by FAB Admin | Mar 23, 2022
Meet the New Dancers is back!
We are thrilled to invite our Friends to Meet the New Dancers after two years.
Please join us and be introduced to the 20 very special dancers who have been invited to dance with the Company in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
A member of The Australian Ballet staff will host an informative Q&A with a dancer representing each year, including Belle Urwin, a former FAB Australian Ballet School Scholarship recipient, and Hugo Dumapit, whose mother is a long-term Friends member.
With Sydney Harbour as our backdrop, enjoy champagne and canapes in the iconic Sydney Opera House Northern Foyer, and celebrate our future dancers of The Australian Ballet.
Tickets for Meet the New Dancers are available 11am Thursday 24 March.
Due to catering requirements, please RSVP no later Monday 18 April. Don’t miss out!
RSVP
Proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or valid medical exemption will be required for anyone over the age of sixteen to attend this event.
by FAB Admin | Nov 18, 2021
A FUN FAB NIGHT IN: CHRISTMAS WITH FRIENDS
Special presentation, joyful conversation, exceptional guests and prizes
Wednesday 1 December 5:30pm-6:30pm | Online
To welcome the Christmas season, please join us for a jolly evening from the comfort of your own home!
Hosted by Friends President Greg Khoury, Deputy Chair Bruce Pollack, and Member Gayle Wakling-Taylor, with incredibly special guests Lisa Pavane (Director of The Australian Ballet School), Liz Toohey and Steven Heathcote (Artistic Staff of The Australian Ballet), as well as some of our treasured volunteers!
To start off the night, The Friends will gift a scholarship to an upcoming star at The Australian Ballet School. The Friends of The Australian Ballet NSW Scholarship is a $10,000 payment to The Australian Ballet School to cover the cost of 12 months tuition for a NSW student. The successful recipient is selected for their exemplary hard-work and commitment to pursing a professional career in Ballet.
After a few more surprises, and viewing the best short clips of ballet from the last year, we will be conducting a competition for Best Dressed and Best Christmas Cocktail!
CHRISTMAS CHEER COMPETITION
There will be awards presented to attendees on the night, with the following prizes on offer:
> A double pass to Palace Verona’s screening of The Nutcracker
> Signed copy of Soar by David McAllister AC
> A bag full of Friends merchandise and ballet goodies!
> Signed pointe shoes by members of the company
To Enter BEST DRESSED:
Come to the party dressed in your fancy or funny Christmas finery to be in the running
To Enter BEST CHRISTMAS COCKTAIL:
Send in your favourite recipe to admin@fab.org.au for us to try out and consume on the night!
Celebrate Christmas with Friends
This event is free for all members and non-members to attend.
We hope you can join us. Secure your spot!
REGISTER
Event access details will be provided upon RSVP.
This virtual event will commence at 5:30pm Wednesday 1 December. A reminder email will be sent two hours prior to the event starting.
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 | Jun 15, 2021
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED – ALL TICKET HOLDERS WILL BE CONTACTED SHORTLY
For The Friends of The Australian Ballet in association with Palace Opera & Ballet
Join ballet aficionado Leo Schofield AM for a pre-screening presentation of Le Parc, a Ballet in three acts, specifically created for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1994 by choreographer Angelin Preljocaj.
Preljocaj explores the laws of attraction and the games we play, finding a subtle balance between the classical genius of Mozart’s music and the modernity of his choreographic language.
Thierry Leproust’s perfectly chiselled sets evoke the elegance and refinement of a French style garden while Hervé Pierre’s costumes draw inspiration from the Age of Enlightenment.
Advancing to the caprices of an imaginary Carte du Tendre and guided by strange gardeners, the dancers awaken to love, from first encounters to seduction, from timidity to attraction, from resistance to the sweet appeal of abandon in sublimely soaring “pas de deux”. Even today, this timeless work continues to explore the codes of love and the way human feelings develop.
BOOK TICKETS NOW
by FAB Admin | Jun 15, 2021 | FAB Events, Latest News, Upcoming Event News
Created specifically for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1994 by choreographer Angelin Preljocal, there are countless reasons why Le Parc has become a timeless classic.
CARDS
When desire is part of the game, the carte du Tendre is also a card to play. Love at first sight and gambles come together in the groves of Le Parc. Marivaux like, Preljocaj’s choreography – created in 1994 for the Paris Opera Ballet – reshuffles the cards for the game of love and chance.
MOZART
Female desire (Così fan tutte), debauchery (Don Giovanni) and true love (Die Zauberflöte): Mozart’s scores form the soundtrack for the century of Laclos, Sade, Crébillon and Vivant Denon. In Le Parc, Mozart is Preljocaj’s musical accomplice: concertos, quartets and symphonies give rhythm to a work that gives form to the desires of the heart and mind.
GARDENS
Be it the gardens of the carte du Tendre – the landscape of love charted out by Madame de Scudéry or the royal alleys at Versailles where Le Nôtre created the ideal backdrop for all things playful, the garden is above all a secret one when it comes to love.
QUARTET
“Divertimento”, “A Musical Joke”, “Serenade”, “A little Night Music”: the pages from Mozart selected by Angelin Preljocaj evoke hours of the day and night – moments in a sophisticated art of loving. Music and dance echo one another: in a conversation transposed into sound, a quartet of gardeners reply to a string quartet. Set to an electronic score by Goran Vejvoda, these little cupids guide the dancers along in a timeless game.
ERA
The society of the age of Enlightenment has given way to an entertainment based one: “The world parades and surges across the small screen”, says Preljocaj, “and we remain transfixed”. And yet, as the French writer Philippe Sollers says, the 18th century was a “forward” one. With Le Parc, the choreographer draws on the source of French libertinage. Dance finds new momentum that brings into perspective the games of seduction of our times.
“A masterpiece. There are dances that entertain us, and then there are a few that have the power to truly move us.” Alexandra Desvignes, BACHTRACK
Join ballet aficionado Leo Schofield for a pre-screening presentation of Le Parc on 18 July at Palace Cinemas Verona to hear why Leo thinks Le Parc is a masterpiece of dance.
Tickets on sale now
BOOK TICKETS NOW
Image courtesy Paris Opera Ballet
