A playbill from the Australian Ballet's first performance, 2 Novemeber 1962. (Note Colin "Peaseley" in the corps de ballet!)
The boronia and the pink eriostemon are at the height of their bloom, most of the wattles are just finishing, the parrots, lorikeets and galahs are busy eating and nesting while the magpies are belligerent again and the air has taken on that warm, sweet, dusty polliniferous fragrance of spring. At least it has in this neck of the woods around 33 degrees South, but it isn’t so unlike May in New England. It was when these times came around my piano teacher in school would drop everything to play something with sharps — nothing too hairy, G or D or A major, say. As spring suggests sharps, seeming to say ‘up,’ so does ballet. In the classical technique one seems to dance always thinking ‘up’: relevé, sauté, piqué, even in a simple run across the stage or studio, the feet press up, up, up. Even standing in place, the hips tip up and the body seems to lift buoyantly. Even coming down from a jump, the feet and legs push up as the dancer lands. A dancer maintains a respectful and gentle relationship with the ground, as the surfer to the sea. Naturally, it is spring the Australian Ballet announces its new season and we turn our thoughts to a new year of ballet, but those already looking for wildflowers in the Bush need not turn their heads far.
The Australian Ballet is one of the parts of humanity here which lives up to the elegant aesthetic and artistic standards of Australian nature. Their character as the national company is well defined though hard to define in words. This is no real surprise given 2012 will be their 50th year as a secure national company. The Australian Ballet School, established simultaneously with the company, has been as much responsible for creating this national style. They are in no sense ‘provincial’, ‘antipodean’ or ‘colonial’, again no real surprise since all of their years have coincided with the age of the transpacific jetliner; they travel overseas almost every year. In fact, it was only in 1981 that the Royal Ballet, certainly an influence on the Australian Ballet’s creation, celebrated their 50th and the art form itself is quite young at 400 years or so. There’s a certain spirit which makes the Australian Ballet ‘Australian’ in the most inclusive sense of that word, one that if you could capture would no doubt turn to vapor and nothingness like the Sylph in La Sylphide. Their style is utterly without priggishness, snobbishness, and pretension yet they are deadly serious about their art. Their interest in human relations, the human condition, in art is insatiable and their exploration of them generous and unreserved, as satisfying as such an exploration can be, their expression naked and plain-spoken, at their best they speak clearly and directly with their feet and music and without obliqueness. They are down to earth, yet they float and evoke the supernatural and the romantic with very little suspension of disbelief required. Somehow as human beings they live up to the beauty and weirdness of the animals of Australia who are also so unselfconscious in their elegance, competence and practicality. From the point of view of Sydney at least, they are one of the Sydney Opera House’s acts which lives up to the artistry of the building. They are quite a diverse company, with a rich spectrum of body types (for a classical ballet company, at least) which gives the company a hint of earthiness; the dancers seem to have a healthy unified relationship between body, soul and spirit.
Compared to the other major ballet companies of the world, the Australian Ballet is smallish and usually only puts on some eight main productions each year, counting the touring pieces. In 2012 they will put on nine, including a 50th Anniversary Gala. Artistic Director David McAllister has made it clear he has spread the 50th anniversary fun over three years: 2011 has had the wonderful celebration of the British side of the company’s heritage in the British Liaisons program which included Ninette de Valois’s Checkmate of 1937; 2010 featured founding Artistic Director Peggy van Praagh’s Coppélia and the humongous Peter Wright-John Macfarlane Nutcracker.
In honor of the Australian Ballet’s first production in 1962 of Petipa and Ivanov’s Swan Lake, in 2012 they will commission a new Swan Lake. Resident Choreographer Stephen Baynes will create the new ballet to Tchaikovsky’s music in what is billed a “traditional” production. Traditional here would be a relative term: Baynes’s art strongly depends on the classical technique and is precise and quite demanding, but it also has a fresh wonder and levity in its metaphysical explorations and a very original flavor. His ballets combine “intensity and serenity,” to quote Edgar Morin. His work such as Edge of Night, Requiem and Beyond Bach either straddle or transcend tragedy and comedy, so it will be interesting to see his angle on this great Russian tragedy, especially given the changes in the Nureyev revision of Swan Lake which is quite dominant these days and which added a bat-like villain and much interest to Prince Siegfried’s character. Baynes, who will collaborate on the new work with David McAllister, has an especially strong sense of male characterization which is not at all blokey. Baynes’s men are quite different from Nureyev’s, a bit more fey perhaps, but a fascinating and fresh combination of vigor and feyness. Information from the Australian Ballet so far seems to confirm “a focus of the prince’s dilemma — trapped in a repressive militaristic court, haunted by his father’s death, drawn fatefully to the lake, falling into doomed love.”
