9 March 2010
By
Isabel Dunstan
filed under
The Silver Rose
Canberra-born Rachel Rawlins has been applauded worldwide for her devastatingly beautiful portrayals of iconic roles: Juliet, Odette, and Princess Aurora, to name just a few. In The Silver Rose Rachel takes to the stage as the Marschallin, a beautiful, strong and deeply complex character. We spoke to Rachel about travel, ballet and nighties.
What is your favourite art form other than ballet?
I appreciate and admire so many art forms. I think if I had to choose it would be music because, for me, without it there is no dance.
What makes you feel at home?
My family, friends, and Australia.
Who is your all time favourite choreographer, and why?
All the Australian ones I’ve worked with, of course! I love Cranko and Macmillan’s works. I also love Jiří Kylián’s works because they are so musical; he portrays emotion without narrative perfectly. He is also so clever with comedy, which is always so hard to get right.
What’s your favourite costume to wear on stage?
I like nighties, and they appear in so many ballets. Odette in Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake starts in a beautiful one; it’s so flattering and soft. In Graeme’s Nutcracker – The Story of Clara, Clara wears a simple night dress, and the kimono she wears for just a moment in the third act is exquisite. I like to dance in them because I feel comfortable and the fabric floats so elegantly. The costume department has made me so many exceptional costumes – the incredible detail and volume of what is created for the company is completely overwhelming. In The Silver Rose as the Marschallin I wear this dress which is like a shimmering golden Klimt painting. The costumes are so important to how I feel on the stage and I am so lucky that they are all so special. Read the rest of this entry »
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22 February 2010
By
Isabel Dunstan
filed under
From the studio, The Silver Rose
In just four days the curtain will rise on The Silver Rose. With an all-Australian creative team, Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon took this quintessentially European story and tailored it for the ballet stage. We chatted to the master choreographers about how this extraordinarily lavish ballet got off the ground, and found its way home.
Where did the idea for The Silver Rose come from and was it a work you had been thinking about for a while?
Graeme: It’s something that had been in our minds for some time. Der Rosenkavalier was a particular favourite; Janet and I have always loved it musically. We loved the roles, and I have a thing for themes about age, love, loss, moving on and being left.
Ivan Liska, [director of the Bavarian State Ballet] asked us in 2004 to do a work. He wanted something for the family for the Christmas premiere season and The Silver Rose surfaced. Ironically Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier had premiered in the same theatre in Munich. That was something that linked the ballet and the opera.
Janet: It was very short notice. We didn’t think we would be able to do it because we were working on Hua Mulan, Graeme had just finished choreographing Grand, and we’d just taken Swan Lake to London with The Australian Ballet.
What was it about the characters that appealed to you in a ballet context?
Graeme: They’re all large – they all read big. You have the mature, pensive, distraught, self-obsessed, slightly older Marschallin; and by contrast the total innocence of the fresh young flower [Sophie] and the puppy-love of adolescent youth [Octavian], which is really nice for a dance character. Then there’s the Baron who is a sympathetic buffoon, whose love is really based around desire, sex and lust. You just knew the actions for these incredibly intricate relationships could be explored in solos, duos and quartets.
Janet: And underneath those four principals there are the soloists (who are the paparazzi), and the entourage of hair dresser, make-up artist and couturier introduce interesting subplots as well. Read the rest of this entry »
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19 February 2010
By
Isabel Dunstan
filed under
Costume, Fashion
“Bodymap,” dancer and choreographer Michael Clark says, “is trying to do the same kind of thing I’m trying to do with classical ballet, but with design – taking very basic design and trying to look at it in a different way.” FOLLOW ME Magazine, August 1987.
Classical ballet was in for a shock when the baby-faced “Nijinsky with a Mohawk” Michael Clark, the enfant terrible of ballet, collaborated with David Holah and Stevie Stewart, designers of Central Saint Martin’s most forward-thinking label Bodymap.
In the 1980s, ballet was gripped at the throat by the anarchic youth culture of sex, fashion and performance art. It wasn’t just the look of the dancers that changed but the feel and sound of ballet as well. Clark enlisted the help of avant-garde performance artist Leigh Bowery and live music by post-punk groups in the London scene: Wire, The Fall and Laibach.
In Clark’s large-scale production No Fire Escape in Hell (1986) dancers wore hand-printed, buttock-baring unitards with batwing sleeves and strapped-on rubber appendages from sex shops. Leigh Bowery – a magnificent sight in ten-inch heels – wielded a chainsaw.
Ballet once again had influence on the catwalk. Clark regularly performed at Bodymap and Vivienne Westwood fashion shows, and in film clips. In Scritti Politti’s clip for ‘Wood Beez (Pray like Aretha Franklin) 1985’, Clark performs clad head-to-toe in Bodymap. Youth culture penetrated ballet and it never looked so good.
Michael Clark pushes the boundaries of ballet to this day; the collaborators have changed, the music is different, but the spirit of style, design and anarchy live on.
