Jayne Smeulders on WA Ballet's Cinderella
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THE AUSTRALIAN, THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2011 www.theaustralian.com.au ARTS 17 More to composers And danced happily ever after than meets the ear melodies are trite? Next to MUSICAL Normal is beyond conservative. The career of Next to Normal It’s reactionary, cliched, ill- choreographer By Tom Kitt and Brian informed and utterly untaxing. Yorkey. Melbourne Bafflingly, Yorkey seems not to Jayne Smeulders Theatre Company. know the difference between has been more Playhouse, the Arts depression and common or Centre, Melbourne. May 3. garden variety grief. And Kitt’s hard work than music makes Andrew Lloyd Webber’s look like the outbursts fairytale of a degenerate anarchist. THERE’S more to Next to The show opens well enough, VALERIE Normal, a musical about a with a Pete Townshend-like ‘‘bipolar depressive with power chord and Diana (Kate LAWSON delusional episodes’’, than meets Kendall) telling us her son ‘‘is a the eye. And, regrettably, there’s little shit’’, her husband is boring DANCE teachers are renowned more to its creators than meets and her daughter is ‘‘a freak’’. It for their bossiness and determin- the ear. quickly becomes clear that their ation. But this was an exception- Composer Tom Kitt and problems all centre on her. ally determined moment. writer Brian Yorkey are great Kendall almost manages to An 18-month-old girl was visit- collaborators. No question. Kitt is turn this dramatic dross into a ing the studio of Jody Marshall, a capable songwriter and Yorkey passionate tragicomedy. There is and the Perth dance teacher told a skilled storyteller. a remarkable torque and her mother that this little one Apart from a penchant for authenticity in her acting that must join in the class. Without de- ‘‘plug me in, turn me on’’ lyrics, drives the production. Her voice lay, Marshall took her out of her Yorkey has the gift of finally matches that authenticity stroller and set her down on the understatement. We’re told, for in her last big number, So dance floor with her older sister. example, that modern shock Anyway. Bert LaBonte (as Diana’s So began the three-decade life therapy uses no more electricity various medicos) and Matt in dance of Jayne Smeulders, now than a 100-watt light globe. Hetherington (as the husband) a principal dancer with the West Meanwhile, the would-be provide excellent support. Australian Ballet. patient’s husband has been Hetherington’s voice is so Tomorrow she will be in the singing about leaving a single expressive he could out-act audienceatHisMajesty’sTheatre, bulb on at home for her return. Geoffrey Rush in the dark. And Perth, to watch the premiere of Kitt, likewise, doesn’t LaBonte is probably Melbourne’s Cinderella, her first full-length bal- telegraph his musical punches. form actor right now. There’s not let as a choreographer. When son Gabriel (Gareth a lot he couldn’t do. It seemed appropriate that we Keegan) sings ‘‘Catch me I’m At Tuesday’s premiere, the talked about her fairytale ballet on falling’’ to his mother in a first act was hurried through and the day Prince William married vulnerably high tenor, she sings had insufficient dynamic or Catherine Middleton. But any alto harmonies beneath him, dramatic range. The pacing analogies of a fairytale journey for cradling his voice securely. It’s a improved markedly, as did the Smeulders would be off the mark. simple, unobtrusive technique impact of the action, after As all dancers know, a life in and brilliantly effective. interval. If only Stephen ballet is one of luck, a lot of heart- What a shame, then, that Sondheim and Alan Ayckbourn ache and a glimmer of hope, with Yorkey and Kitt — with all that had written it. the occasional soaring moment to ability — have nothing much to CHRIS BOYD keep them on track. And while MARIE NIRME say musically or dramatically. Smeulders was lucky with her Jayne Smeulders, whose West Australian Ballet production of Cinderella premieres in Perth tomorrow Who cares if your Until May 28. Tickets: $65-$109. family, teachers and mentors, she arrangements are first rate if your Bookings: (03) 8688 0800. faced bitter rejections as she be- as they are in the Grimm brothers’ who subsequently was accepted technical strengths. ‘‘Moving and their early years of training. ‘‘You As for Smeulders’s future, she gan her professional career in tale. But unlike the bloody Grimm into the Hamburg Ballet School. jumping is my thing,’’ she says. She need to breed happy, confident, makes no firm plans. At 35, and Europe. Living by the motto interpretation, the sisters are ‘‘It was hard, I did get homesick. was accepted into the company