In celebration of those 50 years of heritage, leading the charge in internationally announcing the country’s skill, The Australian Ballet will put on a show especially close to their hearts. Icons explores some of our most successful ballets with a nod to those who created them and their important role in shaping one of our most important cultural institutions. Simon, who will be dancing in two out of the three programmed performances, reflects on the importance of these ballets to Australian dance history.
“They struck a chord in their time, and also since they were done. All three of them have been remounted at different times since they were created and have been popular every time; audiences have found them really memorable and they’re all really different, but they’ve all got a message that people can connect with and relate to that makes them really popular.“
The triple-bill features three works distinctive in their own right. Robert Helpmann’s The Display first premiered at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1964, a few short years after the ballet was founded. Glen Tetley’s minimalist ballet Gemini, part of a movement away from narrative dance, confronted audiences with originality, and dance stalwart Graeme Murphy’s Beyond Twelve allegorically explored coming of age which Murphy, and the ballet itself, was experiencing.
Simon’s first dance in the production is The Display, playing the part of The Leader in an ideological snapshot of 1960s Australia. “For us it’s an interesting look at how life was 50 years ago. We’ve just had Garth Welch in talking to us and he was one of the original characters in The Display. He was telling us about the way society was so different in that time: they had the White Australia Policy and a completely different social atmosphere.
“It’s sort of an exploration of that for us, but the part that I play is basically the leader of the pack, what he sounds like, a real Australian kind of guy of the time. They like to play footy, and drink beer, and just have a good time, but at the same time they’re cautious of all this other change that is happening to their culture at that time.”
Gemini, he says, is a complete removal from the former, stripped back with minimal narrative and showcasing the experimental dance that was popular at the time. The ferocious piece has been applauded for the physical exertion it requires of its dancers. “It was done in the ‘70s when abstract dance was really being explored. There are only four dancers in Gemini, two men and two women. ‘Gemini’ suggests the twins, and the two aspects of different people and my part is more of a languid, softer side to my partner’s, one of the girls. She’s got a lot more attack, and a lot harder stuff basically. But it’s a very difficult piece for all four of us actually, it’s really demanding because it’s non-stop music and dance,” he says.
While many would not look to this country as the home of a groundbreaking dance-troupe, Simon says the beauty of the Australian ballet is it revels in its identity. “We are Australian, and it’s nice to have things that were created in this country and for this company that we can continue doing.”
Though ballet in Australia may not have its own distinct style, he reflects, he believes the company itself does. The style of dance, he says, comes “from being in a different place, being a different company. Every company has its own style and its own way of doing things, even if they’re in the same country. Each company is a little bit different. And I think that depends on the director at the time, and the repertoire they choose, and the dancers they have there as well.”
“But we’ve got generations of Australian directors and Australian dancers now that’ve been doing it for 50 years, so we’ve definitely developed our own way of doing things over that time. And because we’re not really in the mix of Europe or America, that’s where our isolation becomes a positive because we’re not that influenced by other things, to a degree.”
And having realised his boyhood fantasy of performing with the Australian Ballet, he notes that at times it feels dreamlike. “You’ve gotta pinch yourself sometimes to remind yourself what you’re doing, because even in the short time that I’ve been here we’ve done productions that I did see when I was younger, and I’ve been able to do some great roles in those ballets too. I think any Australian kid that watches the Australian ballet wants to do that.”
BY BELLA ARNOTT-HOARE
