Meet Robert Alejandro Tinning

Studied: Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).
Presently: Stephanie Lake Company

As I’m writing this I am currently touring Manifesto through Europe with Stephanie Lake Company. Later in the year I’ll re-engage with the company for further development of Chronicles which will premier nationally across Australia in 2025 as a part of the Major Festivals Initiative.

What is your best memory of your full-time dance studies?

As a 2nd year student I was brought onboard the 3rd year students remount of Xiao-Xiong Zhang’s Rite of Spring (alongside a few members of my cohort). This production was presented in Perth and then toured to Beijing where we performed it in collaboration with Beijing Normal University (BNU) students. The experience was an a major push for my embodied practice and development.

How did you cope physically with the demands of the workload?

My growth through the years at WAAPA was self-affirming and fun. The studies were rigorous and balanced by substantive practical classes supplemented with the important theory subjects of dance and art histories. I came late to dance through state sports, and found myself struggling with technique classes in my first year. To adapt to this change in discipline I would book studio time out of uni hours and re-hash exercises I struggled with, and others I particularly enjoyed, to get ahead. That ease of access to studio space, for training, is something I wish I had to this day.