onto the runway in the form of whimsical dresses and show-stopping creations, the traditional garment got a facelift as designers experimented with textures and themes. Ellery, a fashion week favourite, for instance, did Bowie ballet, giving the tutu skirt a hard, rock’n’roll edge with leather and feather boas.
Likewise, Gail Sorronda re-imagined the tutu with her signature ethnic flourishes. Referencing Eastern cultures, the tutu silhouette appeared several times throughout the Gail Sorronda range, including a longer tiered dress with tulle peeking from underneath the hem softening it for easy-to-wear practicality. Konstantina Mittas reimagined the tutu through with vibrant eccentricity. From a sashaying yellow dress with a short projecting skirt, to an equally voluminous patterned skirt with daring front split, Konstantina Mittas’s creations gave ballet-inspired fashion a daredevil spin.
Alex Perry’s dancer was softer, graceful and supple in lace, sporting a sheer décolletage and delicately rounded skirt. The veteran designer incorporated all the whimsy of that other ubiquitous ballet motif – the swan – in floaty, feathered dresses. Aurelio Costarella also invoked the grace of the swan with the movement of petallike layers in nude shades and, like Ellery, took the tutu for a dark turn with black tulle.
Costarella found inspiration off the ballet stage as well – in the rows of avid audience goers – with a sparkling gown and fur stole perfect for nights taking in the theatre. But a cut above them all was Romance Was Born’s vibrant dinosaur ballerina, a glitter spangled stegosaurus creature complete with horned back and hot pink tutu.
Dear Colin,
My granddaughter is 14 and has been dancing since the age of four years. Her parents are moving to Sydney and she would like to do ballet full-time during the day, as well as keep her school work up. Our dilemma is where to enrol her.
If you have any suggestions for her I would be most grateful.
Thank you,
Lois McGuinness, Bathurst
Dear Lois,
All full-time dance schools have some arrangement whereby their students can continue their studies. However, I suggest you check out the details before you enrol your granddaughter. There are also schools like the High School of Performing Arts in Newtown, and McDonald College in North Strathfield which are academic schools that specialise in performing arts subjects.
As every school has its own philosophy, it is important to make sure you know exactly what type of dancer they are trying to produce. The best way to ascertain this information is to attend a performance by the school. Phone the schools that you are interested in and ask for performance details. If the graduating students look like the dancer your granddaughter is aiming to become, you have found the right school.
Best wishes,
Colin
Bodytorquechoreographer Damien Welch set out to create a ballet about the relationship between personality and clothing choice. “I have my own love-hate relationship with fashion”, Damien says. “Birthday Suit comes from my belief that we would be happier (and colder) if we all just stayed naked.” For fashion designer Georgia Clark, Birthday Suit gave her the perfect opportunity to observe the various ways in which people express their identities in their day-to-day existence. We caught up with Georgia to talk about her interest in industrial workwear, and the everyday things that inspire her.
Tell us about your first meeting with Damien; did you find you were on the same page in terms of creative concepts?
Damien had a clear idea of the costumes at our first meeting, I liked his ideas and we went from there.
Your designs for Bodytorque are inspired by the way everyday people express their identities through clothing. Did you conduct stealth research on Melbourne’s streets?
I wanted to know what people were wearing under their clothes. So I conducted some of my research through conversations with retail sales staff in high street stores. Department store staff members are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the current tastes and trends of all types of people. Read the rest of this entry »
Ruth St Denis is my new everything-icon. She was a true bohemian, a pioneer in modern dance whose approach lay somewhere between the Grecian fluidity of Isadora Duncan, the stylised intensity of Martha Graham and the improvisational flounces of Kate Bush. St Denis was the first solo dancer to introduce a style and aesthetic inspired by Egyptian, East Asian and Indian rituals to an unsuspecting Western audience. Her dances embody visions inspired by figures of divinity. Detractors may argue about the idea of a white woman appropriating sacred dances from the east, but St Denis never lay claims to authenticity. The same argument can be applied today when we look at how pop music and fashion adopt religious iconography. Read the rest of this entry »
Dear Colin,
For as long as I can remember I have been dancing. My favourite styles are ballet and modern expressive, as I enjoy telling a story through movement. Although, like most of the dancers in my group, I sometimes struggle with the acting and theatricality that is required for modern expressive and some ballet performances. We’re coming up to our eisteddfod season, and our teachers are stressing the importance of these skills. They always say that a quarter of the dance is the steps; the rest is your stage presence and expression, which I totally agree with. What advice would you give young dancers on how to develop the skills needed to successfully portray a character or emotion through dance? What processes do the artists of The Australian Ballet go through when preparing for a role, such as Giselle or Odette?
