Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky is in cinemas now.

To celebrate the release of the film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, Madmen Entertainment is giving away a Coco & Igor prize pack to one lucky Behind Ballet reader, featuring a double pass to the film and a fabulous pack of Madman DVDs. To be in the running, email hello@behindballet.com by close of business on Thursday 15 April with the words ‘Coco & Igor’ in the subject header. We’ll announce the winner here!

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is in cinemas April 15

Dame Peggy van Praagh enlisted film and theatre director George Ogilvie to freshen up her production of Coppélia after realising what her weary dolls needed: the deft theatrical touch of a dramaturge. The Australian Ballet’s Coppélia is now in the company of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Russell Crowe’s first major film The Crossing and countless theatre classics on George Ogilvie’s CV. Helen Elliott chatted to George about how he brought Coppélia to life.

One day in 1979 Peggy van Praagh came to George Ogilvie and asked for his help. She was thinking of remaking the sunniest of 19^th century narrative ballets, Coppélia. George was a theatre director and he had never directed a ballet. “I remember,” George says, “being surprised and a little confused. I wondered what she wanted from me.”

She wanted that elusive thing that all directors crave – the old made thrillingly new.

30 years later, to coincide with the centenary of Dame Peggy’s birth, The Australian Ballet performs the Coppélia that she, George Ogilvie and designer Kristian Fredrikson first presented to delighted audiences in 1979. Once again, in 2010, George was involved in the rehearsal process of this charming ballet.

During the ‘60s and ‘70s George and Kristian worked together on countless theatre and musical productions. Dame Peggy was an early mentor of Kristian’s and through her he developed a particular love of ballet, and a thorough understanding of the rigours of ballet design. But although George had worked with dancers, and was familiar with ballet, his great passion and expertise was, and still is, drama. Coppélia was to be his initiation into an entire ballet production. “I later discovered that using a dramaturge was quite common in Europe, but it had not been done here at all,” George says. “So this was a first time for the company and for me.”

The story of the lonely Dr Coppelius and his obsession with his life-like doll, Coppélia has a long history as an audience favourite. And Leo Delibes’ tender score – which offers some of the most danceable ballet music ever written – is a favourite with performers. “It was,” says George Ogilvie, “an old-fashioned story ballet. So how to approach it as something new?

George remembers how the three of them would sit down at a table and talk, Fredrikson would draw, and they would look at the story again and re-think. Delibes’ score was played day and night in the Melbourne house that George and Kristian shared with another friend.  It was, finally, the music that pulled the ballet together. “I found that the music was my master, totally, and it was the same for the others. Everything was controlled by the music. We just listened and listened to the music until it was embedded in our bones.”

Kristian Fredrikson’s design also played a central role in inspiring George and Dame Peggy. He lovingly made detailed models of every act, including the dolls. Dame Peggy was “ecstatic”, George says. He believes Kristian was the genius behind the entire thing. “His ideas were so tight for this gothic farytale.”

It was Dame Peggy van Praagh’s dedication and practical energy that invigorated the ballet, too. “Peggy’s life was ballet,” George says. “She had a sort of private life but ballet was everything. Coppélia was her opportunity to do something for the ballet that was lasting and she did. It was an amazing success. Her greatest success.”

This is an edited excerpt from Helen Elliott’s article for The Australian Ballet’s Coppélia souvenir programme

Image: Yosvani Ramos and Leanne Stojmenov. Photography Justin Smith

If you need to get your ballet on over the break, you can visit The Australian Ballet’s website for videos, galleries, season info and more, wiggle over to our YouTube channel, or swing by Facebook.

Thanks for reading this year. Sophie Bastas is the winner of our comment of the month competition for December for her beautiful missive on Damien Welch’s final performance. For January, we’ll be giving away copies of Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake on DVD to TWO lucky commenters, so please keep the good stuff coming! We’ll announce the winners at the end of the month.

Have a fantastic Christmas and a balletlicious new year,
Behind Ballet

Image: Lana Jones. Photography Justin Smith

Picture this: Mikhail Baryshnikov in a dusty room, being seduced by a red-lipped grim reaper. He throws himself onto wooden furniture and is eventually coerced into committing suicide. This is the opening sequence to Taylor Hackford’s 1985 film White Knights in which Nikolai Rodchenko (Baryshnikov) and evil Colonel Chaiko mimic the two rival nations – Russia and the US – during the Cold War.

