Australian Ballet mid-year leavers

[Sophoife]

Quite the clear-out at AusBallet this weekend.

 

Following principal artist Adam Bull's retirement a couple of weeks ago, tonight no less than six experienced company members appear for the last time in Melbourne. Some of you may see some of them in London.

 

Farewell to senior artist Dana Stephenson, mother of three, joint winner of the Telstra Ballet Dancer Award (TBDA) way back in 2010, with a smile that always lit the stage.

 

Saddest of farewells to the divine senior artist Chris Rodgers-Wilson, who is embarking on a new chapter as a photographer. He won the TBDA in 2013, after RBS upper school, BRB for four years, then joining AusBallet in 2011. Beautiful dancer, lovely partner, shone to me particularly as Jack in Wheeldon's Alice, with Lauren Cuthbertson; Franz to Miwako Kubota's Swanhilda, specially in her final show; Levin in Anna Karenina who gets the most beautiful solo of the whole ballet; Camille inThe Merry Widow - so debonair; Romeo in the Cranko version; and a really touching Bottom in The Dream in 2015. Retiring just in time not to do Bottom again, in November this year!

 

Soloist Jacqueline Clark who is an RBS upper school alumna, 2006 I think, and danced with the Royal Ballet 2009-2015 before coming "home", is another hanging up her pointe shoes.

 

Coryphées Lisa Craig, Corey Herbert and Coco Mathieson are also leaving. I shall particularly miss Coco Mathieson in the more contemporary repertoire.

 

Corey Herbert is getting married and embarking on new adventures with her husband. She was one of the company members who took leave to perform in the ensemble of and as a lead cover in An American in Paris on its Australian leg.

 

[Peanut68]

Guess this is how come they are holding auditions including overseas 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Peanut68

[Pas de Quatre]

Maybe they time it to coincide with company and academic years in the northern hemisphere, to make life easier for everyone.

[Jan McNulty]

I loved watching CRW dance when he was with BRB.  

 

I remember him having to dance every performance of Grosse Fugue one season due to others' injuries and he also performed an awful lot of Upper Rooms for the same reason.  He lit up the stage whatever he was in.  Very best wishes to him for his new career.

 

 

[Sophoife]

2 hours ago, Pas de Quatre said:

Maybe they time it to coincide with company and academic years in the northern hemisphere, to make life easier for everyone.

I don't know about that, but under David McAllister (for whatever reason, I don't know) the company rarely employed anyone not trained in Australia (including Japanese, New Zealand, and Chinese nationals who trained here), with the exception of a few Australians trained in the UK, Rina Nemoto who trained privately in Paris (exact same as Yuhui Choe) then was a Prix de Lausanne dancer at the Royal Ballet for a year, George-Murray Nightingale (Hammond, ENBS, ENB, National Ballet of Romania, Ballet Vlaanderen), and Yosvani Ramos 🤣

 

Under David Hallberg we have Brits Joseph Caley (BRB, ENB) and Elijah Trevitt (RBS), Americans Henry Berlin (SAB) and Misha Barkidjija (NBoC School, Vaganova, Mariinsky), Russian Maxim Zenin (Vaganova, Mariinsky): five new overseas-trained dancers, plus Nemoto and Nightingale, 10% of the company, which is the largest proportion of non-locally trained dancers in probably 35 years. There are 76 dancers currently listed but that includes the six leaving.

 

Mid-year leavers this year are not going elsewhere but retiring, unlike for example Jessica Fyfe who went to Stuttgart (about to start at Scottish Ballet), Richard House to Sarasota, and Cameron Hunter to Berlin.

 

2 hours ago, Peanut68 said:

Guess this is how come they are holding auditions including overseas 

 

I'd say so. I think Hallberg has the wider outlook that the company lacked somewhat in the 2010s.

 

On the down side, we are losing experienced artists and I hope not all of the new hires will be straight out of ballet school.

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Sophoife
Added number of company dancers.