Mia Veur is a freelance womenswear buyer and stylist
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10 February 2010
By
Isabel Dunstan
filed under
Ask Colin
Every week we receive some wonderful emails quizzing us on The Australian Ballet dancers’ feet, training regimes, lifestyles, diets, tutus, pointe shoes, and their life after ballet. Recently, one email in particular caught our eye. Blog reader Azura wrote to us about her great grandmother, a young vaudeville performer who was known as Babs St Clair the Musical Mascot …
Hello Mr Peasley,
My name is Azura (I know, I have the same name as that ship ). I am 13 and a ballet student. I don’t have a question for you, but I do want to share some pictures and some press clippings with you of my great grandmother, Josie Melville. My great grandmother spent most of her childhood on stage as a small vaudeville performer and in J. C. Williamson’s productions. Her first name was Elsie but her stage name was Babs St Clair the Musical Mascot. Babs was one of three girls chosen to be supernumeraries for Anna Pavlova’s Adelaide tour in 1929. I have inherited my great grandmother’s press clippings book and a thesis written about her, which was going to be turned into a book. I will one day donate it to The Performing Arts Collection in Adelaide as we have been told that there is not another press clipping book like it. Babs’ dance teacher was Louise Larson and this is what she had to say about my great grandmother in 1923 in a journal called Pam: Read the rest of this entry »
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25 January 2010
By
Isabel Dunstan
filed under
Coppélia, Peggy
Swanilda, the leading lady in the fairytale favourite Coppélia, is traditionally a breakthrough role for a dancer on the rise. She’s fierce, funny, and does ‘the robot’ pretty convincingly. When Swanilda’s fiancé Franz falls in love with a mysterious dancing doll, she doesn’t let him off lightly. Behind closed doors, Swanilda stealthily changes places with the doll and, with stiff, jerky movements, fools everyone. Coppélia was Dame Peggy van Praagh’s all-time favourite ballet and in The Australian Ballet’s 1990 souvenir programme, she explained where her love of performing Swanilda began.
“Ever since the early forties, Coppélia seems to have been a part of my life. I did not expect to dance Swanilda when I first joined the Sadler’s Wells (now Royal) Ballet in 1941. I was not even the understudy for this role. In June 1942, London was subjected to severe air raids. One of the company’s ballerinas, Mary Honer, was at the Café de Paris when it received a direct hit. She was lucky to escape serious injury but suffered severe shock and was unable to dance for several weeks.
“Dame Ninette de Valois, the company’s artistic director, telephoned to inform me that I was to dance Swanilda in Oxford in four days’ time and that I should come immediately to rehearse the role. Robert Helpmann, who was to partner me as Franz, could attend but one rehearsal of the pas de deux. The rest of the company was on tour and I was unable to rehearse with them. So on an evening in June 1942 it was a very nervous Swanilda that took the stage. Later I grew to enjoy the role which I danced many times before I left the company in 1946 to become Ballet Mistress of the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet.”
The Australian Ballet will perform Coppélia in Melbourne and Sydney. Subscription packages are still available in both cities
Image: Peggy van Praagh as Swanilda in Coppelia
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8 January 2010
By
Isabel Dunstan
filed under
From the studio, Music
In the late 1940s, mathematician Rudolf Benesh caught his wife, Joan, a dancer with Sadler’s Wells, struggling to remember and record her steps. Later at work in his office, he jotted down a few lines meant to represent someone sitting at a desk, then fetched a colleague and asked for a second opinion. Soon an entire system of written symbols was created to represent all ballet’s possible movement.
Those who practice this system are known as choreologists. There are only a handful of them in the world, but The Australian Ballet has been at the forefront of documenting ballet since its inception. Our current Choreologist, Mark Kay, took time to chat about his work.
What is choreology?
Well, that’s a big question. Everyone thinks I write the ballets – which is not correct at all. Choreology is a form of notation where you write all the steps down and it’s something I picked up at The Australian Ballet School. I went through an injury spate and so I took this on. I was encouraged by the staff there because they thought I had the potential. I went to London, did a choreology course and my dancing career came to an abrupt halt early in my life. But I got this job and have been doing choreology ever since.
For the dance companies who don’t have a choreologist, how do they record dance?
Video. A lot of people think that video is the most reliable form of recording dance. I mean, it has its advantages, but it has its disadvantages as well. For example, if you focus on only a few dancers, there’ll be people dancing on the other parts of the stage and you won’t be able to see what they’re doing. The major classical ballet companies in the world have a choreologist. Then there’s The Royal Ballet and they have two or three on staff. Read the rest of this entry »
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22 December 2009
By
Isabel Dunstan
filed under
From the studio
Coryphée Stephanie Williams has only been with The Australian Ballet three short years, but has already danced an impressive array of lead roles. We celebrate Stephanie’s recent double Telstra Ballet Dancer Award win by sharing some of her favourite performances to date.
