Reed Luplau is a young dancer going somewhere, as Nina Levy discovers.
Finding full-time employment as a professional contemporary dancer in Australia is no mean feat. We all know the story – while there are few companies offering dancers full-time work, there are countless dancers looking for that work.
It is fascinating, then, to talk to young Australian dancer Reed Luplau, who chose to leave Sydney Dance Company (SDC) at the end of 2008. From an outsider’s perspective, Luplau’s time with the company looked golden, and Luplau himself describes it with warmth. “The company was like a family,” he says nostalgically. “Graeme (Murphy) gave me so many opportunities … like in my second year I was given a solo in “The Director’s Cut”. That blew me away after only being with the company one year. He also allowed me to choreograph and nurtured that desire – I have a lot to be thankful for from Graeme.” There were more tangible rewards too – Luplau was recognised for his role in Aszure Barton’s Sid’s Waltzing Masquerade with the 2009 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer.
So what made a rising star decide to leave the comfort of company life for the (relative) privations of life as a freelance dancer and choreographer based in New York?
“By the end of my fourth year, we were doing Sid’s Waltzing Masquerade. We had done so much that year with Meryl Tankard and Raf (current AD, Rafael Bonachela),” recalls Luplau. “It was fantastic but I wasn’t enjoying the fact that I had this lifestyle that was the same every day. I was given time off to go and work with Aszure in New York and I was inspired.”
Luplau took the plunge and moved to New York in 2010. Although the move has had its challenges, he relishes each one. “The thing that I love is that I fight to to be seen and to make a living in New York,” he explains. “It may sound stupid that I threw a job away in Australia but I needed to get out and I wanted to remember why I dance… and trust me, it’s painful,” he laughs. “In New York there are so many dancers, and the guy next to you is going to take your job when you leave. You never think about it like that in Australia, because you think you’re unique.”
Luplau did have a couple of advantages entering the melee, however. “Aszure gave me an opportunity to join her company and then Stephen Petronio offered me a place with his company at the same time, so I had two reasons to move to New York. I had an agent there as well, so I wasn’t just going there blind.”
As well as Barton and Petronio, Luplau has danced with Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. He also has an ongoing relationship with his home state’s company, West Australian Ballet (WAB). Luplau has manged to set himself up as a kind of freelance company dancer, but as he explains, it’s not always that simple. “Stephen wanted me to verbally commit to him from June 2011 to June 2012. I couldn’t do that because I knew that I was coming home [to choreograph for WAB’s “Neon Lights” season]. We still keep in contact though, and have a great relationship.”
Originally a Perth boy, Luplau has appeared in two WAB seasons since leaving SDC. “After I left Sydney Dance Company, I came back and did class with Ivan (Cavallari, WAB artistic director) and I got along really well with him,” says Luplau. “I really appreciated that he let me come in for the 2010 “Ballet at the Quarry” season, even though I hadn’t been dancing with a ballet company.” Unlike Petronio, Cavallari does not object to Luplau’s sporadic availability and the company has actually set him up with a “seasonal artist” contract.
Cavallari has also given Luplau a chance to stretch his choreographic muscles. “I showed him DVDs of work that I had choreographed for SDC and also for the Australian Ballet’s 2009 “Bodytorque” season,” explains Luplau. “When I got the email from Ivan asking me to choreograph for the “Neon Lights” season, I was very excited. A lot of my friends and family hadn’t seen my work before, because it was all done on the east coast.”
Choreography is an area that Luplau intends to pursue. “I would love to start a part-time contemporary company for Perth,” he muses casually. In terms of the long term future, however, Luplau prefers to keep an open mind. “When Graeme and Janet resigned I stopped trying to plan ahead because all my ideas of where I thought I would be in five years time went out the window. I only plan ahead now five or six months in advance.”
