West Australian Ballet to tour to Indonesia

After more than 20 years, the West Australian Ballet will be touring to Jakarta, Indonesia.

Initiated by the Ballet Indonesia Foundation (Ballet.id) and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, the tour has been made possible by an investment of $114,440 from the Federal Government’s Catalyst arts fund and $20,000 from WA’s Department of Culture and the Arts.

An announcement of the tour was made recently at the Indonesian Consulate in Perth by Commonwealth Arts Minister Mitch Fifield and WA Minister for Culture and the Arts John Day, joined by WAB Artistic Director Aurélien Scannella.

“Having an Australian ballet company travel to Jakarta is very important in building a cultural bridge between our two countries. Everyone has been working hard to get this tour on track in less than a year, which is really amazing.” Scannella said.

The tour follows a performance by WAB Soloist Christopher Hill and Australian prima ballerina Juliet Burnett at Ballet.id’s first-ever Indonesian Ballet Gala in August 2015, which ignited a resounding demand for western dance in Indonesia.

“The public loved it and they were really asking for more,” Scannella said. “We are going to be the first Western ballet company to be invited to perform in Jakarta.”

Included in the gala style programme will be David Dawson’s 5 and On the Nature of Daylight, a solo from The Nutcracker, a pas de dux from David Nixon’s Beauty & the Beast, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s La Pluie, and a ball scene from Jayne Smeulders’ Cinderella, along with a performance by a youth ensemble comprising local Indonesian dancers.

“Two performances will be held at the Jakarta Theatre, Taman Ismail Marzuki, along with a series of ballet masterclasses for local teachers and students. As well as this there will be technical workshops lead by our production team to share their skills with theatre technicians at the Jakarta Theatre,” said Jan Stewart, the acting CEO of West Australian Ballet. “This kind of skills exchange is a very important element of this tour and we are looking forward to working with our Indonesian counterparts very much.”

The tour will run August 2–7, 2016. For further information on WAB’s 2016 Season, including the upcoming home production of David Nixon’s Beauty & the Beast, visit http://waballet.com.au. Learn more about the WAB tour to Indonesia in this article by The West Australian.

Photo: Brooke Widdison-Jacobs, Melissa Boniface and Aurélien Scannella at the Indonesian Console. Photo by Tony Currie.