The Australian Ballet School’s ‘En Pointe’
Arts Centre Melbourne’s Morning Melodies returns to Hamer Hall to delight audiences with a stellar line-up of music theatre, cabaret, opera, jazz and dance from May to December 2021. The much loved, feel-good concerts will celebrate Australian performers including David Hobson, Silvie Paladino, Zoy Frangos and Trevor Ashley as well as future stars with performances from The Australia Ballet School and Victorian College of the Arts. Now an annual tradition, The Australian Ballet School’s performance opens Art Centre Melbourne’s 2021 Morning Melodies program with En Pointe – a wonderful repertoire filled with energy, athleticism and the refined skills of the School’s young dancers; celebrating the art of ballet with new works from Stephen Baynes and Simon Dow along with the romance of Paquita.
The Hamer Hall stage is lit with deep shades of red, orange and purple washes. The audience streams in to fill the theatre—an unusual but highly welcomed feeling for many Melburnians. Senior female dancers flutter onto centre stage in dashing red, gold and white tutus ready to display their intricate footwork and lines. The dancers dive straight into the work with confidence and warmth—you would never know that these students have not been on stage since prior to the pandemic.
Lead female artist Sophie Beaty takes a poised and graceful approach to her solo stylings. Her upper body lines and technical execution are exquisite and the entire cast complement each other beautifully with equal talent and synchronicity.
The stand-out piece was the all-male contemporary work ‘A Little Chaos’ by Simon Dow that sheds light on the notion of mayhem. “The exploration of order and chaos in this piece results in the material being more contemporary in movement style with elements of improvisational spatial and relational shifts for the dancers,” said choreographer Simon Dow. The piece shows off the physicality of the male dancers whom wear nothing but grey sleek tights. Reminiscent of a concentration camp, the dancers undergo moments of ‘spiralling’ that result in them fading away one by one.
The dance pieces are seamless in their transitions and enables the show to flow quickly. There is no set or design work on the stage—it is merely the reflection of the dancers and their precision of the classical and contemporary form. A breathtaking performance by The Australian Ballet School that exerts technical maturity, entertainment and depth.
