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Ballet Baby
The Australian Ballet
May 2009
The Australian Ballet is delighted to announce that Principal Artist Madeleine Eastoe gave birth to a baby girl on
Monday 20 April. Proud parents Madeleine and husband Tim Harbour, a choreographer and former dancer with the company, have
named her Ella Sache Eastoe. Weighing in at 4lbs, 13oz, she is the first child for the ecstatic
couple.
This exciting news continues the ballet baby boom that began last year amongst Principal Artists. Lucinda Dunn welcomed
daughter Claudia Radojevic in July while Lynette Wills had her second child Sophie Bella Burke in mid December. Olivia Bell
and Kirsty Martin are both pregnant and expecting the pitter-patter of little feet by mid-year.
Congratulations to Madeleine and Tim from everyone at The Australian Ballet!
Ballet Baby
The Australian Ballet
13 November 2008
The Australian Ballet's Principal Artist
Madeleine Eastoe and husband Tim Harbour, a former Senior Artist, are delighted to announce they are expecting
their first child in May next year. The beaming couple said of their news, "We are happy and excited. The smallest things
are of the biggest importance.”
Audience favourite Madeleine joined the
company in 1997 and danced many lead roles before being promoted to Principal Artist following her debut as Giselle
in 2006. Madeleine's career highs have included working one-on-one with choreographer Stephen Baynes to create the lead roles
in 2007’s Constant Variants and 2008's Night Path. She has danced with some of ballet's biggest names
such as Angel Corella in La Fille mal gardée and Cédric Ygnace in Giselle. Most recently, Madeleine had
the honour of portraying Odette on the opening night performance of Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake in Paris.
After 13 years with The Australian Ballet,
Tim retired as Senior Artist at the end of 2007 to concentrate full-time on choreography. This followed an extensive career
of highlights including his 2005 nomination in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer category in the Australian Dance
Awards for his work in George Balanchine’s Agon. That same year, he made his choreographic debut with Sunken
Waltz in the Bodytorque.Two. season. His critically acclaimed pieces Eve for Bodytorque.
Face the Music., Fielder for Bodytorque.Generations. and Wa for Bodytorque.To the Pointe.
followed.
The couple were married
in December 2004.
This latest announcement
continues a baby boom among Principal Artists at The Australian Ballet. Lynette Wills is due to give birth to her second child
in December. Lucinda Dunn and her husband, Associate Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet, Danilo Radojevic welcomed
their baby daughter Claudia into the world in July. And Kirsty Martin and Damien Welch are the proud parents of Oscar (4).
Madeleine's last performance
before motherhood beckons will be Interplay on Saturday 15 November at Sydney Opera House. She plans to return to
the stage with The Australian Ballet in 2010.
Ballet Baby Boom
13 November 2008
There must be something in the water at the Australian Ballet. Principal artist Madeleine
Eastoe and husband Timothy Harbour, a former senior artist, will welcome their first child in May, continuing a baby
boom among principal artists at the arts institution.
Lynette Wills is due to give birth to her second child in December, while Lucinda Dunn and her
husband, associate artistic director of ballet Danilo Radojevic, welcomed baby daughter Claudia Rose in July. All, of course,
are getting parenting tips from Kirsty Martin and Damien Welch, parents of four-year-old Oscar. Eastoe, who married Harbour
in December 2004, will dance in her last performance before motherhood beckons on November 15 in Interplay at the Sydney
Opera House. She will return to the stage with the Australian Ballet in 2010.
The Role of Odette
The Australian Ballet, 2008
Madeleine Eastoe has danced the role of Odette in Graeme
Murphy’s Swan Lake every year since its premiere
in 2002 and was singled out by one critic, who’d seen many casts, as being “the only Odette who made me cry.”
Her performances, particularly on the company’s UK
tour of 2005, have garnered amazing reviews, hastening Madeleine’s promotion to Principal Artist in 2006.
“Your interpretation changes a little every year,” says Madeleine.
