Reflections from the lake

Amber Scott returned from Perth after performing one of the most iconic roles for the ballet stage, Odette in Swan Lake. For Behind Ballet Amber writes about bumps and bruises, sunshine and beaches, and the thrill of performing on opening night.

Week one of rehearsals …

Here we are again: a room full of dancers faced with the task of taking on complex characters, entering into a world of love, betrayal, longing and redemption. Four acts of love scenes, mad scenes, swan scenes and a lot of lung-bursting dancing. I have missed Odette since the overseas seasons where we performed Swan Lake last year. There is something about this character that endlessly fascinates me. Each year as I begin work on the role of Odette I feel like I’m revisiting an old friend, and layers are peeled away to reveal what has been learned since we last met.

Graeme Murphy has given our company a beautiful Swan Lake. There is fantastic material to share with my partner the Prince (Adam Bull) and the nemesis Baroness (Lucinda Dunn) as the three characters tell their stories. There is also a lot of devilishly difficult dancing, partnered and solo work which, no matter how many years you have danced, requires a great deal of stamina and sweaty hours in the studio. This is the stuff that gives you strength and focus on stage. The rehearsals are a wonderful start to the journey. In saying all that, the first few rehearsals sometimes feel like a battlefield as you work out the various grips and holds for the pas de deuxs and trios.

In week one, there have been knees knocked, faces slapped (accidentally of course!), bodies slammed, fingers trod on, knees grazed and, at one point, I even managed to pull Adam over my head to the floor while I was in the splits! It was spectacularly funny and kept Miss Fiona Tonkin laughing for the rest of that rehearsal. After a few more days of sweating our way through the choreography, and going through boxes of bandaids, serenity returns to our lake. The pas de deuxs cease to flap and we start to glide harmoniously with one another.

Week two of rehearsals …

At the end of a two-hour rehearsal I go home with a strangely swollen left cheek and headache ­– this time not due to a pas de deux injury. The next day: fevers and chills, my other cheek is just as swollen and Odette is looking more chipmunk than swan. My doctor sends me off for a mumps blood test. Great. After a few days of sleeping and feeling anxious about the impending trip to Perth I get the all-clear and I am not mumpish. It must be another virus so I spend most of the week in bed, dreaming of Swan Lake.

Week three of rehearsals …

I am back at work and after a few days of getting my legs to feel more like a ballerina’s than Bambi’s, we do our first full-call in the studio. It goes pretty well and feels nice to be with everyone going through the choreography. The next time we dance this in its complete form we’ll be in Perth!

Saturday 17 October

A gaggle of swans, some Hungarians, one Prince, one Baroness and some lovely administration staff board QF 481 and we chase the sunset west across the Nullarbor. Everyone looks forward to a weekend spent in balmy Perth. On Sunday I end up on Cottesloe Beach with some friends. It’s heavenly to feel sand and the salty water on blistered toes, and sunshine warm up our dancers’ ghost-white skin. The Melburnians are easy to spot on this beach!

Monday 19 October

A group of early-birds head off to WAAPA on the No.19 bus to enter a lovely performing arts complex. The bus passes green parks which continue all the way to WAAPA with its own lawns where young artistic folk sprawl between lectures and rehearsals. Some are doing crazy vocal warm-ups, whereas The Australian Ballet dancers are chatting about what we did on the day off and comparing sunburn (Miss Lana Jones!).

Class, rehearsal and physio all go smoothly as we iron out sore stiff body parts after our four-hour flight. I manage to gouge my eye out with a locker door as I’m getting changed to go home so spend the rest of day wandering around the Hay Street Mall, now with band-aids on my face.

I decide to go to the theatre to see the space and get my bearings. The Burswood Casino area is a short train ride out of the CBD and there are a number of performing arts spaces that have recently shown such as acts as The Black Eyed Peas (woo hoo!) I take all the wrong turns and end up in the auditorium of the theatre instead of the dressing room. Oh well, it’s good to see we have a beautiful big stage that’s wider than deep. The set looks glorious with the extra room. The venue seats over 2000 but they seem fairly close to the stage so they’ll be swept up by the story.

Wednesday 20 October – opening night!

Its here! Rehearsals are over; the final corrections are adjusted; the musical nuances are agreed upon with our conductor Nicolette Fraillon; pointe shoes are stitched; Gatorade cracked open; words of luck from David and the ballet staff are shared; ‘chookas’ gifts and hugs are exchanged; fake-eyelashes glued; make-up applied; eye-wounds covered, and blisters padded … drum roll … Once upon a time, on the eve of her royal wedding, a young girl, pure and fragile as crystal, senses the beginning of a fault in her husband’s loyalty …

The show goes really well and I feel very fortunate to be given the lead on an opening night! It’s my first opening night for a full-length work so, in many ways, tonight is a milestone. My Prince Adam Bull is steady and wonderful throughout, even when I am throwing myself against him in fury over his shenanigans with the Baroness. Baroness Lucinda Dunn is breathtaking and her Act Three is incredible. The whole company does really well and, as always, it feels like a real team effort as we take our curtain calls before a kind and generous Perth audience. These are the moments that would be nice to freeze-frame.

Amber Scott. Photography Liz Ham