How long have you been performing Come, Been and Gone?
About 16 or 17 months. It’s always developing, though. That’s how Michael Clark works. There will be new bits in the Melbourne show which other people haven’t seen. The basic seed of the performance started a while ago and we’ve been building it ever since. It’s going to be quite a long show, I think

It’s interesting that Michael has allowed the work to evolve.
That’s one of the fascinating things about working with Michael. His works are never set. He’s constantly tweaking things to improve them, but also to keep everyone interested.

Is that challenging for you as a dancer?
Yeah, it can be – particularly if the instructions are given quite late. I think that’s partly to keep us on our toes, but also because he’s always striving for perfection. But, yes, it can be very challenging. You have to be able to adapt, rather than repeat the same movement.

Most of Michael’s works are closely connected to his personal story (in one of his works Michael’s mother is on stage enacting giving birth to him; Come, Been and Gone is set to music by artists he knows personally; and Heroin is inspired by his  battle with drug addiction). What is it like to channel his personal experiences?
You never get the sense that he’s exposing himself. You do as you’re told and he’s very clear about what he wants, but not in an authoritarian sort of way. It’s just a very physical process. You can be four or five steps removed from his personal idea. There are more obvious examples, like the solo of his which I’m performing called Heroin. It’s clearly a very personal story but we approach things very physically so you don’t get emotionally involved. You might let your emotional state define the movement, but we don’t bring personal emotions into the studio at all.

Can you tell me a little more about this solo?
We were working on it yesterday. Michael was saying that we can’t erase any movements that are dangerous. There are moments where you’re thinking, “If I push myself any further then I’m going fall into a heap on the floor” but then again that’s what he wants.

Both yourself and Michael have training in classical ballet, but you’ve dedicated your careers to modern dance. Has this been a conscious decision?
Ballet technique is hugely important to me. But I’m personally not all that interested in the restrictions of ‘roles’ or the hierarchy of classical ballet. In modern dance, it’s purely about the work – we’re all there for the work. It hasn’t been a personal ambition to break down the barriers of ballet, but I think there’s a little part of that in me – somewhere. It’s always noted that I’m very tall and broad and not your typical ballet dancer. But I’m still employed!

Is Michael a music-obsessed choreographer?
Oh, yes. He’s always listening to music and his taste in music is very broad. And in the studio he’s always tuning into a certain sound, and his dancers have to train themselves to listen to that particular sound. Music is always the driving force behind his works.

What is it about the music in Come, Been and Gone that makes it danceable?
You’ll recognise most of the tunes. There’s a lot of David Bowie, great beats and some fantastic rhythms. You really can’t help getting involved in the music. Then there’s Heroin which is quite a droner, but that has its own quality too.

Has David Bowie seen this show?
Well, as far as I know he doesn’t travel outside of New York because he’s afraid of flying. So, unless we take it to New York he’s not going to be there. But he does know about the show. Apparently he’s been interested in Michael’s combinations of music choice.

Come, Been and Gone plays at the Arts Centre as part of the Melbourne Festival 8 – 10 October

Image: Oxana Panchenko and Clair Thomas. Photography Jake Walters

In four days The Australian Ballet embarks on its 31st international tour to perform Graeme Murphy’s smash-hits Nutcracker – The Story of Clara and Swan Lake in Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan. What does it take to get two spectacular ballets off the ground, 8,155 kilometres across the Pacific Ocean? Read on to find out.

Packing
Touring a ballet company to Japan with two three-act ballets in tow is no mean feat. Six weeks before performances, seven 40-foot-high cube shipping containers are loaded with props, sets, make-up, leotards, tutus, pointe shoes, and medical supplies. Every single item – right down to the last pair of ballet tights – is to be declared to customs. Dancers are not allowed to take their tutus and tights on the plane, and are only allowed to pack their personal belongings. Principal Artist Danielle Rowe only “packs the essentials” (to leave enough space for Tokyo shopping, of course).

Flying
You know you’re on a long-haul flight with a company of dancers when you see legs sprouting up from the seats in front of you. For dancers who are used to spending six out of seven days in the studio, keeping blood flowing is essential. Elevating your legs so that your toes are pointing right up to the roof of the aircraft is the best kind of in-flight stretching. “We walk around a lot on the flight, too, which is probably very annoying for the other passengers,” Danielle says. “But it’s important to keep moving so we don’t feel stiff and sore when we arrive.”

