Fifty Years On Pointe
April 2012
As the Australian Ballet notches its first half century, it’s the challenge of being classical in a contemporary world that will keep it on its toes
In the late spring of 1962 there was something brewing. Four young men from Liverpool had a record in the charts called Love Me Do, Kennedy and Khrushchev were facing off over Cuba; and in an isolated antipodean rehearsal studio the centuries-old art of ballet was about to give birth.
Fifty years on that fledgling – the Australian Ballet – is fighting fit and thriving, having survived the both Cold War and the onslaught of popular youth oriented culture unleashed by those tousled haired Liverpudlians. Whereas clichés like ‘treasured cultural institution’ and ‘Australia’s premier dance company’ now readily apply, life for the national ballet wasn’t always so secure.
Reconstituted from the remains of the bankrupt Borovansky Ballet, the Australian Ballet very nearly died at birth after a financially ruinous first tour of New Zealand. However, the company had high profile support from then Treasurer Harold Holt and the now legendary economist HC ‘Nugget’ Coombs, Australia’s first Reserve Bank governor. After disentangling itself from an initial three-headed funding arrangement, (Government, JC Williamson, Elizabethan Theatre Trust), the company flourished, mounting its first and very successful northern hemisphere tour in 1965.
The Ballet’s seventh artistic director, David McAllister fights different battles in 2012, most notably the fight for relevance in an era of rapid fire trends and rampant populism. “People think we’re marginal but actually we’re grassroots,” he argues. “There’s a huge network that feeds into the Ballet. Our statistics tell us that there are about 400,000 kids every week doing dance, which is the third most popular pastime for children in Australia between the ages of eight and ten.”
In sports obsessed Australia that might surprise. (More kids dancing than playing footy? Are you serious?) With only music and swimming counting more heads, McAllister adds, “As I always like to say, everywhere around Australia, even in the most remote places, there’s a Chinese restaurant and a ballet school.”
Of course, it’s a long way from the Mum and Dad funded suburban dance class to the highly expensive and rarefied world of the ballet stage; and everyone from fiscal hawks to talkback demagogues wants to know where the money goes. “I reckon the Australian public get great value for money from us,” McAllister calmly declares. “For an investment of around seven million dollars we turn that into $38 million.”
Indeed the public purse foots just 17 percent of the company’s annual bill, the rest coming from ticket sales and private sponsors. “Our subscriber base is actually our biggest stakeholder,” McAllister points out. “They put their money up and buy the tickets and they really bankroll the whole thing.”
However important financial responsibility is, it is clear that the Australian Ballet’s core mission is excellence. If that means importing the likes of Fonteyn and Nureyev to guest perform, or spending years nurturing home grown talent like Graeme Murphy or current principal dancer Amber Scott, the company’s reputation rests on quality.
“It’s such a refined and quite extreme way of having to use your body,” says Scott, the Ballet’s resident Odette. “The almost unnatural beauty of classical dance is what fascinates me constantly. It never gets easier. I mean, it’s not natural to go on pointe but everyone has to learn that … and it’s those extraordinary physical feats that really set it apart.”
David McAllister picks up the point, adding, “We don’t shy away from the fact that we are elite. It starts off at the grassroots with kids skipping around in ballet schools all around Australia but their aspiration is to make it all the way to the Australian Ballet. We are the top of the pyramid but we’re not elitist. We’re just elite at what we do.”
With all the talk of relevance and value for money it remains true that ballet is an artform in love with its history. The classical repertoire (Swan Lake, Giselle, Nutcracker, etc.), still forms the backbone of modern ballet. Audiences continue to flock to them. Companies ignore them at their peril.
Since joining the Ballet in 2001 Amber Scott has danced numerous classics and has made the role of Odette in Swan Lake her own. Although clearly excited to dance new works by the likes of Stephen Page or Graeme Murphy, her respect for the traditional staples is evident. “The trunk of the ballet tree, the core, those classics, will always remain because there is something beautiful about seeing something done really well,” she argues. “To me it’s similar to literature, to Shakespeare. People will always be performing Hamlet; there will always be operas like The Magic Flute because people want to see those classics get reinterpreted by new artists.”
At this juncture the cynics will snigger about the constant repetition of a very limited back catalogue. Compared to the inventiveness and innovation that typifies contemporary dance, ballet can often look staid and implausibly aristocratic, especially in the context of a supposedly young and egalitarian nation like Australia.
As Artistic Director of the national ballet flagship, David McAllister can’t afford to shy away from this line of argument. His contention is that injecting new life into old forms is one of ballet’s grandest traditions. “In some ways that’s what ballet has been doing for the last 300 years. I mean, you’ve got to remember that Swan Lake and Giselle and Nutcracker were the groundbreaking contemporary works of their time.”
Being removed from the European heartland, the Australian Ballet would perhaps be expected to bring something fresh to the boards; and since that first much lauded tour in 1965 the company has consistently wowed international critics and audiences. Without wishing to pander to tired national stereotypes, it seems that our ballet is renowned for its athletic vigour and adventurous spirit.
Principal Artist Amber Scott reflects this point. “As a tradition we’re pretty gung-ho and adventurous and just get on with it; but also because we’re so far away we are quite mindful about keeping up with the rest of the world. There’s a real thirst for not being complacent and just being happy in our little world here in Australia.”
In this the Ballet is typically Australian. (Cultural cringe anyone?) David McAllister emits a wry chuckle at the idea, admitting that local audiences still love to hear how well “our guys” are doing overseas. “It’s our benchmark,” he continues. “If you’re in business you’ve got a whole lot of numbers you can crunch against other international organisations and that’s how you can say that you’re amongst the best. For us, if we’re not seen on the international stage we can’t be reviewed or even aligned with other international companies.”
Recalling a meeting he attended with the Board back at the start of his tenure in 2001, McAllister offers a telling observation. When one Board member asked him where the Australian Ballet ranked his response was, “I don’t hear my fellow artistic directors at the Paris Opera or the Royal Ballet worrying about where they sit in the world of ballet, they just know they’re good. I think perhaps it’s a peculiarly Australian thing to have that need for validation.”
As the company celebrates its golden anniversary it is that question of validity that remains, despite the impressive track record. How does an ‘old school’ artform like ballet sit in the context of a culture being rapidly transformed by technology and click speed entertainment? Unsurprisingly, David McAllister is sanguine. “If you do a good show, people will come.”
Some things, it seems, never change.
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