The other major three act ballet of the season will be John Cranko’s Onegin. It is set not to the music of the opera, but to an orchestration of smaller pieces by Tchaikovsky, and this is probably fortunate since the music of the opera Evgeny Onegin reaches its highest apogee as sung theatre. This will be another promising piece of theatre given the story almost entirely consists of people’s conversation and interaction, with all the action relegated to brief instances; perhaps paradoxically these sorts of stories seem to suit ballet better than those of pure action. Also John Cranko, the South African ‘discovered’ by Ninette de Valois just after the War and given responsibility almost right away with Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, had a keen sense of drama and characterization.
No ballet next year will have choreography older than 50 years (except for one piece in the Gala). In a way, it is interesting to have the season’s works span exactly the company’s 50 years (every decade except the ’90s and the ’00s are represented) and David McAllister includes this year’s production of Checkmate (75 years old) in his company’s 50th anniversary celebrations, but I hope the fatuous criticism claiming de Valois’s Checkmate choreography ‘out-of-date’ has not put anyone off old, seldom-seen-in-Australia ballets — or else we may need a Pinchgut Ballet company. There is a historically-minded program (even if the 60’s were not that long ago) in a triple bill which includes Robert Helpmann’s The Display, which had its première in 1962. It is about one of those afore-mentioned weird Australian animals, the lyrebird, which looks and moves like something in-between a turkey and a peacock and imitates other bird’s songs like a mockingbird. The story concerns encounters between men, men and women, and people and nature, but is a bit darker and more violent than the Australian Ballet’s subscription booklet leads on. The other works in the program are Gemini commissioned by the Australian Ballet of Glen Tetley in 1973 after the Nederlands Dans Theater for which he worked visited Australia and Graeme Murphy’s Beyond Twelve from 1980.
Another triple bill will have three brand new short works, choreographed by Graeme Murphy, Stephen Page and Gideon Obarzanek. The Murphy work, The Narrative of Nothing, will have new music commissioned from Australian composer Brett Dean (whose violin concerto The Sydney Symphony played recently) and will be an abstract piece. Stephen Page’s Warumuk – in the dark night, which the Australian Ballet will take to New York when they go to the Lincoln Center Festival in June, will also have new music written for it, in this case by the choreographer’s brother and collaborator David Page. Since 1991 Stephen Page has been Artistic Director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre, a contemporary dance company founded in 1989, which brings Indigenous Australian dance to the theatre, often retelling traditional stories, and the new work will have both Bangarra and Australian Ballet dancers. According to the Australian Ballet, Warumuk “travels twelve hours in the nightly cycle of the Evening Star through seven short traditional tales.” This cooperation reminds me of the long history of national companies’ learning and using and drawing inspiration from their countries’ indigenous dance forms — the Maryinsky-Kirov, the Opéra de Paris, especially under Nureyev who was deeply curious about all countries’ indigenous dance, and the Royal Ballet whose founding Artistic Director Ninette de Valois was at least as curious as Nureyev, being an accomplished Morris dancer herself, and making a point of teaching all her pupils the British dances and incorporating them into her choreography, as did her successor as company choreographer, Frederick Ashton. Obarzanek was until recently director of the Chunky Move contemporary company based in Melbourne. His most recent work, Assembly, premièred at the Sydney Festival in January 2012, and was a fascinating collaboration between Chunky Move, the Victorian Opera and Sydney Phiharmonia Choirs. In his new work for the Australian Ballet, There’s Definitely a Prince Involved, according to the Australian Ballet, “unravels the myths and misconceptions surrounding the art form. In doing so, he has discovered a new story of the heroic Prince figure present in so many classic tales.”
The Australian Ballet will commission yet another new work, a contribution by Tim Harbour to a program of ballets by many companies from around Australia, including the West Australian Ballet, the Sydney Dance Company, the Queensland Ballet, Adelaide’s Australian Dance Theatre, Townsville’s Dancenorth and the Expressions Dance Company, showing only in Melbourne. Tim Harbour created Halcyon last year after the Greek myth, which told the story in an interesting way and showed originality, a dramatic sense, real characters and very beautiful and deeply felt interactions between the characters.
