TRANSCRIPT
Dozens of ballet dancers gliding gracefully across the stage in pink and beige tutus and leotards.
The ease of the pirouettes, leaps and scissor steps can almost make you forget the intense physical endurance and discipline required for the dance form.
UPSOT: Dance practice, "One, two, three. One, two, three. And good, good. Oh my gods, fantastic!"
40 top students of Melbourne's prestigious Australian Ballet School are practising tirelessly ahead of a landmark gala performance in Melbourne this weekend.
It's in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the school, with a showpiece commissioned by former school director, Lisa Pavane.
'Four Seasons' celebrates the school's history and looks to its future.
Established in 1964 the school has been nurturing dancers and artists since with many going on to have successful careers both here and abroad.
Artistic Director Megan Connelly says the school's reputation is recognised all across the world.
"We have students from Japan, from Korea, from China that come and train with us because such is our international reputation for a holistic education not just teaching classical ballet, but actually it's a real breadth of education for our students so we have a lot of international students that have come to the school, gone through the school and gone on to the company."
The young students dancing in the gala are part of a declining cohort of ballet dancers in Australia who are trying to keep the tradition alive and well.
The latest National Arts Participation Survey in 2023 found that ballet participation fell from two per cent of Australians in 2019 to just one per cent.
20 year-old student Jai Fauchon says the anniversary show has given him the opportunity to choreograph his own piece.
"I got asked at the beginning of this year to create a piece for the 60th anniversary gala which I was so excited about. The piece has two different songs. One is called Last Life and it's a percussive instrumental piece and the other piece is a folk Chilean song. So there's a lot of contrast and it's a piece that I'm really excited to share with audiences and to see my peers dance on stage. Yeah, it's just really exciting to have my choreographic debut at the school"
Ballet, an international art form over 500 years old, originated in the courts of Italy, then spread to France and was ultimately revitalised in Russia during the 1900s.
But in Australia, the future of the tradition appears less certain.
The Arts Participation Survey showed an overall decline in the attendance of dance events, with 28 per cent of Australians seeing a dance show of some kind and just five per cent saying they'd watched the ballet.
That is down a percentage point from the previous 2019 survey and stands in contrast to the 47 per cent of Australians who attended live music events in the same period.
Megan Connelly says regardless of challenges facing the ballet world, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, she believes the key role art plays in our lives has never been more clear.
"I think maybe the importance of arts has been slightly reframed by the experiences we had through COVID and we certainly still feel incredibly supported. Our wider community, our schools and companies around the country, but also by government really support it to continue the Australian Ballet School for what it is, a national treasure. And yeah, I think we're here to stay."
The school's gala show will open this weekend in Melbourne but it won't be the only ballet in town.
The Australian Ballet, the country's largest classical ballet company, will also be performing the classic Etudes and an original piece, Circle Electric, by award winning choreographer Stephanie Lake.
Artistic Director for the company, David Hallberg says its important that traditional ballet institutions understand the roots of the art form while offering something new and exciting.
"I think there's something beautiful in both works. There's the beauty of classical ballet and I'm so proud of how the dancers perform the beauty of classical ballet here at the Australian ballet but then for those that love contemporary dance and something more modern and fresh they'll definitely get that in Circle Electric."