Kara, 24 Read the rest of this entry »
Coppélia’s Franz and Swanilda are roles traditionally given to ballet stars on the rise. Lana Jones and Daniel Gaudiello are not playing the trouble-making pair together on stage but, as newlyweds, they’ll be sharing notes after hours. Franz is Daniel’s first full-length performance in a classic three-act ballet. And, for Lana, Swanilda is a role most ballerinas only dream of dancing. Jessica Thomson caught up with Lana and Daniel while they were preparing for two of ballet’s most iconic roles.
Q&A with Daniel Gaudiello
Do you feel this is something of a breakthrough role for you – your first full-length lead in one of the classics? That’s right, it will be. It’ll be a great challenge. And I don’t know if it’ll be too much for me but I should be fine because it’s not as huge as some of the other ballets, I hope! You know, there are some ballets where you’re ‘on’ all the time, but I think this ballet might be a good step – a platform to get to the big stuff.
What are you looking forward to most about playing Franz? Everything about it: putting myself into a three-act ballet for starters, and carrying the show. I’m looking forward to getting into the character and taking the audience on Franz’ journey. I’m going to enjoy the dancing, because it feels really nice on the body. And I’m going to enjoy the character in the second act; I go to town on the character. I really look forward to the acting. I guess that’s why I dance – to be a new character every day is fun. Even though you’re not dancing with Lana, what’s it like to share the experience of both being cast in these roles for the first time (well, in a professional sense anyway!)? It’s great to be in the same boat and, yeah, we can share experiences. It’s nice to dance together, but when we dance apart it’s almost easier because you’re leaving work at work, and when you come home it’s not like, ‘My partner was crap … Oh! You’re my partner!’ Read the rest of this entry »
In Funny Face, Audrey Hepburn turns to a cynical Fred Astaire in a dimly lit, bohemian café and says: “Isn’t it time you realised that dancing is nothing more than a form of expression or release?” She then bounds into the centre of the room and scorches herself into cinematic history with an impromptu, expressive dance routine electrifyingly choreographed by Eugene Loring.
Hepburn’s approach to fashion reflected her Funny Face character’s views about dance; it, too, was an expression and a release. And, fittingly, Hepburn’s style in turn relied on dance for inspiration. By popularising the cigarette pants and ballet flats she had simply felt comfortable in all her life, she influenced generations of women and made an indelible mark on the fashion world.
Hepburn started her career as a dancer, training in London with Marie Rambert after World War II. She went on, of course, to find fame as an actress and a humanitarian, but she retained a dancer’s poise, posture and grace her whole life. Read the rest of this entry »
After a short hiatus, our comment of the month competition is back! Leave a comment on any Behind Ballet piece throughout the month of May, and you’ll go in the draw to win a copy of The Australian Ballet’s Firebird and other legendson DVD.
On Tuesday 1 June, we’ll post the winner’s name and comment, and announce next month’s prize. Until then, if you want to add your favourite dance film to the list, chime in on the new Bodytorque costumes, comment on the delicious dance of Cyd Charisse or our Coppélia posts (not to mention all the new pieces we’ll have this month), May is the time to do it!
Behind Ballet is the blog of The Australian
Ballet. Looking at dance through the prism of
fashion, music, art and literature, we unravel
the stories behind our productions and mine
ballet’s juicy past to find the new in the old and
the old in the new.