Landing
When the company lands in Tokyo, at around 6am, they are warmly welcomed by representatives of the The Japan Performing Arts Foundation. The dancers are then driven to their hotel where they familiarise themselves with the new city and go for a walk or a swim to get their muscles moving after the ten-hour flight. They have a day off before getting into the swing of rehearsals.

Bumping in
In Tokyo and Nagoya, The Australian Ballet travel with a small technical crew but also work with a Japanese team. The language barrier is the biggest challenge they face but, according to Stage Manager Fiona Boundy, the Japanese crew are extremely reliable and wonderful to work with. Like many things in Tokyo, the rehearsal studio in the theatre is rather small. Danielle remembers the company’s last Japan tour: “In the studio, we dance the essentials and practise most of the ballet on stage during dress rehearsal,” she says.

Performing
It’s opening night, and the dancers have rested, recovered from jetlag, and are ready to knock the socks off Japan. They perform in theatres Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo and Aichi Prefectural Art Theatre in Nagoya. “They are die-hard ballet fans,” Danielle says of the Japanese audience. At the end of each performance, excited audience members give dancers the Hollywood celebrity treatment. They line up at stage door, clutching flowers to give to the dancers. Dancers dress up in their finest, have their photos taken and sign as many programs as they have time for before heading back to the hotel to rest up for the next day’s performance.

Unwinding
The Australian Ballet’s touring party cherishes their time off while on tour. Danielle likes to take a nomadic approach to travel. The first thing she does when she arrives in a new city is pick up a map, find her bearings, and simply walk around. “I love to stumble upon things, and meet new people from different areas we visit,” she says. Last time she was in Japan, Danielle found Tokyo’s eccentric fashion centre Harajuku. “I remember going there one Sunday. There’s a massive park where a lot of Japanese students congregate to relieve themselves of their artistic frustration. There was one group who were putting on a play, another group was painting, and another group was doing rock ‘n’ roll dancing.”

The Australian Ballet performs in Tokyo 9 – 17 October and Nagoya on 21 October

Image: Japanese fans greet Lucinda Dunn at stage door, Japan 2007 Photography Nana Sakai. Photography Nana Sakai

For the calendar The Australian Ballet teamed up with photographer Jo Duck to shoot three dancers wearing their top tutu. The Melbourne-based photographer has worked with fashion labels Limedrop, chip chop! and magazines YEN, Fallen and Vice among many others. Before Jo Duck’s ballet shoot, we bumped into the studio with a mountain of tutus, three ballerinas, a make-up artist from Napoleon Perdis and their endless lipstick supply. The result? Three unique shots of three dancers wearing their favourite projecting skirts. Check out the behind-the-scenes gallery and a Q&A with Jo Duck below.

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What kind of look were you aiming to achieve with each of these tutus?
I was quite lucky to shoot three tutus which each invoked a completely different mood. For Juliet’s rehearsal tutu, I wanted a relaxed almost ‘backstage’ – but still dreamy – look. We built a wall of beautiful tutus behind her, and then framed the shot with some extra tulle in front of my lens to make the image a little more romantic. Madeleine’s tutu had an incredible shape, and I wanted to really accentuate the dramatic silhouette of the garment. We tried quite a few different poses, but I felt the strength in this pose showed off the shape and colour of this amazing tutu. Miwako’s classical tutu is so beautiful; I felt it would work best if we allowed her a few minutes to move and dance in the garment to try to capture the character of the classical ballerina – the kind you might see in paintings.

What’s your favourite tutu out of the ones featured in the 2011 calendar?
As a fan of both the X-files and Judy Jetson’s fashion sense, I must say I was most excited to shoot Madeleine’s UFO-style tutu!

You’re a bit of a ballet fan – what’s your favourite ballet?
It would have to be Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake. The set design and costumes are so beautiful. There’s one scene involving a piped wall and a bathtub which sounds a little ordinary, but it’s so breathtaking.

It doesn’t matter which ballet I see – my absolute favourite moment is when the lights go down, the orchestra begins and that beautiful red curtain rises. Incredibly relaxing!

