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Taking the Lead: a Q&A with Rachel Rawlins
Behind Ballet - February 2010
What makes you feel at home?
My
family, friends, and Australia.
What has been your favourite costume to wear on stage?
I like nighties,
and they appear in so many ballets. Odette in Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake starts in a beautiful one; it’s
so flattering and soft. In Graeme’s Nutcracker – The Story of Clara, Clara wears a simple night
dress, and the kimono she wears for just a moment in the third act is exquisite. I like to dance in them because
I feel comfortable and the fabric floats so elegantly. The costume department has made me so many exceptional costumes –
the incredible detail and volume of what is created for the company is completely overwhelming. In The
Silver Rose as the Marschallin I wear this dress which is like a shimmering golden Klimt painting. The costumes
are so important to how I feel on the stage and I am so lucky that they are all so special.
What is your favourite art form other than
ballet?
I appreciate and admire so many art forms. I think if I had to choose it would be music because, for me,
without it there is no dance.
Who is your favourite choreographer?
All the Australian ones I’ve
worked with, of course! I love Cranko and Macmillan’s works. I also love Jiří Kylián’s works
because they are so musical; he portrays emotion without narrative perfectly. He is also so clever with comedy,
which is always so hard to get right.
What has been your favourite pas de deux during your time with the company?
There
have been so many it’s impossible to pick! I think what makes a pas de deux really special is the trust, skill,
musicality and relationship that the partners share. A special mention for Kylián’s Forgotten Land,
Petit Mort and Return to a Strange land. Also, the pas de deuxs in Madame Butterfly,
Raymonda, Manon, Swan Lake, Giselle and Romeo and Juliet are completely fulfilling
and danced with a lot of emotion. In the more classical style, the technical challenge of The Sleeping Beauty, Don
Quixote and The Nutcracker can be very rewarding. I am looking forward to performing the Marschallin in The
Silver Rose; the duets in this ballet are so full of passion and drama.
What gives you strength?
My family, friends and the support I feel
from the entire company, especially my partners and the audiences. On a physical level it’s all the classes and rehearsals
we do that keep our bodies strong. A relatively healthy diet, generally taking care of yourself and listening to your body
are the usual suspects that also give me strength.
If you could live in any other city in the world, where would it be?
There
are many cities I would like to visit: Prague (because I've always wanted to go), St Petersburg (for obvious ballet-history
reasons), Rio de Janeiro (because it would be fun) and Buenos Aires (because I have a friend there). And there are ones which
I would love to go back to: Paris (because it's so chic), New York (for the buzz), and Rome (because there is so much more
to see). But for now I’m really happy living here.
Ballet trio to soar as company stays grounded
 Tokyo-bound: principal dancers Robert Curran, Lucinda Dunn and Rachel Rawlins.
Photo: Simon O'Dwyer
Amanda Dunn
June 7, 2009
THREE principal artists with the Australian Ballet have been chosen to perform at the prestigious
World Ballet Festival in Tokyo in August.
The event, run by the Japan Performing Arts Association, invites the world's best dancers to
showcase their artistry to ballet-loving Japanese audiences.
This year, Australian dancers Lucinda Dunn, Robert Curran and Rachel Rawlins will join international
ballet stars such as Sylvie Guillem, Alina Cojocaro and Tamara Rojo at the festival.
The Australians will dance excerpts from Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake, as well as his Nutcracker
— The Story of Clara, which opened at Melbourne's State Theatre on Friday night.
"It's huge," said the company's artistic director, David McAllister. "It's just such a great
experience to be in the company of all those great dancers."
This year, the Australian Ballet is not touring overseas.
McAllister said the decision had been made to have a break from travelling, which was "very
time-consuming and very financially consuming".
But the company is hoping to perform Murphy's Nutcracker in Japan next year. So the "world
festival" offers an opportunity to show off its dancers and Murphy's widely acclaimed work ahead of the 2010 tour.
This is Lucinda Dunn's second invitation to perform at the festival; she danced with Matthew
Lawrence in Tokyo in 2006.
"It was definitely a privilege to be there as an artist and as a dancer," she said.
The dancers also have the rare opportunity to meet, socialise and take classes together, a prospect
relished by Dunn, who recently returned to the stage after the birth of her daughter 10 months ago.
Curran is also excited about performing at the festival and seeing some of the other top ballet
dancers perform. He says he particularly enjoys performing in Japan, where ballet is hugely popular and "dancers are treated
a little bit like rock stars".
He also hopes that between rehearsals and performances he'll have the chance to see some
of the sights of Tokyo and sample his favourite cuisine.
Ballet dancers celebrate the life of Sergei Diaghilev |
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ABC Radio "PM" Friday, 22 May , 2009
The following is an excerpt from the radio program in which Rachel was briefly
interviewed:
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ANTONETTE COLLINS: Principal artist with the Australian Ballet Rachel Rawlins has starred
in several Ballet Russes works including Les Sylphides and says she's honoured to be connected to such a rich Australian dance
history.
RACHEL RAWLINS: It is always a challenge. It's a challenge to try
and capture the essence of what those ballets were when they were created.
We've had people come out and coach us
in those ballets. We had Irina Baronova and Anna Volkova came to help with Sylphides and I think it's really important to
be a part of that history.
