The biggest ballet prize in the Southern Hemisphere took place on Sunday afternoon in a packed Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Eisteddfod Dance Gala, the culmination of the annual Sydney Eisteddfod dance events, incorporated not just the final of the Ballet Championship but also the Dance of the Champion final for the senior dance troupes.
Eight ballet finalists vied for a total of more than $32,000 in prizes in the Ballet Championship. They were whittled down from a field of 60, and had already performed their solos in the heats as well as taken a class watched by the adjudicators. For the finals, they repeated their two solos – one a choice from the ballet repertoire and the other their own free variation.
Out of a field of outstanding candidates, the winner was Henry Burgess, from Oatley, NSW, a pupil at the McDonald College in Sydney. He wins the handsome sum of $18,000 ($3000 cash plus a $15,000 scholarship). Second place went to Mantraa Rane, a pupil at the Melbourne Academy of Arts.
Henry was one of the younger competitors, at only 15 years old. He chose the solo from Flames of Paris for his classical solo, exploding onto the stage with some huge jetes. He chose that solo, he explained in an interview afterward, because he had seen a former McDonald pupil, Harrison Lee, perform the same solo at the same eisteddfod in 2015. Harrison won the prize and is now in the Royal Ballet in London.
“I was inspired by him. . . My absolute, number one dream is to dance on the Royal Opera House stage with the Royal Ballet company and to dance with the Australian Ballet too," Henry said. His free contemporary variation was an interesting idea, which he performed with fluidity and feeling. Called Swipe Right, it was to a spoken poem by the same name. Henry choreographed it himself with the help of teacher, Jane Beckett.
Henry is already well on his way to his dream: he previously won a scholarship at this year’s Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland to the Royal Ballet School, where he will start in September. The Sydney Eisteddfod scholarship will help to finance his studies.
At 16 years old Mantraa was also a young contestant. Born in New Zealand to Indian parents, she is now living in Melbourne where she studies ballet full-time while completing her academic schooling on-line. She performed the solo from La Esmeralda with poise and vivacity, in a sparkling green tutu. Her free variation, Near Light, in a cerise dress and socks, she choreographed jointly with Gareth Belling, a contemporary teacher at the school. Like Henry, she has already won some prestigious awards, most recently the Youth Asian Grand Prix and last year’s Ballet Teacher Workshop in Melbourne, and been offered numerous short term placements at international schools. She is taking up an internship with the Royal New Zealand Ballet in October, offered at this year’s Alana Haines Awards in Wellington. She also has an invitation to attend a Royal Ballet School summer school.
More prizes were handed out to the other finalists – in fact not one walked away without some kind of valuable award. The Christine Walsh’s Ballet Conservatoire Training Program Award went to Claudia Gordon, who receives $1500 cash and a Ballet Conservatoire recognition medal.
Four finalists received a “short stay” at the Queensland Ballet Academy: Arainn Pillay; Summer Edgley; Ben Moss and Ella Marshall. Two received a “short stay” at the Australian Ballet School: Arainn and Georgia Lorange; and four received a “short stay” at the Houston Ballet in the US: Arainn, Mantraa, Summer and Henry.
All finalists (excluding placegetters) received generous gift vouchers from Bloch for Dancers and the winner and runner-up received photographic portfolios from BWP Studios.
An illustrious line-up of adjudicators had the difficult job of choosing the winners. They were Greg Horsman (Assistant Artistic Director, Qld Ballet); Lisa Pavane (Director, Australian Ballet School), Claire Phipps-Males (Qld Ballet Academy) and Stanton Welch (Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet). In an interview following the event, Welch stressed that the “toughest thing” for the judges was choosing the final eight. “Once there, its all about the show,” he said.
When asked if he had an opinion on the standard of the classical compared with the free variations, he replied (to summarise):
“It’s not really about the standard. I would say we are probably harshest on the classical ballet because the technique is so exact and we can so easily pick it apart to the littlest details. In their free variations they can hide a bit. Classical is where [our judgement comes from], the free variations can boost their chances, add the icing on the cake, show their expression and versatility.”
For the Dance of the Champions, six troupes presented a diverse array of skilfully choreographed works. They vied for a jury prize of $4000 cash as well as a People’s Choice award, also $4000. As it turned out, the jurors and the audience chose the same: Ablaze Dance Open Contemporary group from Adamstown, NSW. They impressed the audience with Subject T27, which presented the vision of a dystopian future controlled by Artificial Intelligence. The adjudicators were Bridget Hart (events specialist and director of Capital B Creative) and commercial theatre performer Pauly Maybury.
Also announced on the day was the Capezio “Most Promising Young Dancer award, (for a dancer 14 years and under who has excelled in more than three dance events). It went to Bonny Bolam.
This year’s event marked two milestone anniversaries: the 90th year of the Eisteddfod and the 50th birthday of the Sydney Opera House. To celebrate, a new ballet was commissioned, choreographed by Xanthe Geeves to a new musical score by Ross Edwards.
(See the full list of finalists below. )
– KAREN VAN ULZEN
FINALISTS
Ballet Scholarship
Claudia Gordon (Sydney): Dance North Academy
Arainn Pillay (Sydney): Tanya Pearson Academy; Australian Ballet School ITP trainee
Mantraa Rane (Cheltenham, Vic): Melbourne Academy of the Arts
Summer Edgley (Gold Coast, Qld): BMC Coaching
Ben Moss (St Ives, NSW): North Shore Dance Academy
Georgia Lorange (Tamborine Mountain, Qld): Dance North Academy
Henry Burgess (Oatley, NSW): McDonald College
Ella Marshall (Central Coast, NSW): The Academy
Dance of Champions
Ablaze Dance Academy (Open Ballet): Adamstown, NSW
Redlands Ballet and Dance Academy (Cremorne, NSW)
National College of Dance (Lambton, NSW)
2Step Dance (Seven Hills, NSW)
Ablaze Dance Academy (Open Contemporary): Adamstown, NSW
Albany Creek State High School (Albany Creek, Qld).
Editor's note: At the time of going to press we were still waiting on photos of the Dance of the Champions winners.