An Australian Woman making a Song and Dance about Politics, Social Issues, a Bit of Everything...!
It's especially about Singing and Dancing which go right back to our Dreamtime.
Standardised Tests like Naplan: The Tin Gods of Education?
The other day I was reminiscing with a friend who works at the local Primary School about what fun we used to have at our school concerts. She said wistfully that now there is no time for music, singing and dancing. The children are much too busy "working"; practising Naplan standardised test examples so that the school's reputation will not suffer when results are published on the "My School" website.
This struck me as a tragedy! Music has been a vital part of education at least as far back as the Greeks; likewise movement and physical education ( to quote Maria Montessori, that icon of early childhood education: "The development of the child's mind comes through his movements"). Songs are a proven aid to literacy, including second language literacy, not to mention the cultural richness they provide. There is a plethora of research showing the benefits of music, song and dance to brain development; with even measurable improvement on the scores of those dreaded standardised tests. So definitely throwing the baby out with the bathwater!
Over the past six years Australian children in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 have been pressured with Naplan: The National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy. According to Naplan's authors, "It is one of a number of important tools used by teachers to measure student progress."However, this useful diagnostic tool for assessing some literacy/numeracy skills has been elevated into the Holy Grail of our education system. Students, teachers and schools are assessed, judged and funded on the basis of published Naplan scores The inevitable competition between schools means those kids who would most benefit from such diagnosis, those who struggle, are often advised to stay home, so as not to affect results! The tests' inflated importance leads to unintended consequences, documented by Literacy Educators Coalition: (http://www.literacyeducators.com.au/naplan/naplan-articles/). Like endemic "teaching to the test" to the detriment of the rest of the curriculum. Not only do music and dancing miss out, but also science, social studies, languages, art, social skills, even in-depth literacy and numeracy! No time to actually read books with all that Naplan homework to do. Creativity, formerly a great strength of Oz education, is sacrificed. Our kids will become very good at taking Naplan tests and not much else!
Our mis-placed faith in standardised tests is symptomatic of our lack of trust in our teachers. Teachers are now so busy being accountable, providing proof of everything they do, that they have little time to "teach". We need to emulate Finland's much-admired education system where teachers are valued, well-paid, highly trained and then trusted to develop each child to his/her full, unique potential. No need for Naplan there!
A Conundrum: Why does it take as long as two weeks for card or letter to arrive by mail when it used to take a couple of days? Australia Post complains bitterly about loss of profit on these "old-fashioned" missives while their delivery service is abysmal! A birthday without birthday cards or love without a love letter would seem to be the sad future Australia Post has in mind. Lucinda Sharpe
Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta in the
English National Ballet's 2014 production of Romeo and Juliet in London.
Photograph: Jane Hobson/Rex
Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta are the Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
of the ballet world. Perhaps it’s a crass comparison to make, but it’s
difficult to otherwise translate the level of fame and credibility that
the Spanish Rojo and Cuban Acosta have scaled to in their careers. And
though the two are not romantically linked, their onstage chemistry has
come to define a generation of classical ballet.
“It has been the most important partnership of my career,” says Rojo, who has been rehearsing at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre
for several days now. Up close, the dancer has a presence much larger
than her petite form, and a quiet confidence only those accustomed to
having their large ambitions fulfilled can carry. Her words are
delivered with thoughtful deliberation.
“The first time I met
Carlos I was still a ballet student in Spain. He came with the Cuban
National Ballet and I saw him do Blue Bird in class. He was, and is,
amazing. He’s a very generous artist and an incredible partner. And we
have such a good natural coordination. Musically and the way we dance,
everything just fits. So he allows both of us to be really free on
stage.”
Both stars, along with a third – Australia’s own Steven
McRae – are currently in Brisbane to perform with the Queensland Ballet
in a production of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet.
While guest appearances are not uncommon in the ballet world, stars of
this calibre would usually request their own partners. Instead all three
are performing on alternating nights and have been paired with
Queensland Ballet principals as part of a state-funded initiative in
which local artists gain experience working with overseas talent.
Rojo in conversation is virtually unrecognisable onstage as Juliet.
In the opening act her Juliet is still a child dipping one toe into
adolescence, full of hugs for her nurse and shy glimpses at her suitors.
Her body is unburdened by memory, blessed with untempered energy. It is
only when Juliet meets her Romeo that the choreography shifts and she
begins to draw longer, bolder shapes in the air.
“You have to take
Juliet from a little girl that knows nothing to a woman that decides to
die for love. And that journey of growing up and also of loss of
innocence is quite a difficult emotional task,” says Rojo. It is a
testament to the skill of both cast members that following nearly two
decades of playing these titular characters, the pair can still bring
that mix of youth, innocence, wonder, and overwrought teenage angst the
story demands.
For Rojo, getting into the skin of Juliet is like
winding the clock back. “I think life experience gives you things but it
also takes away. It takes away naivete. And it takes away belief. When
you're young you believe in things. Completely. With a total passion,
you believe that human beings can be better and that the world can
change and you believe in love forever. I don't want Juliet to become
pragmatic. So I try to forget my experience. I believe again, with that
intensity.”