We have five 2011 calendars valued at $25 each to give away! Tell us your favourite tutu of all time in the comments section below for your chance to win. Comp closes at 10am on Friday 1 October and we’ll announce the winners here!

Update: After a record-breaking number of comments, we’ve selected five winners who will receive their own copy of My Favourite Tutu! Winners will be contacted via email. Congratulations to these tutu lovers:

Nicole Carrick (the Sugar Plum Fairy’s tutu in The Nutcracker)
Tara (Coppélia)
Jess Hodgkinson (Theme and Variations)
Emirina (Divergence)
Lois Howard (Kitri’s tutu in Don Quixote)

Calendars available at The Australian Ballet Shop

In Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker, Soloist Gina Brescianini steps into the shoes of the wide-eyed Clara, rides a flying goose, saves her Nutcracker Prince and travels to the Land of Sweets.
Clara is definitely one of my all-time favourite roles. She’s bright, inquisitive and wants to be involved in everything. It’s such a joyous role. From the moment the curtain goes up, you enter the stage and dance throughout the entire ballet. I love how much dancing you do, but also how magical the production is.

The Nutcracker is a magical journey from a child-like perspective, but with a range of complicated emotions as well. For me, when the nutcracker doll wakes up I think something awakens in Clara, too. She really thinks he’s dead, but he wakes up and they dance a beautiful pas de deux together. They have a real, loving friendship. Every dancer brings their own interpretation to the role of Clara but I think when a dancer is drawing their interpretation from a real place within them, and they’re expressing that, then the audience can really connect.

Damien Welch has a penchant for villainous characters. In 2009, Damien retired from the principal ranks of The Australian Ballet. This year he returns as a guest artist to play the shadowy magician Drosselmeyer.
The key thing Peter Wright told me about Drosselmeyer was that he needed to have a particular kind of authority, so that when he makes his very first entrance he’s already commanding the room. He’s been employed to entertain the kids and adults – in other versions of The Nutcracker he’s an uncle or a friend – but in this one he’s a professional musician, entertainer and storyteller. There’s even a scene where he gets paid for his services. He’s a man of complete confidence and he’s a little bit devious as well.

I love playing characters like these, from characters like Drosselmeyer who have a sinister edge, to full-blown baddies. For me, they’re much more fun than playing the prince. Some princes are great, but villains always command respect in the way they hold themselves, that evil glint in their eye, or because they know something the other characters don’t. It’s a wonderful challenge and a satisfying feeling to portray these roles.

Robert Curran, Principal Artist of The Australian Ballet, is The Nutcracker’s Prince in pink. Every time Robert steps on stage in this magical ballet, he remembers when his career as a dancer began.
For me, the key metaphor in this role is the transition from childhood to adulthood. The role of the Prince is as much a romantic figure as he is a saviour – especially during the battle of the rats. The main challenge for a dancer performing the role of the Prince is giving the character some gravitas. You know, when he’s wearing pink for most of the ballet you don’t want to him to be a flimsy character.

Throughout my dance career, The Nutcracker has always been an inspiration. You want to be magical and technically assured so you can slot yourself into the memory of another young dancer. I remember opportunities coming my way as a young dancer where I danced The Nutcracker overseas. This ballet really makes me remember my first years with the company. It’s always an honour dancing with Lucinda Dunn, too. We have a great working relationship and bring the best out of each other. Dancing this ballet gives a real sense of achievement.

The Sugar Plum Fairy is the ballerina of Clara’s dreams. Principal Artist Lucinda Dunn also dreamed about dancing this role ever since she first slipped into a tutu. For Lucinda, hard work and determination has paid off.
The pinnacle of the second act is set in the Kingdom of the Sweets, where the Sugar Plum Fairy enters and performs the grand pas de deux with her Prince. The Sugar Plum Fairy, complete with her pink sparkly tutu, is very me; anyone who knows me knows that I love pink and sparkles. But it’s also a very challenging and long solo, and quite heavy on my legs.

Now that I have a little daughter I’ll be introducing her to the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Interestingly, during the 2007 Sydney season when I danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy I was pregnant – so I had my own little Sugar Plum! That actually makes this role even more special.

