by FAB Admin | Oct 13, 2021
It is our great pleasure to invite all Friends of The Australian Ballet members and followers, to join us at our next live and online event. Hosted by Friends President Greg Khoury and featuring special guest Alice Topp – one of Australia’s most exciting and acclaimed young choreographers.
Alice will talk us through her creative process in developing her choreography, and how she is pushing our idea of what ballet is through her upcoming initiative Project Animo.
Monday 25th October | Online
5-6pm Discussion and Q&A
Born and raised in Bendigo, Alice started dancing at the age of four. After two years dancing with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, she joined The Australian Ballet as a dancer in 2007, where her choreographic identity first emerged. Her first work, Trace, was created for The Australian Ballet’s 2010 season of its choreographic showcase ‘Bodytorque’. Between 2011 and 2014, Alice would go on to create three more works for Bodytorque, refining her craft and gaining the attention of critics and company directors alike. In 2016, Alice choreographed the critically acclaimed work Little Atlas, which appeared on The Australian Ballet’s mainstage ‘Symphony in C’ program in 2016 and 2017.
In 2018, Alice created her first mainstage one act work Aurum, which premiered as part of the company’s ‘Verve’ program, and went on to its international debut the following year at New York’s leading contemporary dance venue, The Joyce Theater. In 2018, Alice was appointed one of The Australian Ballet’s Resident Choreographers. In 2019, she was invited to spend a month with Studio Wayne McGregor in the United Kingdom, creating a piece for The Grange Festival. The duet she created on the company, Clay, went on to form the basis for a larger work titled Logos for The Australian Ballet’s 2020 ‘Volt’ program, which included two works by McGregor.
Alice has been nominated for a Green Room Award (Little Atlas, 2017) and for three Australian Dance Awards (Aurum, 2018, Same Vein, 2014, Trace, 2010). In 2019, Aurum saw Alice and her creative team win the Helpmann Award for Best Ballet, and a nomination for an Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. She has choreographed music videos for artists including Megan Washington, LANKS and Ben Folds, and has been invited to create works for Houston Ballet II and Queensland Ballet.
Most recently, Alice has co-founded Project Animo, which brings together a collective of independent artistic voices and talent from across Australia’s dance landscape. As creative director, she is collaborating with other beloved Australian Ballet alumni such as Deborah Brown, Madeleine Eastoe, Rudy Hawkes, Andrew Killian, Leanne Stojmenov.
RSVP by midday Monday 25th October | Places are limited
This online event is free for members and $5 for non-members
Event access details will be provided upon RSVP.
BOOK
by FAB Admin | Sep 21, 2021
Join The Friends for a warm online conversation with Leanne Benjamin OBE AM as she details her ballet journey and divulges insights on her soon to be launched autobiography ‘Leanne Benjamin: Built For Ballet.’
Leanne was born in Rockhampton, Australia. At 16 she joined The Royal Ballet School, won the Prix de Lausanne, won the Adeline Genée gold medal that was bestowed to her by Margot Fonteyn, and performed the role of Giselle at Covent Garden in the Royal Ballet School’s annual performance.
Leanne joined Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet in 1983, English National Ballet in 1988 and the Deutsche Oper Ballet Berlin in 1990 before joining the Royal Ballet in 1992 at Kenneth MacMillan’s invitation, where she performed as a principal dancer for 21 years.
Her wide repertory included most of the classical and neo-classical repertoire. She created new roles for choreographers including Wayne McGregor, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, and Twyla Tharp. She was one of the last dancers to work with Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton, and Kenneth MacMillan.
In 2005 Leanne received an OBE in recognition of her services to dance, in 2014 an Honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts by Central Queensland University and in 2015 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. In 2016 Leanne was appointed a Governor of The Royal Ballet Companies and became the Vice-Chair in 2020.
Leanne is the Patron of the Tait Memorial Trust where an annual award is given in her name to support young Australian and New Zealand Dancers to train in the UK. She is now coaching pre-professional students and working with a number of international ballet companies as a coach to their principal dancers.
Hosted via Zoom, a reminder email will be sent two hours prior to the event starting. Event access details will be provided upon RSVP.
This virtual event is free for Friends members and $5 for non-members.
BOOK
by FAB Admin | Aug 12, 2021
It is our great pleasure to invite all Friends of The Australian Ballet members & followers to join us at our next live and online event.
Join The Friends NSW for a warm chat with Kerri Glasscock. Hosted by Friends NSW Chairperson Greg Khoury, this live discussion and Q&A will delve into Kerri’s passion for the arts and get the inside scoop on what’s next for Sydney Fringe Festival.
Thursday 26th August | 5-6pm Live Discussion and Q&A
Hosted by Friends Chair Greg Khoury with special guest Kerri Glasscock.
Kerri is the founding co-director of artist run company 505 which operated the legendary live music club Venue 505 in Surry Hills (2004-19), and award winning Old 505 Theatre in Newtown (2015 to present). Beyond the walls of 505 Kerri has worked in various roles in the Sydney arts scene as performer, director and theatre practitioner. In 2013 she was appointed as CEO & Festival Director of the Sydney Fringe Festival. Under her stewardship Sydney Fringe has grown from a small community event to the largest independent arts festival in NSW now presenting work across 25 postcode areas of Greater Sydney.
A leading advocate for the Independent sector she has contributed to a number of key action plans and resulting policy reforms including the Committee for Sydney’s – Sydney a 24 Hour City Report the City of Sydney’s – Live Music and Performance Action Plan, Inner West Council’s – Off Broadway Plan. In her role at Sydney Fringe Festival she works extensively leading the way in temporary re-adaptive use of space for performance that has resulted in the report: An Anthology of Space 2015-2018: Activating Unused and Under-utilised Space for the Performing and Creative Industries of NSW.
She currently co-Chairs the City of Sydney’s Cultural Sector Advisory Committee, is a founding Board Member of the Night Time Industries Association, sits on Create NSW’s Festival Art Form Board and is a Board Member of PAC Australia.
Kerri served as a Director of the City Recital Hall Board from 2015-2019, in 2011 she was included in the Sydney Morning Herald Sydney Magazine’s annual 100 Most Influential and Inspiring People list.
Hosted via Zoom, a reminder email will be sent two hours prior to the event starting. Event access details will be provided upon RSVP.
This virtual event is free for Friends members and $5 for non-members.
BOOK