Tamara Rojo plays Juliet: a 'journey of growing up and also of loss of innocence'. Photograph: Queensland Ballet
Forty is an unkind birthday in the ballet world. It matters neither
how great nor how fit you are, talk – and soon after the reality – of
retirement looms large. For Rojo, currently 40, that transition into a
second career began two years ago when she was appointed artistic
director for the English National Ballet.
It is a position that is part art, part hustling for funding dollars,
media coverage and government support on behalf of the company.
She
shakes her head, quite solemnly, when I propose a parallel to the 1965
premiere of MacMillan’s work, featuring a 46-year-old Margot Fonteyn.
“No I'm quite a lot younger, it makes a big difference between 40 and
46. But also the way we train today, the work with nutritionists and
sports scientists, means that our bodies tend to be healthier and
stronger for longer, so hopefully it doesn't look anything like that.”
Rojo
seems to sense she may have spoken a small discourtesy. “I mean don't
get me wrong I really admire her, and I think she was probably a very
beautiful Juliet, although I never saw her. But I've always been
inspired by Lynn Seymour.”
As Rojo explains, MacMillan’s
choreography was originally created for Seymour, who was a principal
dancer with the Royal Ballet. It was the producer at the time that last
minute imposed Fonteyn, and in the process many steps were altered
because the older dancer couldn’t physically cope with the Seymour
routine. “And I think it's a really sad story that Lynn Seymour didn't
get to open the night,” she adds.
What is it that she loves about
Seymour? “There was a total honesty [to her dance], no judgement of
character. So you would see the beauty and also the ugliness. I think
it’s much easier to empathise with a role or character that shows all
the sides of human beings. We all can be wonderful but also potential
murderers. Giving, but selfish too.”
The Queensland Ballet perform Romeo and Juliet. Photograph: Queensland Ballet
Two days after meeting Rojo, I speak to Acosta on the phone.
Acosta too, crossed the 40-line more than a year ago now, and recently announced that in 2016 he will retire from classical ballet.
He is still impressively fit, and brings the same signature vitality
and power to his performances. But those leaps, that once inspired a
writer to so memorably describe him
as “a dancer who slashes across space faster than anyone else, who
lacerates the air with shapes so clear and sharp they seem to throw off
sparks”, cost more these days.
For Acosta contemporary dance
offers an opportunity to continue dancing, in a form more forgiving on
the body. “Classical ballet, it injures me, now that I don’t have the
freshest of bodies. And in classical I’ve done them all. I’m just
repeating myself and I want so much from life. So I’d like to use this
time now for new creations,” he says.
Carlos Acosta brings his signature vitality and power to the Queensland Ballet. Photograph: Bill Cooper
Time may be unkind on the body, but it can bring wisdom. And for
Acosta, only maturity has allowed for a sophistication in the treatment
of his character. “In the beginning when you see Romeo and the other
kids they just want to fight and joke around with harlots. He is the
essence of youth. But then you witness a transformation inspired by
powerful love. When I first played this role I was too young to
understand that complexity.”
Acosta's rise from poverty-stricken
Cuba to international ballet stardom is the stuff of movies. And there
are uncanny parallels to the life of Queensland Ballet’s artistic
director Li Cunxin, who in 2003 published the award-winning
autobiography Mao’s Last Dancer,
which was, indeed, turned into a film. The men share humble upbringings
in communist countries and spent overlapping periods at the Houston Ballet.
“Li’s
training [in China] was influenced by the Russian Vaganova school, and
my school in Cuba was highly influenced by Russia, so there’s definitely
similarities in the way you execute the steps. Boys are expected to be
strong and jump high. Bigger is better.”
Australian ballet superstar Steven McRae as Romeo. Photograph: Bill Cooper
Their shared history at the Houston Ballet helped Li secure Acosta's
participation in this new production. As did a meeting between Li and
Rojo, which saw the two bond over big visions for their respective
companies. For McRae, principal dancer with the Royal Ballet,
this will be an opportunity for audiences to see the Australian perform
in his home country, for a production he helpfully analogises as “the
ballet world’s state of origin”.
Friday’s performance will be the
culmination of a 30-year-long dream for Li. It was a live television
broadcast of the production by the American Ballet Theatre,
watched over beer and pizza at a fellow dancer’s home, which first
captivated him. And while Li was given the opportunity to play Romeo in a
different production, his dream to perform the Kenneth MacMillan
version – if there could be a “gold standard”, MacMillan’s work would
have earned it – went sadly unfulfilled.
“I truly believe that
Kenneth's Romeo and Juliet is the best in the world,” says Li. “It’s one
of the most daring creations of our generation. Kenneth set out, not to
create anything that was pretty like Swan Lake, but a real story
reflecting real life of real people. It’s one of those ballets that will
not only move you, it will make you reflect about life in general.”
