Postcards from dancers: Melbourne City Ballet's Michael Pappalardo

Dear Dance Australia readers

Yuiko, Carol and I are busy in Japan working on Melbourne City Ballet’s production of Carmen in association with Uesugi Mayu Ballet Studio. We have been so lucky to work with our Japanese friends to re-stage this ballet and have been overwhelmed by the support for Melbourne City Ballet. We have experienced such amazing young dancers in Japan who have a very high standard of work and an eagerness to learn and be part of our production. 

The success of this tour and partnerships we have gained have inspired us to continue to develop our relationship with Japan and bring more of the companies ballet’s here. With so much support across Japan for classical ballet it is not surprising their enthusiasm for Carmen and we are excited to plan more production going into the future. 

Fortunately we haven’t just been dancing all day, but have been lucky enough to go and see some of the local sites across Osaka. With the great summer weather it has been good to get away from the Melbourne winter! We also took a trip to Kobe were we watched the Kobe Dance Competition and all of the beautiful dancers there, saw the sites and ate our way through one of Japans only China towns.

We can’t wait to perform in Japan and look forward to coming back.

From Michael

Michael Pappalardo

Artistic Director, Melbourne City Ballet