Concord
I was in both Por vos muero and Dyad 1929. For me, Por vos muero is the complete package. I fell in love with dancing it, and I fell in love with watching it – you can’t always say that. Dyad 1929 was incredible too. I loved watching Wayne McGregor work and hearing what he had to say – I liked being the sponge. No one had any pre-conceived ideas about the work, so I could just go out, dance and be me completely.
Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun
This is a work of pure genius. Throughout the ballet, you hardly catch eyes with your partner, but when you do it’s magical. It’s the most beautiful thing on stage when you share a moment with your partner that no one else truly understands. I was honoured to dance this with guest artist Cedric Ygnace for the Sydney season.
Stanton Welch’s The Sleeping Beauty
I love The Sleeping Beauty because it’s really classical, and that’s what you always dream of dancing as a little girl. I performed the role of the Lilac Fairy, which is very challenging. When I perform it I really feel like I’ve been taken away to another world. Read the rest of this entry »
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18 December 2009
By
Isabel Dunstan
filed under
The Silver Rose
The Silver Rose tells the tale of the Marschallin, a celebrated actress who is facing the passing of time and the fading of her youth. The Marschallin’s lover Octavian finds himself unexpectedly enraptured by Sophie, a younger woman. While watching her lover drift into the arms of another, the Marschallin remains resilient but finds herself in the shadow of young love. Graeme Murphy choreographed the role of the Marschallin on Sherelle Charge for the Bavarian State Ballet. Now Sherelle is teaching principal ballerinas of The Australian Ballet the ways of this complex character.
The Marschallin is a beautiful, strong character. Do you think she might go down as one of those roles dancers dream to perform?
Absolutely. It’s a character that gives the ballerina a chance to delve deeply into her emotional side. What’s so enjoyable for the dancer performing the Marschallin is that she has this dual personality. She shows an external strength but, internally, she’s very fragile. She’s really struggling with her personal life and how she’s aging. It’s an issue you see every day in Hollywood, with women filling their face full of Botox and trying to do everything to stop themselves from getting old. Time is something that affects the Marschallin deeply, and not just physically. She’s had a history of many men and she’s realising this is finishing. It’s not her personal look that’s changing – it’s her whole life.
When the Marschallin is on stage, you get a real sense of her past. What kind of history did you create for her?
I think you craft a history for every role you perform on stage. But in The Silver Rose you really have the chance to see that she has a story to tell. In the initial scene she is having a nightmare about her past lovers. You can see that she was always very dependent on her youth and beauty. Read the rest of this entry »
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28 October 2009
By
Isabel Dunstan
filed under
Ballets Russes
In her latest film, award-winning documentary maker Mandy Chang has captured the magic and extraordinary past of one of the greatest performing arts companies of the 20th century. A Thousand Encores: The Ballets Russes in Australia follows the Ballets Russes, the company that changed ballet, and the face of performing arts in Australia, forever. The Ballets Russes awoke a nation, transformed the cultural landscape of conservative ‘30s-Australia, leaving a rich legacy that lasts to this day. The film includes footage of Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon working with The Australian Ballet to create their Ballets Russes tribute Firebird.
A Thousand Encores: The Ballets Russes in Australia premieres Tuesday 3 November at 8.30pm on ABC1.
What is it about the Ballets Russes era that sends your heart racing?
For me it’s the incredible combination of design, dance, choreography and music, all fused into one sublime art form. The sheer cutting-edge nature of it and that it was created by the greatest artists, composers, dancers and choreographers of the time. The idea of fusing these disciplines equally was first dreamed up by Wagner, who called it Gesumstkunstwerk. It inspired and drove Sergei Diaghilev to achieve the incredible.
You spoke to some ex-Ballets Russes dancers. Could you name just one who was particularly inspiring to you?
I found them all inspiring, but I loved the vitality, enthusiasm and outspokenness of Anna Volkova. She had a treasure trove of incredible stories about the Ballets Russes. Only a tiny fraction of them made it into the film. When she talked about ballet and the music, her whole being would come alive. Her hands, and then her whole body (totally unconsciously), began to move as a way of communicating. Even at the age of ninety-something, dance is still in her. Read the rest of this entry »
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21 October 2009
By
Isabel Dunstan
filed under
Uncategorized
In 2009, dancers from The Australian Ballet made two guest appearances on reality TV show So You Think You Can Dance to many a rave review. One corps de ballet member of the company has just returned from making a splash on China’s version of the same show, known as Top Dancer. The Australian Ballet’s Chengwu Guo was a contestant in the competition, and finished up on top. Out of 20,000 hopefuls Chengwu danced his heart out before thousands of adoring fans, many of them screaming and waving home-made signs, and won the competition. Chengwu’s parents were secretly flown from Beijing to Guizhou to show their pride – a big highlight for Chengwu during his time on the show.
Chengwu also appears as the teenage Li Cunxin in the feature film, Mao’s Last Dancer. The Australian Ballet congratulates Chengwu on his recent successes!
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