Today we’re celebrating this exceptional ballerina, who in 2011 achieved her 20th year with The Australian Ballet (and also gave birth to her second baby!). Lucinda is an inspiration within the company and to aspiring dancers everywhere. This mini-doco looks at her career from her earliest moments onstage in musical theatre numbers to her triumphs with The Australian Ballet.
And for a longer look at that faultless technique … here’s Lucinda dancing the La Favorita pas de deux.
Performing the title role of Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty is a mammoth one. It commands as much stamina as a three-hour marathon and the graceful disposition to pass for a royal princess. It’s a heady balance of skill that can only be achieved by few. In 2005, when Stanton Welch was commissioned to restage the classic The Sleeping Beauty, he choreographed the leading role of Aurora on Principal Lucinda Dunn . In the 19 years that Lucinda has been with The Australian Ballet she admits that no other role has been more demanding, or rewarding.
“The Sleeping Beauty is one of the most challenging ballets I’ve ever done, and probably will ever do. It’s technically and physically demanding and what you have to do in a tutu is simply hard. Any ballerina will tell you that it’s just so challenging; it’s really hard on your body stamina-wise – it’s three acts! You’re in a tutu so you are very exposed and your classical technique is on show. The lines and the shapes have to be just right and then there’s your characterisation on top of that … It’s a combination of things but basically it’s just a really big, scary ballet.”
Lucinda might feel like The Sleeping Beauty is a ‘big, scary ballet’ but her performance is seemingly effortless. In 2005 The Age described Lucinda’s Aurora as: “adolescent in her characterisation and in unstressed command of the fiendish balances and other tricks demanded by the title role”
The Sleeping Beauty runs in Melbourne from 9 – 19 September, and from Sydney 4 – 23 December
The Sleeping Beauty is a perfect example of how ballet, despite its centuries-long history, has experienced countless rebirths. Companies worldwide have performed this fairytale since the late 1800s, and it’s still adored by contemporary audiences. It all began in the dining room of Marius Petipa. Here Tchaikovsky and Petipa shared ideas, furiously took notes and watched their ballet about a sleeping princess grow. Petipa’s ballet won hearts, Tchaikovsky’s score won musical minds and the role of Aurora became a dream for ballerinas all over.
The brain behind the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev, was 18 years old when he saw his first ballet performance. It was Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty. His love for the ballet was unwavering and years later – in 1921 – Diaghilev rounded up his creative legion to stage the ballet himself. But Diaghilev’s interpretation was not just an homage, it was the most influential disaster in ballet history. (more…)
When a young girl begins ballet classes, her birthday presents usually include jewellery boxes, and necklaces featuring ballerinas wearing pastel pink tutus and giant sparkling tiaras.
Jewellery has always been a part of ballet. Although its creation and design have evolved to complement the evolution of the art itself, flowers and drop earrings can be seen in the paintings that mark the inception of ballet.
Jewellery is not only worn for beauty; it helps create instantly recognisable characters, particularly among the classics. In modern ballet, the designer may employ jewellery to accentuate parts of the body. However excess is not usually a fixture in contemporary ballet. Perhaps modern flavours mimic our post-modern appreciation for modest aesthetics.
In contrast, Versace created his fashion and theatre costuming with the mantra ‘excess is a necessity’. And he was not the only male to be distracted by shiny things. In 1967, Balanchine choreographed Jewels; a ballet made of three parts: Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds. After walking past the Van Cleef & Arpels salon in Manhattan, Balanchine was taken by the beauty of the jewels and immediately spoke with Claude Arpels concerning a jewel inspired ballet. Dancer Wendy Whelan from New York City Ballet remembers, “When you put on a Diamonds sort of costume, you become a different person. I think that a costume like Diamonds, with all those jewels that radiate from your chest, helps you to radiate from your chest as a dancer.”
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