There will be a 50th anniversary Gala, also only in Melbourne, which will include dancers inculding David Hallberg of the Bolshoi Ballet (and also dances for the American Ballet Theater), the Stuttgart Ballet, The Tokyo Ballet and the National Ballet of China, performing works from their répertoire. The Australian Ballet will show Harald Lander’s Études. The piece has no story but is a kind of demonstration in 18 parts of the classical dance steps set to Carl Czerny’s music. Lander originally created it for the Royal Danish Ballet the company famous for carrying on the tradition of the “Bournonville School” of Auguste Bournonville, a very old style, technique and teaching method which came directly from Auguste Vestris, whose father Gaetano was one of the first fruits of Paris’s then new École de Danse. One performance of the Gala will fall on 2 November, the precise day of the first performance of the Australian Ballet in 1962 (see Swan Lake playbill above).
The Australian Ballet will also tour its new Graeme Murphy Romeo and Juliet to Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. It had its première in Melbourne last year, uses Prokofiev’s score and it slides between times and places (review of the Sydney performance here). Murphy says:
The main premise is that war kills our youth; and just like in the Shakespeare tale, old men start conflicts which our young are responsible for fighting. Romeo and Juliet are fighting for love, the most valuable commodity of all, while around them the world continues to be full of senseless fighting which ultimately leads to both of their deaths.
The Dancer’s Company, the touring arm of the Australian Ballet will, as they did this year, take around the Bush the Minkus-Petipa Don Quixote, revised by Ai-Gul Gasina.
The Australian Ballet will also travel to New York for the Lincoln Center Festival in the northern summer. They will have two programs: Graeme Murphy’s 2002 Swan Lake, and a triple bill including the new Stephen Page piece with the Bangarra Dance Theatre, Wayne McGregor’s Dyad 1929 which premièred in 2009 and pays homage to Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, forming a pair with his earlier Dyad 1909.
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The Australian Ballet, 2012 season schedule:
Infinity
Melbourne: Arts Centre, State Theatre
with Orchestra Victoria
24 February – 6 March (13 performances)
Sydney: Sydney Opera House, Opera Theatre
with Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra
5 – 25 April (21 performances)
The Narrative of Nothing (2012)
Choreography – Graeme Murphy
Creative associate – Janet Vernon
Music – Brett Dean
Costume design – Jennifer Irwin
Stage and lighting design – Damien Cooper
Sound design Bob Scott
“Fire Music” by Brett Dean was commissioned by the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Radio 3 and The Australian Ballet
There’s Definitely a Prince Involved (2012)
Choreography – Gideon Obarzanek
Music – Stefan Gregory after Piotr Tchaikovsky
Costume design – Alexi Freeman
Set design – Benjamin Cisterne and Gideon Obarzanek
Lighting design – Benjamin Cisterne
Warumuk — In the dark night (2012)
Choreography – Stephen Page
Music – David Page
Costume design – Jennifer Irwin
Set design – Jacob Nash
Lighting design – Padraig O Suillebhain
with dancers from the Bangarra Dance Theatre
Free Outdoor Performance
Canberra: Stage 88, Commonwealth Park
Friday 16 March
Divertissements and pas de deux from the reptetoire.
Romeo & Juliet
Brisbane: Lyric Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre
23 – 28 March (6 performances)
Romeo & Juliet (2011)
Choreography – Graeme Murphy
Creative associate – Janet Vernon
Music – Sergei Prokofiev
Costume design – Akira Isogawa
Set design – Gerard Manion
Lighting design – Damien Cooper
Onegin
Sydney: Sydney Opera House, Opera Theatre
with Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra
1 – 21 May (22 performances)
Onegin (1965)
Choreography – John Cranko
Music – Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze
Design – Jürgen Rose
Lighting – Francis Croese
Romeo & Juliet
Adelaide: Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
25 – 30 May (6 performances)
Romeo & Juliet (2011)
Choreography – Graeme Murphy
Creative associate – Janet Vernon
Music – Sergei Prokofiev
Costume design – Akira Isogawa
Set design – Gerard Manion
Lighting design – Damien Cooper
New York Tour
12 – 17 June
Lincoln Center Festival
David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, New York
June 12 – 13, 2012 (2 performances)
Dyad 1929 (2009)
Choreography – Wayne McGregor
Music – Steve Reich Double Sextet
Stage concept – Wayne McGregor and Lucy Carter
Costume design – Moritz Junge
Lighting design – Lucy Carter
