Ballet grows up: The Australian Ballet’s bold new era with Nijinsky

Ballet is an old art form, but lately, it’s been doing a lot of growing up. That’s if the adult content being created at the Australian Ballet is anything to go by, at least. The AB still offers Storytime Ballet, shows for the little ones and tights-and-tutu fare that’s suitable for all ages, but elsewhere there’s a decidedly mature streak running through its recent programs.

Last year’s Oscar gave a taste of how new ballets can take audiences places the classics would never dare tread, and next month Melburnians will be able to see Johan Inger’s dark, psychological revision of Bizet’s classic Carmen that last year wowed Sydney audiences (recommended age: 16+). But first there’s Nijinsky, staged by the AB in 2016 and back to remind us why choreographer John Neumeier’s work drew such rave reviews first time around.

Callum Linnane in the Australian Ballet’s return season of Nijinsky.Credit: Simon Eeles

Vaslav Nijinsky might have been the most famous male dancer in history – even people who have never given ballet a moment’s thought often know the name of the “God of Dance”. For a brief, brilliant moment in the early 20th century, audiences were floored by Nijinsky’s virtuosic technique, and tales of his off-stage sexcapades kept them just as riveted. His star began to falter in his mid-20s, however, as his declining mental health became apparent. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and after his last public performance at the age of 28, he spent the next 30 years in and out of institutions.

Hamburg Ballet director John Neumeier is widely considered one of the world’s leading experts on the legendary dancer. His Nijinsky premiered in 2000, but his exacting standards and personal passion for the work mean that it has only rarely been staged.

Callum Linnane was just 20 when he was given the title role in the Australian Ballet’s 2016 production. “It was the beginning of my second year with the company and John Neumeier came out to cast it. I was such a fan of his, ever since I was a student at ballet school. I’d admired his choreography, so I was excited that he was coming and I was a bit enamoured that he was in the room.

Australian Ballet’s Jake Mangakahia says there’s a richness to Neumeier’s Nijinsky due to the wealth of material it draws on.Credit: Simon Eeles

“Then I was one of the names that went down on the board and it was, ‘wow, oh my god, what’s happening to my life?’”

Today, Linnane is one of the company’s principal dancers and will reprise the role that kickstarted his fame. “I feel like I am approaching it differently. It’s difficult to say if I’m more mature but when I was younger, my performance probably felt very outward, like I was projecting what this man was going through. This time around I’m trusting the work more, and that the production and choreography and everything combined will help to tell Nijinsky’s story.”

Jake Mangakahia is another dancer revisiting the role of Vaslav Nijinsky. “It really changed my career. For any dancer, a lead role in a ballet is a big moment. You learn a lot and you’ll be pushed. It’s not just because it’s an amazing ballet, but because people are paying good money to come see a show, so you’ve got to deliver.”

Mangakahia says that the richness of Neumeier’s Nijinsky is partly due to the wealth of material it has to draw on. “Someone who makes a story ballet will only be able to go so far with how much detail they can give you. With Nijinsky, he’s had books written about him, there are letters, his own journals, writings the doctors wrote about him. There are a lot of layers to this story.”

The real Vaslav Nijinsky in 1911.Credit: NATIONAL LIBRARY

Let’s face it: your average prince role is hardly the kind to keep you studying up late at night, but Nijinsky is something else.

“It was an incredible experience to learn about this person. Usually, we say ‘character’ but this is not a character. It’s a person. And a dancer, too,” says Mangakahia.

Linnane has just finished one of the many biographies of Nijinsky. “I found the last part of the book so tragic, so sad. There was one line as the book closes, describing Nijinsky’s life: ’10 years growing, 10 years learning, 10 years dancing and 30 years in eclipse.’ That just broke my heart.”

Australian Ballet’s artistic director David Hallberg says that approaching a delicate subject such as madness through dance requires an especially careful touch. “I think that ballet specifically has the hardest task of many of the art forms because we are essentially non-verbal. We can’t rely on dialogue, sound, spoken word. We aren’t given the luxury that film is where nuances can be given a close-up. We have to emote to a big theatre, and for the most part, we have to do it without saying anything. So it is a challenge.”

Given the work’s more difficult themes, it’s rewarding to hear that the Australian Ballet equips its dancers with tools to leave their work at work. They’re taught exercises to “de-role” after a performance, finding different postures to their characters so they don’t carry them in their bodies out into the night.

In Carmen, Linnane says, he played a character who eventually kills his wife. “It would finish right at this big psychological climax and then the curtain would come down, and you’d sort of just be there. So we used to sometimes get in a group and go into the studio and run around, laugh, be silly, then I’d get in the shower and play disco music to really get into a very different place.”

Nijinksy is an emotional work for Neumeier, too. The choreographer turns 86 this month, but is still committed to ensuring every rendition of this tale is made-to-measure. “He is 100 per cent committed to developing the work with the dancer in front of him. He’s not just coming to see the work as it was done when it first premiered. He’s changing things. He’s making it a bespoke experience for the dancer,” says Hallberg. “It’s a unique experience not only for the dancers but for the audience. They’re seeing something that’s really fresh, really alive, bubbling in front of them.”

Linnane adds that Neumeier makes “little changes everywhere he goes”.

“So often in ballet in particular because it is a fairly old art form, sometimes it can feel like you’re dancing a relic or an artefact,” he says. “So there’s already the gift that John is still alive and working, and the pieces are also alive and breathing.”

Ninjinsky is at The Regent Theatre from February 21.