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The Role of Odette
The Australian Ballet interviewed the 4 dancers who performed the role of Odette in the
2008 season of Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake. The dancers were asked what the role of Odette meant to them. This is Rachel's
interview:
Rachel Rawlins first danced Odette during Swan Lake’s encore seasons of Sydney and Melbourne in 2004 in performances that strikingly
counterbalanced those of ballerinas before her. A Senior Artist at the time, Rachel had already given audiences a taste of
her great dramatic power as the doomed heroine of Romeo & Juliet. “From the moment she walks on in Swan Lake
she’s a tragedy waiting to happen,” says Artistic Director David McAllister. “She has that beautifully
aquiline, imperial look, very aristocratic with that beautiful long neck, but there’s something in her eyes, and you
know it’s not going to be a happy ending.” Rachel was promoted to Principal Artist shortly after her debut in
the role.
“Odette has such a depth of emotion,” says Rachel. “It’s lovely to express
that character and her feelings. By the time you get to Act Four you’re very tired, physically and mentally. The devastating
emotion happens very early in the ballet. But the music in Act Four is so beautiful and so serene, and it’s a nice conclusion
in a way, even though there’s a sadness that comes with it.
“Your own personality definitely comes through and that’s what makes the interpretations
so different. I don’t feel like I deliberately try and play her in a certain way; I play her how it feels right.
"Most memorable performance? I think the first time I performed the role; it was such a special time.
And so was the last time I got to perform the role, in London. It’s just
so exciting every time because it’s Swan Lake,
of course, but it’s a really unique Swan
Lake to Australia.
And working with [choreographer] Graeme [Murphy] and [Creative Associate] Janet [Vernon]
is always fantastic. It’s very special to be a part of that.”
The Australian Ballet Dancer Download: Rachel
Rawlins
Your biggest challenge?
Enjoying every day the most I can.
Your funniest "bloopers" on stage?
I can’t think of it, so it must be still
to come!
Your pre-performance ritual?
I eat, go for a short walk and have a shower. This is always
followed by hair, make-up and warm up barre.
Your worst fear?
In a ballet sense, it’s going blank on stage.
How do you unwind?
With a cup of tea, toast and a movie, or a walk is always relaxing.
Glorious Night for Rising Star
Giselle
May 5 2006
by Deborah Jones
DANCERS always know when one of their number is about to do something special, and on Wednesday night
a gang of them from the Australian Ballet enlivened the upper tier of the Opera Theatre at the Sydney Opera House to make
sure everyone else knew it too.
By curtain time no one was in any doubt. Making her debut in Maina Gielgud's articulate, humane staging
of Giselle, Rachel Rawlins achieved the alchemy that turns performance into art: the dancer simply disappeared
into the drama, technique at the service of story and emotion rather than for its own sake.
Not for an instant in the first act, when the peasant girl Giselle is jilted by the noble Albrecht
and dies, did one question her desires, feelings or purpose. In the superlative second act, Rawlins was spirit and light,
so much the wraith that one could almost see through her.
Rawlins is a slow-burning star of the AB whose quiet intelligence and understated personality have
kept her something of a secret. She has been a principal artist since 2004 and has danced all the leading roles the company
has on offer, yet until this week was never given the honour of an opening night.
The Giselle opening comes as a rather belated acknowledgment of her gifts, perhaps, but Rawlins must
now be seen as a ballerina of the first rank. Great interpreters of Giselle in the 20th century, including Alicia Alonso and
Galina Ulanova, would have understood Rawlins's performance, Gielgud said after the performance, an extraordinary compliment.
In the first part of the ballet, Gielgud's production emphasises the joy of Giselle's love for Albrecht,
made flesh in Rawlins's buoyant little jumps, floating turns and delicately inscribed rondes de jambes.
That joy flows effortlessly into the peasant pas de deux. In a dramatically pleasing touch Giselle
ushers her two young friends forward to dance for Jane Casson's expertly delineated Bathilde, and so it appears to be thanks
for the gift the noblewoman has just given Giselle. On opening night Leanne Stojmenov sailed through all the challenges and
Daniel Gaudiello, though ultimately tiring visibly, showed off some very sharp footwork.
There are some infelicities in Act I, in particular the over-emphatic, sweeping arms of the peasant
women, which translate to implacable strength in the vengeful Wilis of Act II but look melodramatic in Act I.
Matthew Lawrence, making his debut as Albrecht, has the elegant and sophisticated appearance of an
aristocrat, but his interpretation in the first half hasn't yet seeped from the surface into his bones. In Act II, where not
so many competing emotional claims are made, Lawrence is spectacular. His creamy classical line, brilliant beaten steps and
elevation, wonderful proportions and calm partnering make him a natural prince.
Act II has fewer distractions than Act I and is full of absorbing detail. Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis
(the commanding Lynette Wills on opening night), summons Giselle from her grave as if mesmerising her. Myrtha's power acts
as a force field, holding the story together as Giselle dances to save the man she loves.
The poise of her balances and extensions, the cushion of air that always seems under her and, most
crucially, her palpable surrender to the moment, transports Rawlins into another realm, and us with her.
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