Warumuk — In the dark night (2012)
Choreography – Stephen Page
Music – David Page
Costume design – Jennifer Irwin
Set design – Jacob Nash
Lighting design – Padraig O Suillebhain
with dancers from the Bangarra Dance Theatre
June 15 – 17, 2012 (4 performances)
Swan Lake (2002)
Choreography – Graeme Murphy
Creative associate – Janet Vernon
Music – Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
Set and costume design – Kristian Fredrikson
Concept – Graeme Murphy, Janet Vernon and Kristian Fredrikson
Lighting design – Damien Cooper
Let’s Dance
Melbourne: Arts Centre, State Theatre
7 – 16 June (11 performances)
Tim Harbour Work TBA (2012)
Choreography – Tim Harbour
Music arrangements – Chong Lim
Costume design – Lexi George
Set and lighting design – Benjamin Cisterne
Onegin
Melbourne: Arts Centre, State Theatre
with Orchestra Victoria
23 June – 4 July (13 performances)
Onegin (1965)
Choreography – John Cranko
Music – Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze
Design – Jürgen Rose
Lighting – Francis Croese
Don Quixote
Victoria (6 performances)
Ballarat: Wednesday 18 July
Frankston: Friday 20 July, Saturday 21 July (matinee and evening shows)
Wangaratta: Wednesday 25 July
Echuca: Friday 27 July
New South Wales (7 performances)
Parramatta: Tuesday 31 July, Wednesday 1 August
Taree: Friday 3 August, Saturday 4 August
Dubbo: Tuesday 7 August, Wednesday 8 August
Tamworth: Friday 10 August
Queensland (4 performances)
Townsville: Tuesday 14 August
Cairns: Thursday 16 August, Friday 17 August
Toowoomba: Tuesday 21 August
Don Quixote (2010)
Choreography – Ai-Gul Gasina after Marius Petipa
Music – Ludwig Léon Minkus
Costume design – Barry Kay
Set design – Francis Croese and Scott Mathewson
Lighting design – Francis Croese
Icons
Melbourne: Arts Centre, State Theatre
with Orchestra Victoria
30 August – 8 September (11 performances)
The Display (1964)
Choreography – Robert Helpmann
Music – Malcolm Williamson
Set design – Sidney Nolan
Lighting design – William Akers
Gemini (1973)
Choreography – Glen Tetley
Music – Hans Werner Henze’s Symphony No. 3
Set and costume design – Nadine Baylis
Lighting design – Francis Croese
Beyond Twelve (1980)
Choreography – Graeme Murphy
Music – Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major
Costume and set design – Alan Oldfield
Lighting design – Christopher Maver
Swan Lake
Melbourne: Arts Centre, State Theatre
with Orchestra Victoria
18 – 29 September (14 performances)
Swan Lake (2012)
Choreography – Stephen Baynes
Creative associate – David McAllister
Music – Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Costume and set design – Hugh Colman
Lighting design – Rachel Burke
Romeo & Juliet
Perth: Burswood Theatre
10 – 14 October (7 performances)
Romeo & Juliet (2011)
Choreography – Graeme Murphy
Creative associate – Janet Vernon
Music – Sergei Prokofiev
Costume design – Akira Isogawa
Set design – Gerard Manion
Lighting design – Damien Cooper
50th Anniversary International Gala
Melbourne: Arts Centre, State Theatre
with Orchestra Victoria
31 October – 3 November
(5 performances)
Études (1948)
Choreography – Harald Lander
Music – Carl Czerny, arranged by Knudåge Riisager
Costumes – Lise Lander
Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux
Choreography George Balanchine
Music – Tchaikovsky
Performed by David Hallberg of the American Ballet Theatre and the Bolshoi Ballet
Giselle (excerpt)
Choreography TBC
Music – Adolphe Adam
Performed by National Ballet of China
Carmen (excerpt)
Choreography Albert Alonso
Music – Rodion Schedrin
Performed by Mizuka Ueno and Kazuo Kimura of The Tokyo Ballet
Little Monsters
Music – Elvis Presley
Choreography – Demis Volpi
Performed by Elisa Badenes and Daniel Camargo of the Stuttgart Ballet
Icons
Sydney: Sydney Opera House, Opera Theatre
with Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra
8 – 26 November (19 performances)
The Display (1964)
Choreography – Robert Helpmann
Music – Malcolm Williamson
Set design – Sidney Nolan
Lighting design – William Akers
Gemini (1973)
Choreography – Glen Tetley
Music – Hans Werner Henze’s Symphony No. 3
Set and costume design – Nadine Baylis
Lighting design – Francis Croese
Beyond Twelve (1980)
Choreography – Graeme Murphy
Music – Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major
Costume and set design – Alan Oldfield
Lighting design – Christopher Maver
Swan Lake
Sydney: Sydney Opera House, Opera Theatre
with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra
30 November – 19 December
(22 performances)
Swan Lake (2012)
Choreography – Stephen Baynes
Creative associate – David McAllister
Music – Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Costume and set design – Hugh Colman
Lighting design – Rachel Burke