The Australian Ballet’s Artist in Residence Colin Peasley joined the company in its inaugural year of 1962. Since then he’s performed countless conniving villains, peculiar magicians and foppish kings. Colin plays the grandfather in this production of The Nutcracker.
A lot of dancers think that if they’re not doing five pirouettes then they’re not in a good role. But there’s a heck of a lot of satisfaction in exploring who your character is. I think about what the grandfather must have been like at the turn of the century. He sounds like he’s very proud of his family, so I try ad infuse that into the character on stage.

To colour your character, you can’t just know what he’s doing on stage but you have to know how he got on stage. What did the character have for breakfast? Why does he have this wonderful house where he’s throwing a fabulous party, and yet he’s a tottering old man who doesn’t put on any heirs and graces? I get really bound up in the story. I mean, you can walk across the stage but if you can walk across the stage with a past, present and possible future then you can bring the character to life.

The Nutcracker plays in Melbourne and Sydney in September and December

This is an edited extract from The Australian Ballet’s The Nutcracker souvenir programme, available at the theatre before performances

Image: Gina Brescianini as Clara and Damien Welch as Drosselmeyer
. Photography Jim McFarlane

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Right now at the Arts Centre in Melbourne is an exhibition featuring photos and ephemera of ballet visionary Dame Peggy van Praagh. The exhibition covers the full breadth of Peggy’s career, including early charity performances at age six; performing and teaching with the Ballet Rambert, London Ballet and Sadler’s Wells Ballet; her artistic directorship of the Borovansky Ballet; and most notably her artistic directorship of The Australian Ballet.  Thanks to the Arts Centre’s Performing Arts Collection, we’ve posted a few photos from the exhibition.

The Arts Centre’s Peggy van Praagh exhibition runs until 24 September 2010

Peggy! The Australian Ballet’s season dedicated to its founding artistic director plays until Monday 5 July

Main image:Peggy van Praagh as Juno in Pas des Desses, London Ballet, Arts Theatre, London, 1939
Photograph by Anthony Gordon
Peggy van Praagh Collection Gift of The Australian Ballet, 1998
Performing Arts Collection, the Arts Centre

After dancing together for the first time, Rudolf Nureyev dropped to his knees and kissed Margot Fonteyn on the hand during the curtain call. The audience roared. From this moment, Nureyev and Fonteyn became a celebrity dance partnership. In a documentary about the couple, Nureyev said they danced with “one body, one soul”.

As part of her five point plan for The Australian Ballet, founding Artistic Director Peggy van Praagh was determined to present the world’s best dancers to Australian audiences. In 1964 she invited Nureyev and Fonteyn to dance the title roles in Giselle. Fonteyn had performed in Australia in 1957 with the Borovansky Ballet but, for Nureyev, dancing on the Australian stage was a new experience.

In an article tracing the history of international ballet dancers visiting Australia, published in The Age in 1964, Geoffrey Hutton described Nureyev and Fonteyn as: “… probably the most highly priced dancers in the world; Fonteyn the pride of the British ballet who has queened it for a generation; Nureyev the sensational young male dancer from the Leningrad Kirov who has brought a new sense of excitement into the Western ballet.”

These now ballet legends appealed to the Australian style of ballet. They were an electric couple, exuding character and precision. Fonteyn was adored for her classically English poise, grace and perfection (the kind of dancing Dame Peggy van Praagh encouraged in her Australian dancers) and Nureyev for his bawdy Russian enthusiasm and vigorous style (characteristics Australian dancers inherited from the Borovansky Ballet). Hutton writes, “At first critics noticed some differences in style … the partnership seemed oddly matched. Perhaps both dancers have benefited from it; we shall be able to form our own opinions.”

Fonteyn and Nureyev performed Giselle in Melbourne and Sydney alongside guest artists Lupe Serrano and Royes Fernandez, and members of The Australian Ballet including Kathleen Gorham, Garth Welch, Marilyn Jones and Colin Peasley. Fonteyn and Nureyev’s 1964 Australian tour went down in dance history as a milestone event. Fonteyn (age 69) and Nureyev (age 50) danced their last performance in 1988 in Baroque Pas de Trois.

Peggy!, a programme dedicated to Dame Peggy van Praagh, opens in Melbourne Friday 25 June

Image: Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn with artists of 
The Australian Ballet in Giselle, 1964. Photography – David Mist