NEW ROUTINE
Already leaders on the world stage, the Australian Ballet’s trailblazing parental policy is enabling dancers to juggle their careers with having children.
The Australian Ballet’s trailblazing parental policy is enabling dancers to juggle their careers with having children.
Choreographer George Balanchine had an exquisite eye for choreography, an equally discerning eye for the ladies and a very strict view of life outside the ballet studio. “No babies, no husbands, no boyfriends,” New York City Ballet soloist Patricia Neary once said of the unwritten rule set by her company’s founder. Imagine the horror had the late Balanchine wandered into the Australian Ballet’s green room in 2016 and discovered ballerinas on the floor playing with babies. And not just ballerinas, male dancers too.
Thankfully, attitudes have shifted since the days of Mr B, and nowhere so much as within the Australian Ballet (AB). In 2007, the company adopted a radical new policy with the careful guidance of Sarah Murdoch and Toni Cody, both board members at the time, that enabled dancers to not only continue working throughout their pregnancies, but to safely return following the birth. Since then 17 babies have joined the ballet family.
One of the newer members is 18-month-old Willow, daughter of senior artist Amy Harris and soloist Jarryd Madden. “I’ve always been someone who wanted kids from a young age, and so did Jarryd, so to have a policy like we do and be able to continue dancing, with Willow, is incredible,” Harris says.
Given the extreme physical nature of life as a professional dancer, ballerinas in the past have typically retired once they fell pregnant. However the AB’s policy enables dancers to transfer to “safe duties” in other areas of the company when they are in the early stages of pregnancy. Not only does it teach the dancers different skills, the company has an additional resource to employ in marketing, ticketing, philanthropy, even reception. During her pregnancy, Harris worked with the philanthropy team and helped company management organise the 2014 tour to LA and Berkeley.
Once the baby is safely born the company’s medical team, headed up by principal physiotherapist Susan Mayes, oversees the ballerina’s staged return to dance, beginning with Pilates and barre work, until they feel ready to perform. “I ended up [coming back] after seven months because I felt good and everything had gone smoothly,” Harris says. “It was like I’d never left, my body was really kind to me. Now I’m back into it and will hopefully dance for another 10 years.”
Unlike many resident companies, the AB is constantly on the road, performing up to 200 shows a year in Australia and beyond. Based in Melbourne, they spend four months in Sydney in addition to tours to Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, making ongoing childcare tricky to maintain, which is where the policy is particularly impressive. “Having the child is one thing, but then coming back to work and being on tour for five or six months of the year is really complex logistically and financially,” says artistic director David McAllister. The policy provides a touring allowance for children, and dancers often join together to employ a nanny. In Harris’s case, she and newly returned principal mum Leanne Stojmenov will share a nanny for the upcoming double season of Vitesse and Symphony in C at the Sydney Opera House; while Harris’s mother will accompany the family to help out on the company’s tour to London in July.
McAllister says the policy is mutually beneficial. “It’s allowed us to have a whole generation of principal and senior ladies who have had children then come back to dance, enriching the company by still being here,” he says.
Royal Ballet prima ballerina Darcey Bussell famously improved following the birth of her two babies, and McAllister says it is no different for his dancers. “Dance is one of those professions that takes such a focus that dancers sometimes find it difficult to maintain a sense of balance. Often the girls who come back find it puts everything into perspective. They’re much calmer and almost perform better, the emotional experience of having a child brings a warmth to their performances.”
Harris has been astounded by the changes she has observed in herself since giving birth to Willow. “I go on stage and just live it … I do all I can on that night without stepping off stage and over-analysing every move I made.”
Unlike traditional workplaces where children aren’t an acceptable part of the culture, the AB welcomes small visitors. “Some directors get a bit funny about that old-fashioned thing of giving ballet away if you’re not 100 per cent focussed on your career, but I think the opposite,” McAllister says. “It’s incredibly nurturing and it brings great humanity to the company.”
■ The Australian Ballet season of Vitesse and Symphony in C runs at the Sydney Opera House from April 26 to May 16.
“IT’S INCREDIBLY NURTURING AND IT BRINGS GREAT HUMANITY TO THE COMPANY”