What follows is a drama slash dance film set in Leningrad, starring Baryshnikov alongside tap great Gregory Hines. Paralleling aspects of his own life, Baryshnikov plays Russian dancer and defector to the US Nikolai Rodchenko. Nikolai’s plane is forced to land in Russia, leaving him a prisoner to the evil Colonel Chaiko. Hines plays an American expatriate who becomes involved with Nikolai’s plight to escape Russia’s Orwellian society and return to America.
There is romance, car chases and a soundtrack from the likes of Lionel Ritchie, all punctuated by intelligent and powerful dance scenes. Highlights include Baryshnikov’s passionate solo to Vysotsky in a deserted Mariinsky Theatre and his infamous pirouette gamble. Hines bets Baryshnikov eleven-Rubles in exchange for eleven pirouettes. They are done effortlessly. Blink and you’ll miss them.

While you may have seen Baryshnikov’s acting abilities as Carrie Bradshaw’s ‘lover’ in the final season of Sex and the City, it is truly amazing to see his acting talent alongside his natural talent: dance.

Marissa Shirbin was a dancer, is now a romancer and an editorial assistant at Right Angle Publishing

The Sleeping Beauty
Aurora is one of the ultimate ‘ballerina’ roles to perform. It’s so pure and technical with big a story to tell, from Aurora’s 16th birthday right through to her marriage celebrations. Although I always find this ballet daunting and challenging, I have wonderful memories of performances where I danced to my full capacity. Plus, having a new version of a classic created on you and dancing the world premiere is every dancer’s dream.
Don Quixote
Don Quixote is another great technical, demanding and energetic three-act ballet, and  there are so many facets to the role of Kitri. I gained an Australian Dance Award for my performances in 2007.

After The Rain
Christopher Wheeldon, who choreographed After the Rain, was my pas de deux partner at the Royal Ballet School in London. During the Sydney season of After the Rain in 2007, all the other principal girls were off, so I danced this most beautiful pas de deux with three of our principal males alternating each performance. They were each very different in their style, and I loved the chance to respond to their interpretations.

Spartacus
Spartacus is a  great vehicle for the lead principal Flavia. The ballet has a real storyline, with strong characters exploring the tenderness of love and horrors of death. I had tears at the end of each show – the final pas de deux is very special to dance.

Romeo & Juliet
Every ballerina gets asked what their favourite ballet is, and Romeo & Juliet would be high on my list for sure! Robert Curran and I had many wonderful performances together. I love the character, the incredible score and wonderful pas de deuxs.

The Australian Ballet performs The Silver Rose in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide in 2010. The Sydney season goes on sale to the general public on 12 February, but tickets to all other cities are available now.

Images:
01. Lucinda Dunn and Matthew Lawrence in The Sleeping Beauty. Photography Jim McFarlane
02. Lucinda Dunn and Matthew Lawrence in Don Quixote. Photography Justin Smith
03. Lucinda Dunn in After the Rain .Photography Jim McFarlane
04. Lucinda Dunn in Spartacus. Photography Jim McFarlane
05. Robert Curran and Lucinda Dunn in Romeo & Juliet. Photography Jim McFarlane

The previous evening, over a scrumptious dinner of seared scallops, lamb loin and eggplant caviar, about 200 guests probed the dancers and Artistic Director David McAllister during a Q&A session. The audience were showered in honesty and insights. “You never stop dancing.  It’s dancing that gives you up. You can’t do what you want anymore”, reflected McAllister who, after 18 years of dancing, retired from the stage in 2001. Other topics included career injuries, body image, life after ballet, and the hefty cost of pointe shoes.

Ramos revealed he’s twice watched the film Mao’s Last Dancer, Corea gushed over the realisation of  her childhood dream (which is to dance for The Australian Ballet, of course) and McAllister remained baffled over ballerinas’ commitment to wearing “torture shoes” all night then teetering on stilettos at opening night after-parties.

As the outdoor performance drew near, a cocktail hour and a stunning sunset welcomed the assortment of guests mingling with MC Catriona Rowntree and McAllister. A lofty, bright moon appeared over the Long Pavilion and the dancers gave their all. Close proximity meant we counted sweat beads and heard King-Wall’s gasps for breath, mesmerized by his heaving chest. We witnessed pas de deuxs from Giselle, Grand pas classique, Le Corsaire and Swan Lake.

