ABIGAIL BOYLE Tale of a dancer

Words: Bess Manson Image: Monique Ford

Abigail Boyle wears a crystal-encrusted swan on her ring finger. Not that she needs any reminder that she danced the lead roles of Odette and Odile in

Swan Lake for the Royal New Zealand Ballet. The pain in her feet from those notorious 32 fouette´ turns are a living memory.

But pain goes with the territory for a professional ballet dancer. What lives on is the pure and unadulterated joy of dancing. Boyle’s current performance in Artemis

Rising, a new work specially created for her by choreographer Sarah Foster-Sproull, will be her last with the ballet as she retires from the company after 13 years. It gives her some perspective on fulfilling that desire to make it in the viciously competitive and physically demanding world of professional dance.

Apart from the ubiquitous injuries that any dancer worth their salt is going to endure, she’s come out relatively unscathed.

She has been dancing as a soloist from her first year with the company. It’s a world where ambition looms large.

‘‘But you learn that each dancer is individual – we all have our weaknesses and strengths. In an industry like this, instead of having a negative impact, competitiveness should be positive. It should push and nurture a dancer. No-one’s going to put glass in your pointe shoe. It’s not Black Swan.

‘‘I have been really mindful of making it positive, otherwise I’d have a horrible career. You don’t want to waste your energy on the negative. You need every ounce of energy in the studio and on stage so you have to be mindful if negativity creeps in.’’

Resilience is key, she says. You need a thick skin in this business.

‘‘Sometimes you get a tricky choreographer and when you clash you have to remember it’s not personal, it’s work, but that’s hard to remember at times when you’re half undressed in front of the studio mirrors and you’re already judging yourself.’’

One imagines RNZB dancers had to be thick skinned last year amid a storm of controversy around the dearth of local dancers being taken on by the company.

Boyle is economical in her response. ‘‘I’m a dancer. None of that was my say . . .’’

And, despite speculation last year that she might join the exodus of dancers from the company amid bullying rumours, she is effervescent about her time with the RNZB.

‘‘I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time and got along well with all artistic directors and choreographers who gave me many opportunities to explore roles and characters and different aspects of my talent.’’

Those roles over the years have included the title in Carmen, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake and Aurora in Sleeping Beauty.

In 2012 she performed the role of Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, in Giselle, and last year she played Ada in The Piano.

She has been the darling of New Zealand ballet, not to mention the face of the company. She got used to seeing her image on the back of city buses.

Cruelly, retirement comes early to a dancer. At 33, that moment has arrived for Boyle. Softly spoken, delicately freckled, she talks about her chosen art with a quiet intensity. There may be some tears when she performs her last leading role – one that has been choreographed especially for her in the company’s production of Artemis Rising.

Those tears prickle in her eyes when she contemplates what it is to dance for an audience.

Boyle refers to the ultimate dance performance experience as ‘‘pushing past the fourth wall’’ where a dancer feels the connection with the audience.

‘‘When you have shared energy and really connect with the audience, that’s an incredible moment. It’s a special thing to be able to perform on stage. I’ve always found that has been my release – being able to get so completely in the zone, giving your soul.’’

Boyle grew up predominantly in Auckland with her three older brothers. Her mother taught her violin from the age of 5 and was pretty keen on her following a career in music. While not fulfilling her mother’s wish, music played a huge role in her success as a dancer.

At 5 she followed her best friend into ballet lessons and loved it immediately. ‘‘I think I loved all aspects of performing, of being out there. I’d dress up and perform to my teddy bears listening to my dad’s Tina Turner albums. I was always looking to portray a character, to be someone else.’’

Studying at North Shore Ballet Academy under Delphine Burkett, Boyle loved the athleticism of ballet, loved getting sweaty, getting that endorphin high.

She wasn’t aiming to get anywhere with it: ‘‘I just loved the movement. I liked what it did to sculpt my body. I enjoyed improving and excelling at this art form.’’

At 15 she won a national ballet competition and suddenly realised she could take this further – actually make a career out of it.

She started auditioning for schools overseas and won a place at the English National Ballet School. It was a coup but, being a ‘‘home girl’’, she turned it down in favour of a place at Te Whaea: New Zealand School of Dance.

Going so far away from her parents and brothers was just too hard, she says.

But after a year at Te Whaea she stalled, unsure whether she wanted to devote her life to the art. She quit dance and worked in a cafe churning out flat whites while contemplating her future.

Of course, her hiatus was never going to last long. After a year she took a dance class, which was enough to reignite the fire.

‘‘That step away helped me decide that I really and truly wanted this life. I wanted to be a dancer.’’

After finishing her studies, she spent two weeks dancing with the RNZ Ballet. At the end of her sojourn, then artistic director Gary Harris told her she was too tall (she’s 5ft 8, 1.72m). There were no men in the company tall enough to partner her so he was unwilling to offer a place, she says.

At the end of 2005, resigned to auditioning for companies overseas, she decided to do a formal audition for the RNZB for no other reason than to gain experience in that process.

That paid off. ‘‘After the audition Gary pulled me aside and said the next contract was for me. I won him over.’’

It was a daunting experience, being the new kid on the block. She would watch how the established professionals in the company worked, pick the dancers she admired and found ways to work like them.

Back then, she was bullet-proof, she says. ‘‘I could put my leg right up there and bash my body about. I was fearless in the early days taking crazy contemporary roles without worrying about breaking a rib. As a young dancer the world is your oyster. It’s a whole new world with so many possibilities. It was only about eight years later I realised my body will deteriorate.’’

Her body has taken a bashing all right: stress fractures, broken wrist, forearm and elbow, back trauma, torn calf muscle, neck spasms, sprained ankle.

Pain is a common companion for ballet dancers. Adrenaline is a powerful painkiller, she says, but it’s become less effective in recent years.

‘‘I am a more mindful dancer these days. Because I understand my body a whole lot better than I did when I started with the company 13 years ago, I attack technical roles with a better understanding of my body.’’

Her last role as Artemis – Greek goddess of the hunt and nurturer of young people – is befitting of her new career as a teacher.

Following her retirement she’ll join RNZB Education, teaching open classes around New Zealand during the RNZB’s Black Swan, White

Swan tour. She will also continue to teach students through Te Whaea.

Boyle steels herself against raw emotion when she considers the end of her career performing on stage.

‘‘It’s been a long love affair. I have had my ups and downs but when you’re out there, you have the most pure, innocent and uninhibited relationship on that stage with your art form. It’s a beautiful feeling.’’

‘‘I was always looking to portray a character, to be someone else.’’