“I find I increasingly approach it from the story angle more than the technical angle. But it never gets easier. Odette
is very vulnerable but at the same time needs to show a change and a strength. I have to remind myself sometimes that it’s
okay to be ugly and to get that across, not always to pull it back, as I can being a bit of a Virgo.
“You have to unravel the story through the steps and the emotion. It’s a long night
onstage of toing and frowing with your body. But it’s very rewarding. Tchaikovsky’s score is sensational and you’re
with your co-workers who are also out there giving their all.
"I was lucky enough to dance with Steven Heathcote, who was the original Prince Siegfried. I
never thought I’d actually be partnered by Steven because of our height difference, but I think it was a good match.
I really enjoyed that because he’s such an amazing stage performer and you know you’re in really safe hands; you
just blend with him. And now I’m partnered by [Principal Artist] Robert Curran, who is also amazing and brings
something very different to the role.
“I think in twenty years Odette will still mean a lot to me. It’s so significant
and this Swan Lake is a really important part of the company’s existence. I think down the track I’ll still
be thinking about it, and it will measure up with other challenges in life to come.”
Tutu beautiful for you
SMH, Jo Roberts
June 7, 2007
The Australian Ballet's Robert Curran with his partners,
principal artists Lucinda Dunn, Madeleine Eastoe and Kirsty Martin.
Photo: Simon Schluter
...Madeleine Eastoe is very happy to
be dancing Spring Waters — a work she describes as "two minutes' worth of flinging around and running" —
with (Robert) Curran. "It's a great, energetic pas de deux to do with someone that you trust, and Robert is very experienced,"
she says. "He understands the steps that we do, without even being on pointe (dancing in pointe shoes). He somehow has an
understanding of that and I think that comes across in his rehearsals — either he has already pre-thought what needs
to happen to make it right, or it just comes quite quickly. That's quite a gift."
Dancer Download
28 February 2007
Madeleine Eastoe’s first role of 2007 is the cheeky, headstrong
Kitri in Don Quixote. We spend 60 seconds with The Australian Ballet’s newest Principal Artist.
What are you most looking forward to in 2007?
The overseas tour to Japan in
July.
What books are on your bedside table at the moment?
I’ve just finished
The Lovely Bones and am reading a book on the making of the Peace Rose.
What three things do you never leave the house without?
My bike, a list
of something, a different outfit every day.
You’re a keen
bike rider - tell us why it’s your favourite mode of transport.
You can ride through peak-hour traffic or take
it slow and let your thoughts wander.
What do you miss most when you’re on tour?
Our house and my yoga studio.
What’s your favourite summer meal?
Ice-cream!
New honour for Perth ballerina
Stephen Bevis
29 November 2006
Perth’s Madeleine Eastoe has capped
off a remarkable year by being voted Australia’s favourite ballerina.
Eastoe won the people’s choice award at the Telstra
Ballet Dancer Awards in Sydney last night, topping the count of the record 24,000 votes cast.
The 28-year-old former Mercedes College student picked up
the $5000 prize six months after the Australian Ballet elevated her to principal artist just after she took her bows at the
end of the premiere of Giselle at the Sydney Opera House.
Australian Ballet artistic director David McAllister, also
from Perth, said he was not surprised that Eastoe was the people’s choice. “As our newest principal artist she
continues to win hearts every time she steps on stage,” he said.
Sydney’s Gina Brescianini, 24, won the $20,000 Telstra
Ballet Dancer Award for young ballet dancers.
Her award was presented by Australian Ballet board member
Sarah Murdoch, who was once a young student at the same Sydney dance studio where Brescianini first learnt to dance at the
age of four.
The diminutive Eastoe earned gushing
praise from the notoriously tough English critics last year for her lead role as Odette in Graeme Murphy’s award-winning
production of Swan Lake during the Australian Ballet’s tour of Britain, She also danced the leading roles of Aurora
and the Canari Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty later in the year.
