Melbourne label chip chop! and The Australian Ballet have collaborated on two cheeky limited-edition tote bags. Francophile Hannah Chipkin from chip chop! found ballet to be the perfect foil for her iconic designs. The ‘PLIÉ CHASSÉ’ bag was influenced by the stark black and white type of old tram signs; ‘BALLERINA’ by her own dashed dreams to dance en pointe. We caught up with Hannah to talk leg warmers and Centre Stage.

Do you dance?
I grew up dancing from an early age doing almost everything BUT ballet; I think the perfection intimidated me. I did folk dancing (at age five), tap dancing (which I loved!), funk and jazz for many years. Now I don’t dance so much – just the odd boogie when I go out and some moves in the living room when no one is watching.

Your three favourite things about ballet?
Ah, so many. But three?
The toned bodies
The incredible talent and discipline
Pointe shoes (I always WISHED I could wear these!)

Recurring obsessions in your work?
All things French, wordplay, typography, bold colour, simple shapes, and always a sense of humour.

What should people put in their Ballet V chip chop! tote?
Pointe shoes
A DVD of Centre Stage (is it cool to like that movie?)
Leg warmers
I could go on, because the bag can fit much more than three things!

Available from The Australian Ballet Shop
$50

These photographs from Alex and Georgie Cleary’s Fitzroy studio find them hard at work on – what else? – a T-shirt for The Australian Ballet Shop. The limited-edition run of 100 (each with a hand-numbered swing tag) is technically Alex’s second foray into ballet – he worked for the company’s merchandise department in the very early days of Alpha60. “We are really pleased to have been asked to do something for The Australian Ballet,” he says. “We love what the ballet does and we were excited to put an Alpha spin to it.”

The T is classic Alpha60 – monochrome, unisex, irreverent. Four businessmen – staid and  bespectacled – stalk a Parisian avenue, but one sports a tutu and pointe shoes along with his briefcase. “We really wanted to create an image that put the ballet in a different environment,” says Alex. “I love the contrast between the serious suits and the pointe shoes – the expressions on their faces look like they are in on the joke and trying not to show it.”

The Ballet V Alpha60 T-shirt is available exclusively through The Australian Ballet Shop

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Prince, peasant, artist, cad, student, swashbuckler – there’s no role Damien Welch hasn’t performed in his 18 years as a dancer. This Monday 30 November he’ll take his final curtain call as a Principal Artist with The Australian Ballet.

The son of Australian dance legends Marilyn Jones and Garth Welch, and the younger brother of choreographer Stanton Welch, Damien started ballet classes at the relatively late age of 15. He quickly made up for lost time, joining The Australian Ballet in 1992 and reaching the top rank of Principal in just six years. Dancing countless ballets both at home and overseas (often cast opposite his on-and-offstage partner, fellow Principal Artist Kirsty Martin), he’s worked with some of the world’s leading choreographers, and had numerous roles created on him, switching effortlessly between classical and contemporary works.

In recent years Damien has worked behind the curtain as well, restaging Stanton Welch’s masterwork Divergence and documenting new works. Earlier this year, he made his choreographic debut with a piece called Chemical Trigger for the Bodytorque 2.2 season, for which he also composed the score. The sight of Damien wandering the hallways of The Australian Ballet between rehearsals, guitar slung from his shoulder, will be sorely missed. He’ll return as a guest artist in 2010 and continue his long relationship with the company, but for now we bid farewell to an extraordinary talent.

Damien takes his final bow on the closing night of Concord in Sydney

This time around we’re giving away a copy of our 2010 calendar, à la mode: ballet & fashion (reckoned by The Sydney Morning Herald  “the world’s most beautiful calendar … a celebration of sexy bodies and sumptuous couture”) along with a box set of postcards from Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake. You don’t have to do anything to enter except jump onto Behind Ballet and have your say. It doesn’t matter if you’re commenting on an old or a new post, we’d love to hear from you. We’ll select the best for December just before Christmas and contact the lucky winner. Happy posting!

Image: Daniel Gaudiello, Amber Scott, Lana Jones and Kevin Jackson from à. la mode: ballet & fashion. Photography Justin Smith

Image & text from The Australian Ballet’s 2010 calendar, à la mode: ballet & fashion, now available from The Australian Ballet Shop

Dyad 1909, which recently opened at Sadler’s Wells, was in some ways a more literal realisation of McGregor’s Antarctic preoccupations. Two dancers, dramatically muzzled in Swarovski Crystal masks, appeared alongside the fur-wrapped figure of an explorer. What unfolded was a dense and invigorating work, video, movement and music colluding to disarm and intoxicate. The lush and appropriately chilly score was composed and conducted by Icelandic prodigy Olafur Arnalds (snake-hipped, floppy haired, wearing a natty burnt-orange cardigan), who presided over a five-piece ensemble from his keyboard, occasionally unleashing a computerised vocals in the ‘Fitter, happier, more productive’ vein. Conjuring shifting icebergs, cracking glaciers and, occasionally, oblivion, the music was both beautiful and terrifying, the perfect accompaniment to the shape-shifting videos and the thrusting, seeking movements of the seven dancers from Random Dance.

Images:
In the Spirit of Diaghilev
A Sadler’s Wells Production
Wayne McGregor
Dyad 1909
Photography Hugo Glendinning