self-assuring students who are with an 18-month-old boy, she is ‘‘Never give up’’, Smeulders spared from the torture of having I’m very close to my family. But I immediatelyandthereshedanced happy with the way they are. All not considering retirement. knocked down closed doors and their toes chopped off and eyes loved the Hamburg school. There for six years. those habits start when you start ‘‘I think I have a few years of went on to a successful career in pecked out by pigeons were brilliant teachers. I had other Homesickness brought her criticising yourself in the wrong dancing left in me,’’ she says. The Hague in The Netherlands. Birds do play a role, however, in Australians around me and an back to Perth in 1999. She found a way. When you fall into those bad ‘‘Choreographing is not some- Melbourne Back home in Perth for more the shape of a birdcage given to Australian in the Hamburg Ballet job with the West Australian Bal- ways of thinking of yourself, that’s thing I said I would do after dance. Theatre than a decade, the principal artist Cinderella by her mother. It later company who looked after me. I let, where she has danced many when you start acting that way,’’ I just do it.’’ Company’s at the WA Ballet is developing a becomes a hiding place for the one made my own little family.’’ leading roles and choreographed she says, referring to excessive Next to successful career as one of the few shoe Cinderella saves in her flight The circle of comfort ended on five pieces for the company. dieting. Cinderella is at His Majesty’s Normal female classical ballet choreogra- from the ballroom as the clock graduation when she faced the Smeulders is unsure why there ‘‘My teachers were so encour- Theatre, Perth, from tomorrow phers in Australia. strikes 12. ‘‘So there’s a lot of sym- harsh reality of finding a job with- are so few female choreographers aging and gave me everything I until May 21. A Canberra season On the eve of her premiere, she bolism about Cinderella being a out having the body shape some in ballet worldwide. needed without pampering me.’’ will take place in November. is fully aware of the challenge of caged bird and then set free,’’ artistic directors demand. ‘‘I feel very confident to give making a new Cinderella to the Smeulders says. ‘‘I don’t have the perfect baller- my view on things and express well-known Prokofiev score when Not too much symbolism, per- ina body,’’ she says. ‘‘I didn’t have myself through dance and am so many choreographers have haps, as this production, set in the great, long, hyper-extended legs sure thereare a lot ofother female preceded her. The rags-to-riches 1930s, is designed as a family- with arched feet. I’m happy with dancers who would like to do story has been interpreted on the friendly show with box-office what I’ve got but I don’t have the that,’’ she says. ballet stage for 200 years and in appeal, not one that delves into typical long, straight body.’’ ‘‘But when you ask the dancers more than 30 productions since the psychology of girls dreaming A teacher at the Hamburg in the company ‘Would you like virtuoso dancer Louis Duport of a prince who will save them. school suggested she audition for to choreograph?’, it’s only the choreographed the first Cinderella Narrative ballets tend to re- Netherlands Dance Theatre II, men who have put up their hands. in Vienna in 1813. inforce this dream but Smeulders establishedinTheHaguebyinspi- Maybe women are more afraid of In 1948, Frederick Ashton cast suggests ballets such as these offer rational choreographer Jiri what people think.’’ himself and Robert Helpmann as comfort. ‘‘People want to come to Kylian for younger dancers. Perhaps the resistance goes panto dames who completely up- fairytales as there so many things But in a nasty reminder of the back to their early days of train- staged Cinderella with their comic in our lives that we have to face,’’ Prix de Lausanne she was elimin- ing, when girls play a more pass- antics as the stepsisters, while she says. ‘‘They want to see those ated at her audition after the first ive role than their male counter- Matthew Bourne set his Cinderella heart-warming, ballet-tingling exercise at the barre. She waited parts, learn their skills in a in the London Blitz and Maguy moments, the romance on stage.’’ untiltheaudition wasfinishedand conservative environmentor per- Marin dressed her dancers as Smeulders had a sheltered and asked to see the artistic director of haps because there are so few role masked dolls. secure childhood, supported by a the company, Gerald Tibbs, tell- models as choreographers, at a Smeulders absorbed as many mother and three teachers, first ing him she was willing to con- student or professional level.