2006 Telstra Ballet Dancer Award
Madeleine Eastoe wins People's Choice Award
The Australian Ballet
November 28, 2006
....The People’s Choice
Award, a $5,000 cash prize, also provided by Telstra, was presented to Perth’s Madeleine Eastoe. The
People’s Choice Award is designed to engage the general public by giving them the opportunity to vote for their favourite
nominee online or via SMS. This year’s People’s Choice Award attracted 24,000 votes over six months, of which
Madeleine Eastoe received the highest number.
My Favourite Things
Home Magazine
Sunday Times Newspaper, Perth
June 10, 2006
Memories of a French honeymoon and a string of pearls bring beauty to this dancer's
life snapshot.
Madeleine Eastoe
Occupation:Principal artist with The Australian Ballet
Born: Perth, WA
Educated: Mercedes College, Perth; The Australian Ballet School
Career highlight: When our artistic director, David McAllister, promoted me to principal
artist last month in front of the audience after the first performance of Giselle in Sydney.
1. Chocolate box
I got this when my husband, Tim (also a dancer with The Australian Ballet), and I were in Paris
for our honeymoon. We discovered it in an antique store in Saint Germain, so it was like bringing back a little bit of Paris.
I haven't put anything in it yet. It is the lady's face I really love. They don't make chocolate boxes like that any more.
2. High Society DVD
This is the old Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby movie. My brother gave it to me for a birthday present.
I'm not a huge DVD watcher, but this one is an exception. It's good to watch when I'm sick or have a spare afternoon.
3. Vase
Tim bought this for my birthday one year from a collectables shop that doesn't exist any more.
We used to browse there quite a lot, but it was on the expensive side. I like the colours on it, you don't need any flowers
in it to make it look great. I'm not sure what era it is, but it's antique and has beautiful patterning.
4. Wedding dress
I found this in a vintage shop a year before my wedding day. Tim and I had been engaged for
a couple of months when I found it, and it reminds me of how much fun we had on our wedding day. It's a very comfortable dress,
from the 1950s. I wouldn't have suited a big frou-frou outfit. We got married in Sydney in December, 2004.
5. Candle
This is an amber aroma candle. There's a wonderful perfumery on Brunswick St we treat ourselves
to sometimes, and that's where I got it. I love walking into a room when this candle is burning. When our place is filled
with this smell, it reminds me of good things.
6. Pearls
These were presented to my grandmother by her children and given to me when she passed away.
It's not that they're particularly authentic or expensive, but I always take them on tour with me. There is always a big function,
so I wear these. My grandmother passed away in the early stages of me joining The Australian Ballet.
7. Lamp
This is a French-style lamp. You can put flowers in the two jars. I bought it as a feel-good
present for myself after I danced in a charity performance and gave a really average performance. I used my artist's fee to
buy it. I'd been looking at it for a while and that seemed like the perfect chance to get it. I needed to cheer myself up.
When you perform outside your normal work schedule, it can be harder, and that performance was one of those times.
8. Bike
My bike is a huge part of my life. I like to be able to take off at a moment's notice and get
to places easily. The best part is when Tim and I take our bikes to the theatre when we perform and ride them home, whizzing
past all the cars stuck in traffic. I have the bike more for independence than fitness. It's a hand-me-down; it's Tim's old
bike I got after he got a new one. I may just ride home after appearing as Giselle at the State Theatre in Melbourne this
month.
Spirits alive in ballet's dark soul
The Age
7 June 2006
As Madeleine Eastoe tackles her first principal artist's role, the ghosts of Giselles
past are on hand to help her find her way, writes Mary O'Brien.
The Australian Ballet's newest star Madeleine Eastoe is tackling one of the most demanding roles
for a ballerina - the love-struck Giselle - with the help of some expert advice.
The petite Eastoe is making her debut as the peasant girl-turned-spirit by drawing on the experience
of past Giselles: ballet coach Fiona Tonkin and respected freelance director Maina Gielgud, who has returned from London to
revive her popular 20-year-old production.
The 19th-century classic romantic ballet tells the story of a simple country girl who falls
in love with a prince in disguise. When she discovers that he is already engaged, she goes mad and dies. She later returns
as a spirit to save the prince from the avenging wilis, or ghosts. It's an old-fashioned ballet that requires intensive coaching
to bring it alive.
