19 August 2009
By admin
filed under The Dancers Company
The task: to get to a Dancers Company media call in a remote outback location in Central Australia. In the car: Associate Artistic Director Danilo Radojevic, Australian Ballet guest dancers Reiko Hombo and Jia Yin Du, and physiotherapist (and keen photographer) Sophie Emery.
I was behind the wheel, trying in vain to follow a little faxed map out to the Red Centre sand dune where we were meeting a journalist and photographer …
As we searched for the road that matched the one on our map, we circled around and around the outskirts of Alice Springs, eventually spying an unsealed, 4WD-friendly road. Was it the one? We didn’t know … and may have ended up in Adelaide without Danny’s handy phone GPS (genius)! With confirmation that we were heading in the right direction we set out on the dusty red road, rattling along with a cloud of dust following our little hire car. For a while it seemed like we might never find the location, until were lucky to rumble past a truck with a friendly local inside. “Further down the road and past the next cattle grate, you can’t miss it!” was the answer we got, so a quick “Thanks, mate!” and we were on the road again.
Five minutes later, the Red Centre sand dune loomed to our left, stark red sand against a clear blue sky. Breathtaking! Sun hats in hand, and braving sandy wind, we ran up to the dune towards two smiling faces that were waiting for us, and in moments Reiko and Jia Yin were in their rehearsal gear, doing lifts in the sunshine with the cameras clicking away.
Success!
As for the passers-by who got bogged in the dune … well, that’s another story.
By Jasmine Moseley, The Australian Ballet’s Assistant Company Manager
The Dancers Company performs the final show of its 2009 tour at the Darwin Entertainment Centre tonight
4 August 2009
By admin
filed under From the studio, The Dancers Company
Amy Johnson, a final-year student with The Australian Ballet School, blogs from the road as she tours regional Australia with The Dancers Company.
It is a Sunday afternoon and I have just enjoyed a relaxed stroll through the gardens, a fitting start to a lazy few days. As a dancer, the ‘nothing days’ rarely present themselves so when they do, we take full advantage to rest battered bodies. This weekend me and the other members of The Dancers Company are certainly going to enjoy the rarity, and understandably so. Over the past two weeks The Dancers Company has performed in nine shows across four Victorian locations – Ballarat, Frankston, Sale and Geelong.
In each of these regions a fairly routine timetable was established – a class each morning to ensure technique is maintained and improved on, notes on the previous night’s performance, a two to three-hour rehearsal, a dinner break, and finally a warm-up barre before the performance. Although such a schedule is demanding and tiring, the adrenalin and buzz that we get from performing together makes all the hard work worthwhile.
So while we enjoy our two days off, sleeping in our own beds, catching up with family and completing many loads of washing, our excitement for the next leg of the tour which takes us all the way to sunny Queensland is never far from our minds.
The Dancers Company tour continues to Rockhampton, Cairns, Alice Springs and Darwin
Image: Tamara Freeman with artists of The Dancers Company in Nutcracker, the Gift of a Dream Act 2. Photography Jessica Bialek
30 July 2009
By admin
filed under The Dancers Company
Touring is an important part of ballet education, not just for the dancers, but for young audiences too. The Dancers Company visit to Geelong on July 24 was very special. The verdict from my 10 and 12 year-olds was one of awe with the footwork and partner dancing. Most of all they could visualise where their own lessons were headed. Occasionally there was a little gasp, a mumbled French expression and a ‘that’s how it’s done!’ from the next seats. Read the rest of this entry »