The sublime performance and surrounds were a thrill, but it was Rowntree who made us all giggle. “It was so exciting to see you in your cossie down by the pool” she declared to a super-fit Ramos before requesting a salsa move. Ramos, originally from Cuba, happily obliged with an impromptu performance.

Donna Demaio –  Arts and Entertainment reporter for Radio 3AW and Fairfax Digital

Images:
Kristy Corea
Yosvani Ramos
Ty King-Wall and Stephanie Williams
Photography Andrea Francolini

Amber Scott returned from Perth after performing one of the most iconic roles for the ballet stage, Odette in Swan Lake. For Behind Ballet Amber writes about bumps and bruises, sunshine and beaches, and the thrill of performing on opening night.

Week one of rehearsals …

Here we are again: a room full of dancers faced with the task of taking on complex characters, entering into a world of love, betrayal, longing and redemption. Four acts of love scenes, mad scenes, swan scenes and a lot of lung-bursting dancing. I have missed Odette since the overseas seasons where we performed Swan Lake last year. There is something about this character that endlessly fascinates me. Each year as I begin work on the role of Odette I feel like I’m revisiting an old friend, and layers are peeled away to reveal what has been learned since we last met.

Graeme Murphy has given our company a beautiful Swan Lake. There is fantastic material to share with my partner the Prince (Adam Bull) and the nemesis Baroness (Lucinda Dunn) as the three characters tell their stories. There is also a lot of devilishly difficult dancing, partnered and solo work which, no matter how many years you have danced, requires a great deal of stamina and sweaty hours in the studio. This is the stuff that gives you strength and focus on stage. The rehearsals are a wonderful start to the journey. In saying all that, the first few rehearsals sometimes feel like a battlefield as you work out the various grips and holds for the pas de deuxs and trios.

In week one, there have been knees knocked, faces slapped (accidentally of course!), bodies slammed, fingers trod on, knees grazed and, at one point, I even managed to pull Adam over my head to the floor while I was in the splits! It was spectacularly funny and kept Miss Fiona Tonkin laughing for the rest of that rehearsal. After a few more days of sweating our way through the choreography, and going through boxes of bandaids, serenity returns to our lake. The pas de deuxs cease to flap and we start to glide harmoniously with one another.

Week two of rehearsals …

At the end of a two-hour rehearsal I go home with a strangely swollen left cheek and headache ­– this time not due to a pas de deux injury. The next day: fevers and chills, my other cheek is just as swollen and Odette is looking more chipmunk than swan. My doctor sends me off for a mumps blood test. Great. After a few days of sleeping and feeling anxious about the impending trip to Perth I get the all-clear and I am not mumpish. It must be another virus so I spend most of the week in bed, dreaming of Swan Lake.

Week three of rehearsals …

I am back at work and after a few days of getting my legs to feel more like a ballerina’s than Bambi’s, we do our first full-call in the studio. It goes pretty well and feels nice to be with everyone going through the choreography. The next time we dance this in its complete form we’ll be in Perth!

Saturday 17 October

A gaggle of swans, some Hungarians, one Prince, one Baroness and some lovely administration staff board QF 481 and we chase the sunset west across the Nullarbor. Everyone looks forward to a weekend spent in balmy Perth. On Sunday I end up on Cottesloe Beach with some friends. It’s heavenly to feel sand and the salty water on blistered toes, and sunshine warm up our dancers’ ghost-white skin. The Melburnians are easy to spot on this beach!

Monday 19 October

A group of early-birds head off to WAAPA on the No.19 bus to enter a lovely performing arts complex. The bus passes green parks which continue all the way to WAAPA with its own lawns where young artistic folk sprawl between lectures and rehearsals. Some are doing crazy vocal warm-ups, whereas The Australian Ballet dancers are chatting about what we did on the day off and comparing sunburn (Miss Lana Jones!).

Class, rehearsal and physio all go smoothly as we iron out sore stiff body parts after our four-hour flight. I manage to gouge my eye out with a locker door as I’m getting changed to go home so spend the rest of day wandering around the Hay Street Mall, now with band-aids on my face.

