friends indeed

Last night a group of Helpmann Academy Friends gathered at the Adelaide Centre for the Arts to learn more about the world of contemporary dance. It was lovely to meet so many supporters of the students and to hear first hand about some of the technical differences between ballet and contemporary dance from the gorgeous Sally Collard-Gentle who is one of the marvellous teachers at Adelaide Centre for the Arts. Asking why contemporary dancers let their hair run free is just one of those gems you always wanted to find out about but never have the guts to ask a dancer at the party afterwards. So now Sally has solved that msytery for us we can all appreciate the work so much more. Sally gave a lovely outline of some of the key differences and similarities and afterwards told me that in her travels around the world looking at dance schools its really apparent that the days of ballet looking down its nose at contemporary and contemporary sticking out its tongue at ballet are really long gone. Many (if not most) schools teach both and this adds considerably to the range of physical skills and modes of expression the dancers have in their armoury. The performance of Meta Quantum Geek choreographed by Aidan Munn was very physical and much appreciated by the Friends -- especially those in the very front row (wow that was close!) The dancers, only in the second year of their program, are mighty impressive and a great night had by all. more later.......