ENCHANTING, WONDROUS, WORLD-CLASS DANCE
Presenting classical favourites, exciting new dance works, and interactive dance experiences, The Australian Ballet brings technical mastery and the wonder of dance to Darwin Festival and Alice Springs.
WORDS ROSIE WILD
IMAGE PIERRE TOUSSAINT
ENERGY, PRECISION AND creativity. These qualities define The Australian Ballet. This company trains sublime athletes with utter dedication to fitness, physicality and form.
In the On Tour program, these skilled dancers present a diverse assortment of works. From their repertoire of classical, the company presents The Nutcracker Act II and the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux by George Balanchine. From a repertoire of new work, they present world premieres of Stephanie Lake’s Chrysalis and Sandra Parker’s We Dance.
The classic Nutcracker Act II is a tantalising assortment of wonder. In this medley of fairytale enchantments, sweets come to life.
Australian choreographer, Paul Knobloch, has adapted The Nutcracker’s Land of Sweets specifically for this company, set to Tchaikovsky’s orchestral score and arranged by Orchestra Victoria. Together, the music and movement make the kind of magic that is iconic of ballet.
In The Land of Sweets, a celestial, bell-like twinkle accompanies the Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy. Trumpet blasts and castanets bring on the bolero flair of the chocolate dance. Horns and oboes weave the hypnotism of the coffee movement. Tambourines and full brass accompany the frantic leaps of candy canes. Toy whistles, cuckoos and trumpets make big melodies for playfully clownish mischief. Harp strings bloom beautifully for The Waltz of the Flowers. And that’s just a taste of the balletic smorgasbord.
While The Nutcracker is known for its athleticism and diversity of style, these skills expand into new dimensions as the dancers take on the new works of Stephanie Lake’s Chrysalis and Sandra Parker’s We Dance.
Parker is an Australian choreographer who has collaborated with top-class dance companies and presented works all over the world, including Paris, Berlin, Portugal, and New York. This is her first time collaborating with The Australian Ballet. She has great admiration for the way these dancers shape their skills into new forms.
“The dancers of the Australian Ballet are professionally amazing and technically incredible. Together, we explored how they move, what they can do, and the kinds of things I'm interested in about movement, and we came to build a shared language, somewhere to launch off from, into making this new piece,” Parker says.
To create We Dance, Parker made artistic offers, and the dancers offered motion back. Together, they found a series of movements. They made discoveries that emerged into shared understandings. They choreographed collaborative phrases of form whose meanings connect with audiences through our shared understanding of how it feels to be in motion.
“I think when we see dance on stage, there's something about physical connection that's at play. As little kids, we learned to ride a bike, to enmesh ourselves with it and push ourselves along. We jumped on a trampoline and kind of defied gravity. We sang, we danced, we jumped about, because that’s just something we did. We engaged in physical exploration,” Parker says.
“So, when we see these incredible professional dancers heighten and highlight that, taking that shared sense of motion to the edges of what it can be, I think that somehow triggers something for us. Whether it’s narrative or more abstract, we don't necessarily have to get it rationally. It’s experiential… Our shared sense of motion engenders understanding.”
We Dance is set to the music of Melbourne-based composer, Lawrence Harvey, whose electronically generated composition swells with arcs Parker describes as being very beautiful and very moving.
“I hope it feels sonically, physically and visually immersive. I hope audiences find themselves in an atmosphere where they can come on the journey with the dancers, and the dancers can go on the journey with them.”
For those who want to expand their journey with the dancers of The Australian Ballet, book to see Class On Tour for a unique behind-the-scenes view of their training, with commentary from artistic staff.
Or book into Youth Masterclass, where dancers between the ages of 13-18, with minimum Grade Six ballet experience, can refine skills and learn techniques used by the company’s own dancers.
The Australian Ballet The Nutcracker Act II and Other Works
WHEN FRI 14 & SAT 15 AUG 7.30PM
AT AANT CENTRE
COST $44-$79
INFO yourcentre.com.au
WHEN FRI 21 AUG | 7.30PM
SAT 22 AUG | 1.30PM & 7.30PM
AT ARALUEN ARTS CENTRE
COST $36-$77
INFO araluenartscentre.nt.gov.au
