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<\/p>\nAS A young girl, Bonnie Grice drove with her parents four hours south from her hometown in Taree to see the Australian Ballet perform Sleeping Beauty in the Sydney Opera House.<\/p>\n
Mesmerised by the movement of the dancers, she knew then that was what she wanted to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey looked so free and beautiful,\u201d Miss Grice said. \u201cI wanted to be able to emulate that, become that.\u201d
\nMiss Grice went home and joined her local ballet school.<\/p>\n
Five years later, her teacher suggested she audition for the Australian Ballet School (ABS).<\/p>\n
A trip to Sydney for an audition and a few months later, Miss Grice, along with her parents and younger sister, had packed up their northern NSW home and moved to Melbourne so she could pursue her dream of dancing.<\/p>\n
More than a decade later, the now 20-year-old is performing in her post-graduate year with the ABS.
\nIn November, the ABS On Tour performed in Horsham and Geelong.<\/p>\n
In both performances, Miss Grice danced in Tim Harbor\u2019s Aurora and Simon Dow\u2019s Counterpoint and played The Pink Butterfly in Butterfly Suite, a 30-minute collection of excerpts from Lucas Jervies\u2019 two-act ballet Butterfly.<\/p>\n
The ABS will premiere the full two-hour production of Butterfly at Arts Centre Melbourne on December 10, 11 and 12.<\/p>\n
Director of The Australian Ballet School Lisa Pavane said the students were thrilled to be back on stage and performing again after a tumultuous two years.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOur students have shown extraordinary commitment throughout the past two years, and they were so excited to return to the stage to perform Butterfly Suite in Geelong,\u201d Ms Pavane said<\/p>\n
\u201cThe butterfly is the perfect metaphor to be explored and performed by our transforming young artists-in-training.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t wait to premiere the full production of Butterfly at Arts Centre Melbourne in December.\u201d<\/p>\n
Butterfly is a modern fairytale, following a group of students on a school excursion to the butterfly enclosure at the zoo, where they find tensions and transformations into a new and colourful world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt amazing to be back on stage, to just be able to perform for a live audience again,\u201d Miss Grice said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a beautiful feeling to feel again.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could just feel everyone\u2019s energy and the adrenaline kicking in and it was just a very exciting moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite euphoric because we hadn\u2019t experienced it in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miss Grice said she is looking forward to finally premiering the full production of Butterfly in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a two-hour ballet, so it\u2019s going to create more of a storyline, and there\u2019s more characters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a big lead-up of organising casts, costumes, choreography, constant rehearsals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miss Grice\u2019s own metamorphosis has not been without dedication and hard work.<\/p>\n
Her passion for dance has not faded, but from moving states to having years of rigorous practise and dancing experience behind her, the cost of following her dreams is more real now than it was when she began.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so lucky that my family just up and left and moved from NSW to Victoria for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re so supportive, they\u2019ve done everything I could possibly imagine to get me where I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miss Grice\u2019s family is now Torquay-based, and she visits from school in Melbourne as much as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely reminds us a lot of up north, our home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The dedication required for a performance is also much more real to Miss Grice now, as she has spent the past six months practising and perfecting Butterfly through sweat, sacrifice and many pointe shoes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dancers are always in the studio with the choreographers and our teachers, constantly trying to perfect things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go through about two pointe per week, and for a performance it\u2019s good to have different pairs just depending on what repertoire we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually I have about three or four different pointe shoes for a performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Simon Dow\u2019s Counterpoint, a lot of us typically had quite soft shoes, because of the fast pointe work you don\u2019t want to have really hard pointe shoes.<\/p>\n
\u201cCounterpoint is classical ballet, but it\u2019s a modern classical ballet, so it\u2019s not your typical Swan Lake movement. It\u2019s very abstract, sharp and fierce.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the fast footwork comes through in Counterpoint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhereas Butterfly is very smooth, moving through the movement and creating round shapes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Butterfly you want something that can actually support you when you\u2019re dancing because it\u2019s classical ballet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ABS is performing Butterfly at the Arts Centre Melbourne on December 10, 11 and 12. Tickets are between $70 and $90.<\/p>\n
To find out more about upcoming ABS performances and purchasing tickets visit https:\/\/www.australianballetschool.com.au\/pages\/abs-performances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AS A young girl, Bonnie Grice drove with her parents four hours south from her hometown in Taree to see the Australian Ballet perform Sleeping Beauty in the Sydney Opera House. Mesmerised by the movement of the dancers, she knew then that was what she wanted to do. \u201cThey looked so free and beautiful,\u201d Miss […]<\/p>\n