"I cannot say I've had a broken heart," Eastoe admits. "Giselle is a very delicate character,
she's very sensitive and innocent. She gets into a false sense of security and falls in love with someone who is already engaged."
Gielgud has had a hands-on approach since she arrived in Australia to direct the ballet that
is close to her heart. She says the role requires a combination of acting, dancing and artistry.
"Everyone can feel for Giselle because everyone has been betrayed in their love life one way
or another," Gielgud says.
She believes a dancer should be a mature artist, not just a "legs-around-the-ears" ballerina,
to be successful in the part.
The role is well-timed for Eastoe, who was promoted to principal artist last month. She grew
up in Perth where she was trained by her ballet-teacher mother. She moved to Melbourne when she was 15 to attend the Australian
Ballet School and joined the Australian Ballet in 1997.
"I don't find ballet easy," she admits. "I still find it hard from day to day and I struggle
with different parts."
Her dedication has impressed ballet mistress Fiona Tonkin, who coached the troupe before Gielgud
arrived. "Madeleine has such a lovely natural sense of interpretation," Tonkin says. "It's really delightful to watch her
develop in this role."
Tonkin performed Giselle many times, giving her last performance in Tokyo in the early 1990s.
She says it's a difficult ballet to perfect because the dancer has to perform two parts: a peasant girl who is human in the
first act and a spirit from another world in the second act.
Dancers often come to terms with the technical aspects first but need a personal interpretation
to convince the audience.
Tonkin says Eastoe likes to discuss the role, then go away and think about it.
The ballet mistress admits she had a different approach. "I'm very careful not to say I did
it this way. The dancers have to find their own way through."
Tonkin's heart-breaking mad scene brought audiences to tears at the time and it still makes
her emotional to think about it. But Eastoe doesn't have any problem with that scene.
"I really enjoy going mad. If you are able to tell it beautifully it feels like it's the right
amount and by the time you finish act two it's quite serene," she says.
Gielgud danced the role during the 1970s with the London Festival Ballet. She says it's a milestone
in every ballerina's career because it's such a complete role: "It calls for an extraordinary blend of acting and dancing."
She says the ballet is still relevant today but it needs to be approached as if it's a new work each time.
As artistic director of the Australian Ballet, she first staged her acclaimed production of
Giselle in 1986. It was later performed in London and New York. More recently she has staged it with the Boston Ballet, Houston
Ballet and France's Ballet du Rhin.
She admires the Australian Ballet's dedication to acting and artistic values, which she feels
puts it in a minority among international ballet companies.
Gielgud believes the oral tradition of former Giselles advising current ones is very important
but there has to be a freedom for individual interpretations. She says the five different casts who perform in the current
Giselle are all very different.
Eastoe is full of admiration for Gielgud: "She goes through every detail of the character and
has great skill at tailoring the role to suit the person."
She remembers seeing Tonkin in the role and says she was a very natural Giselle. She also enjoys
comparing notes with the other dancers who are performing the part.
"I never want to be too sure, not too confident. I have a little bit of doubt and that's OK.
It makes me really look at my preparation and everything right up till the season begins."
Giselle opens at the State Theatre on Thursday and runs until June 19.
A dancer of great range is lifted high
Valerie Lawson
SMH, 12 May 2006
NOW she's really dancing with the stars.
Madeleine Eastoe was promoted to the rank of principal artist of the
Australian Ballet last night, joining a select few at the pinnacle of the company.
Her promotion was announced on stage at the Sydney Opera House by the company's artistic director,
David McAllister.
Eastoe, 27, had just danced one of ballet's the most demanding roles, partnered by Cedric Ygnace,
a principal guest artist from the Dutch National Ballet.
Among those watching her debut as Giselle were her parents, John and Adrienne Eastoe, of Perth,
and her husband, Timothy Harbour, a senior artist at the Australian Ballet.
"Her maturity and the way she approached Giselle have been fantastic", McAllister said
yesterday, as was "the way she attacked and delved into the role of Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty last year.