I decide to go to the theatre to see the space and get my bearings. The Burswood Casino area is a short train ride out of the CBD and there are a number of performing arts spaces that have recently shown such as acts as The Black Eyed Peas (woo hoo!) I take all the wrong turns and end up in the auditorium of the theatre instead of the dressing room. Oh well, it’s good to see we have a beautiful big stage that’s wider than deep. The set looks glorious with the extra room. The venue seats over 2000 but they seem fairly close to the stage so they’ll be swept up by the story.

Wednesday 20 October – opening night!

Its here! Rehearsals are over; the final corrections are adjusted; the musical nuances are agreed upon with our conductor Nicolette Fraillon; pointe shoes are stitched; Gatorade cracked open; words of luck from David and the ballet staff are shared; ‘chookas’ gifts and hugs are exchanged; fake-eyelashes glued; make-up applied; eye-wounds covered, and blisters padded … drum roll … Once upon a time, on the eve of her royal wedding, a young girl, pure and fragile as crystal, senses the beginning of a fault in her husband’s loyalty …

The show goes really well and I feel very fortunate to be given the lead on an opening night! It’s my first opening night for a full-length work so, in many ways, tonight is a milestone. My Prince Adam Bull is steady and wonderful throughout, even when I am throwing myself against him in fury over his shenanigans with the Baroness. Baroness Lucinda Dunn is breathtaking and her Act Three is incredible. The whole company does really well and, as always, it feels like a real team effort as we take our curtain calls before a kind and generous Perth audience. These are the moments that would be nice to freeze-frame.

Amber Scott. Photography Liz Ham

Feet are one of several fetishes in the dance world. They are the anatomical tools that delineate a ballerina from other athletes and are commonly subject to injury.

Good feet are judged on the size of the dancer’s arch, their high instep, strength and endurance. For those not blessed with naturally flawless feet, much is done to mould the foot and contour the lower leg. Young dancers engage in basic and often dangerous routines with weighty objects, such as pianos and phone books, that force the ankle joint upward and the toes downward.*

More recently, however, foot-stretching machines and padded sleeves provide safer alternatives for improving arches. Pilates and simple exercises that encourage dexterity of the feet are also taught to strengthen the metatarsals.

Over the years, there have been many dancers praised for their beautiful feet. Their feet have become so beautiful, in fact, that one could spend days perusing images and video clips of their feet at work.

And so here I attempt to rank ‘great feet’. It is by no means definitive. Click on the dancer’s names to see their tootsies in action!

1. Paloma Herrera – American Ballet Theatre

2. Sylvie Guillem – Sadler’s Wells Theatre

3. Alessandro Ferri – American Ballet Theatre, retired

4. Svetlana Zahkrakova – Bolshoi Ballet

5. Lynette Wills – The Australian Ballet, retired

6. Lucia Lacarra – Bavarian State Ballet

7. Polina Semionova – Berlin State Opera

8. Tamara Rojo – Royal Ballet

9. Lucinda Dunn – The Australian Ballet

10. Maria Kotchekova – San Francisco Ballet

* No, we do not endorse putting toes under a piano to improve a dancer’s instep! All dancers are encouraged to improve their feet using safe methods that lead to prettier – not injured – feet.

Marissa Shirbin was a dancer, is now a romancer and an editorial assistant at Right Angle Publishing

Photography Tim Richardson

Alice Topp, corps de ballet member with The Australian Ballet, has been performing as one of Graeme Murphy’s swans for three years to sell-out crowds across Australia and the globe. She has danced in cities as far flung as Paris and London, and this week she graces the stage in the riverside city of Perth.

Swan Lake is incredibly special to me as a corps dancer: the movements lend themselves to artistic interpretation and expression for every individual on the stage. While we appear as a collective in corps swans, we are still dancing as if we are experiencing the love and pain of the lead swan.

There are these incredible, choreographed moments where we are very protective of Odette – we swoop in to support her and, as the music is so dramatic, it’s hard not to get completely involved in the story and swept up in the emotion of the tragedy.

No matter how many times I perform swans, I never grow sick of it. It’s always a challenge to move as a synchronised flock and I always feel that even though I am but one of many swans, we are all equal contributors to the production – when you realise the beauty of the shapes and patterns we are creating, there’s a real sense of team spirit and unity between us onstage.

Every time I do Swan Lake, and this is my third year performing as a swan, it’s so exciting to see the production grow as dancers take on new challenges in principal roles and new company members share their first Swan Lake experience. It’s definitely one of my favourite productions!

Artists of The Australian Ballet. Photography Jeff Busby