Inspired by an ancient Greek myth, Tim Harbour’s brand-new ballet Halcyon explores weighty themes of life, death, pride, betrayal and transformation. We snuck into the studio recently to photograph rehearsals for Tim’s mainstage debut and caught up with him to find out how the work’s progressing.
Can you shed some light on Halcyon’s concept?
It’s based on a Greek myth. The allure of any Greek myth is that they’re always really simple. Even though this one is simple, it’s been a real challenge to get across the ideas in 25 minutes. As far as the narrative goes, it’ll be far more abstracted than Coppélia for example. Loads of imagery and symbolism; they’re the mechanisms I’ll be using to drive the story. Hopefully it’ll be an emotional drama.
Your work has never really been narrative-based. It’s always been quite poetic and abstract, correct?
Yeah, I’ve always tried to have a theme or some kind of poetic idea …
So why the change?
Ah, well, you’ve got to! This is a really big opportunity for me – it might be the only time I ever do something like this. I might as well try it. Even though this is a highly pressurised opportunity – a lot of people are going to see it; it’s The Australian Ballet, and there’s a lot of expectation – I do have the confidence of coming back to the dancers who I created my first choreographic works on. My time away has always been about coming back to this opportunity to try something bigger. So I’m confident in my cast.
When you begin the creative process, do you get the music and then start choreographing?
Normally I would, but this time I started with this concept. This time I was able to go to Gerard Brophy and say: ‘this is the idea’. We had a lot of conversations and eventually I was able to delineate six scenes for him that had fairly clear scenarios. And then I was able to do that with Alexis George, who is doing the costumes. And I was able to do that with Bluebottle, the guys doing the stage design.
So, right now you have the music – have you got the costumes ready?
They’re designed. I’ve actually got a mock up of one of the costumes. There’s this special idea I have for the storm scene. Think pants, and between the legs, all along the inside thigh is pleated material so that when the dancer lifts her leg the material makes the shape of a fan. I hope it’ll be a really fun thing to work with. I actually tried a pair on the other day and they’re a really funky look; just walking. At the moment we’re playing with materials that are going to work and deciding whether to make them out of polyester or silk. There are all these issues about colouring. Some fabrics can’t be coloured, some can’t be painted, and there are others that aren’t heavy enough or won’t last the distance of 30 shows. So there are issues everywhere … and the cost! I thought the costs would be so simple, and I think they [the wardrobe department] have a budget of about $30,000 and they’re already like, “well, I don’t think we’re going to make this under our budget – what can we cut?” It’s interesting. But, hey, it’s great to have a budget!
Edge of night plays in Melbourne and Sydney in August and November
SO excited!!!
Tim is a genius choreographer, love his unique works (‘Wa’ was an absolutely stunning piece). This new work sounds so interesting and the rehearsal shots look great, glad to see gorgeous Madeleine Eastoe back into the ballet world.
What an intriguing concept for Tim to base his first big-stage work on, promises to be another thought-provoking piece. Keep us updated with lots of rehearsal shots/videos -Edge of Night can’t come fast enough!
Alice
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This was a marvelous ballet – I remember it well.