"Aurora is a tough role to take on, and equally Giselle. And after those two iconic debuts
in rapid succession and also with such success, she's really proved that this is the time."
Eastoe has dedicated most of her life to dance, training with her mother, a ballet teacher in
Perth, before moving to the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne at 15.
She joined the Australian Ballet in 1997, becoming a senior artist, one rank below principal,
in 2004.
A year ago the diminutive Eastoe danced as Odette in Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake on the
opening night of the Australian Ballet's tour of Britain.
After her performance in Cardiff The Financial Times's veteran ballet critic Clement
Crisp wrote: "Madeleine Eastoe as Odette is an outstanding artist of extraordinary range and unfailing power." Crisp is known
to be economical with his praise.
Many expected her to be promoted immediately, but McAllister held back as "I felt it would have
added a lot of pressure to the [subsequent] London season. I wanted to see what happened after that".
To promote a dancer to principal artist, he looked beyond technique and artistry, to "the confidence
to take on the position. It's not just another rank; it's the ultimate rank. Both the dancer and myself have to know totally
this is the right thing."
There are now 10 principals in the company of 64 dancers.
"The most exciting thing about Maddie is she has an absolutely unique and very personal artistry
… She dances with her whole body, she tells the story with her whole body. It's not just nice dancing with a pretty
face on top. She's the whole package."
Green Room Awards announced
Congratulations to all dancers of The Australian Ballet for winning Best Ensemble for Jiri
in this year’s Green Room Awards, presented at the Arts Centre in Melbourne on Sunday, 9 April.
Senior
Artist Madeleine Eastoe won the award of Best Female Dancer for all her work in 2005. It included such coveted
roles as Odette in Graeme Murphy’s acclaimed Swan Lake on both opening nights of the company’s UK Tour,
as well as the Sylph in La Sylphide. She also performed as Canari Fairy in Stanton Welch’s new production of
The Sleeping Beauty, and in lead roles in the multiple-bill works Jiri and White.
Bangarra
Dance Theatre dancer Patrick Thaiday, currently on stage with dancers of The Australian Ballet in the Sydney season of
Gathering, won in the category of Best Male Dancer.
Dancer determined to follow in own footsteps
By Sharon Verghis
24 April 2004
Madeleine Eastoe spent a fine Sydney afternoon yesterday channelling
rage and despair in ballet's "great mad scene", then euphoria and hope at lost love reclaimed.
Fresh from traversing an exhausting emotional spectrum in rehearsal for her opening-night performance
as Odette in the Australian Ballet's return season of Swan Lake next week, the senior artist was game to tackle the
question of how to bring a personal distinctiveness to a role made famous by another dancer.
Comparisons are indeed odious, but Eastoe - who will perform opposite Steven Heathcote on the
opening night at the Opera House on Tuesday - accepts their inevitability.
The dancer will share the role with principal dancer Kirsty Martin, guest artist Elisha Willis,
and senior artist Rachel Rawlins, but there will be another invisible performer in their midst: former principal dancer Simone
Goldsmith, who danced the role of Odette to critical acclaim in the original production in 2002.
The role was created with Goldsmith in mind by Graeme Murphy, and the public has intimately
associated her with it.
The image of Goldsmith - who retired from the company last year - rising stalk-like from a billowing
tulle skirt, and partnered by the debonair Heathcote, was used widely to market the ballet, and her performances as the tragic
Odette garnered her major awards.
Eastoe is pragmatic about comparisons, saying it would be unrealistic to expect none.
Goldsmith was an outstanding Odette, she says, but there are still plenty of new things to be
brought to the role.
"You can bring a lot to it because it's so emotionally challenging, there's all those psychological
aspects to it," says the dancer, who was one of the other dancers in the Odette role in the Sydney season of the ballet in
2002.
"It's one of the great roles . . . and like any lead role our company does, you do sort of find
your own way to do things.
"I really enjoy the character side of the role, though the dancing is fabulous too.
" It's got one of the great mad scenes in ballet, and everyone has their own interpretation
of how it should be done."
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