I grew up in Port Headland, WA – I was a little jazz girl. This was the first style of dance I learnt. The first ‘propper’ dance training I did, however, was after I moved to Perth and studied classical ballet full time for about six or seven years. After this, I moved to Brisbane for a year where I completed the Queensland Ballet’s Pre-Professional Program. This was where I first touched base with contemporary dance, working with Amy Hollingsworth as my contemporary teacher. In 2016, after this year away, I moved back to Perth to join the West Australian Ballet. There were a few seasons there with the WAB where I danced ‘contemporary’ again with guest choreographers from overseas. Though I still mainly focused on ballet, I enjoyed the contemporary dancing more.
On Contemporary Dance ...
In retrospect, I wish I’d went with it [contemporary] earlier. When I was in Brisbane I thought ‘ooo wow, I really like this way more’, but I liked the discipline of ballet. It was when I was working with the choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa in Perth that I knew this was what I wanted to do. I decided to leave the Ballet in search of this.
After a few chats with fellow dancer Tara Gower, we think she took me for a workshop in around 2008, when I lived in Port Headland. I went to Karratha and watched Bangarra perform for the first time – they were the first professional company I ever saw - and I did the workshop as well. I remember getting there in my ballet tights and with my ballet bun … and doing a Bangarra workshop! It was then that I thought ‘this was really cool’.
I saw Bangarra again when they came to Mandurah a few years later. I’ve always loved Bangarra, how they work, and the stories they share. I was always hoping that eventually I’d end up here.
I think it’s good that Stephen (Page) has so many new dancers here. I think it’s nice because there are a lot of new people and it’s ‘fresh’ and has a different energy. It’s good that Stephen can see the new things we might be able to bring to the table, even working on remounts but with new people; we bring new ways of interpreting his way of thinking. I’m really excited to get in there and see what happens.
I think the most important thing here for me at the moment is being open minded and learning from everyone – not just Stephen and Dan (Roberts) – everyone has something different to offer. The biggest challenge is the style of Bangarra.
In terms of traditional dance, I have only touched on this. I have catching up to do. It’s daunting because it’s almost like second nature for everyone in this company – for the people who’ve been here for a long time and even for the people who’ve just joined with me, as they have studied it for a long time as well. I’m like a little sponge waiting to get all this physical information and soak it up. It’s exciting but at the same time I am a little bit nervous.
It’s almost like I must be vulnerable to forgetting everything I already know so I can make room for everything else. It’s all very overwhelming - but in a good way. Doing ballet, I know exactly where my limbs are and how I’m supposed to be. Erasing all of that and finding myself in a completely new style has been hard for me.
Everyone has their own little thing and I think it’s really important that I stay true to myself while moulding a ‘Bangarra’ style; taking it all on in my own way to find my own place here – my little character.
I’m already feeling more comfortable – not lazy comfortable but more settled.