FLUID FORMS
Together the Australian Ballet, Aquabumps and Dion Lee create moments of ethereal beauty.
When David McAllister was a child, he would spend hours in his Perth swimming pool perfecting the shapes and leaps he would later execute so effortlessly as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet. Those hours of water ballet would also be put to use in a way he never could have envisaged: choreographing a unique collaboration with two leading Australian creatives, photographer and Aquabumps founder Eugene Tan and fashion designer Dion Lee.
McAllister, now the artistic director of the Australian Ballet, worked with six of his dancers to create Underwater dance, in which the performers ‘dance’ under the water’s surface wearing bespoke costumes designed by Lee. The result, shot by Tan, is a series of otherworldly photographs in which the dancers appear to defy gravity.
“Dancers work to counter the effects of gravity,” says McAllister. “I think all dancers love the feeling of working in water, especially Aussie dancers.”
The concept was dreamed up by Tan’s wife Debbie, the commercial director and co-owner of Aquabumps. Her husband was initially reluctant. “Uge is very comfortable shooting underwater, but in waves, so to move it into a controlled environment was very technical and at the start he was unsure. But I got him on a good day!” she says with a laugh.
The concept was devised using Dropbox Paper, a digital collaborative workspace that enabled Lee in New York, Tan in Sydney and McAllister in Melbourne to upload photographs, designs and concepts to a shared portal. After a test run in a smaller pool, the team hired the dive pool at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, which they cloaked in a black background and lit from above, creating otherworldly reflections. Lee’s designs incorporated both swimwear and ready-to-wear in ivory and bright orange, forming graphic patterns and unexpected shapes in the pool.
The four-hour shoot pushed them all outside their comfort zones but resulted in a dramatic series of photographs that was more successful than any of them dared hope. “Seeing the dancers literally float in such beautiful photographs, wrapped in glorious outfits and lit and photographed with such care, highlights the beauty you can create when these wonderful creative forces combine,” McAllister says.
An exhibition of Underwater dance opens at Aquabumps in Bondi on August 1, coinciding with a limited edition of prints available for purchase at www.aquabumps.com.