Vale Carla Zampatti AC

You could never predict when she would arrive to a Board meeting. But there was never any doubt when she did. There was not a room she inhabited that did not feel that singular presence. A delicate grace held itself in the air around her like some magical gossamer which you could surely glimpse if you glanced sharply enough out of the side of your eye. Carla Zampatti AC came to Sydney Dance Company at a time of its greatest need. Around the turn of the last decade ours was an institution near destitute and in a state of upheaval following calamity both on and off the stage. Over the following years, including close to nine as a Board member, Sydney Dance Company was blessed with her natural élan, exceptional business acumen and, frankly, simply the glow of her presence which made every challenge – from major fundraising to pandemic shutdowns – less daunting. Hers was an almost otherworldly elegance. One that was manifest in a delicate poise and serene countenance at our Board table. While undoubtedly innate to Carla as it is to such a rare few, clearly hers was a wisdom forged like a diamond in tough experience. Resilience was a talent that she wore readily. Today, despite the ongoing pandemic impacts on the performing arts, Sydney Dance Company is thriving artistically with never greater recognition of its status around the globe. And financially we are thankfully robust. Such a situation would never have been without the contributions of many committed individuals, not the least of which was Carla. Her role in the reinvigoration of Sydney Dance Company was immeasurable. Our Company was blessed that she immediately connected with the visceral, poetic and urgent choreography of Rafael Bonachela soon after he became Artistic Director in 2008. In many respects she was our totem. She defined so many aspects of the Sydney Dance Company identity. The cosmopolitan. The uncompromising. The daring. The exceptional. In her accomplishments, Carla spoke to an Australia with a “grown up” identity. This was an easy sophistication. Not one that was earnest in a need for Old World recognition. Or one built for status and hierarchy around its people in the New. Rather she embodied the best of our nation: achievement earned of merit, an egalitarian disposition, creative and fearless, the mindset of a global citizen, kindness and compassion. And her love of art was a powerful and enduring force. Bonachela says, “Carla had a great love of artists and her support of Sydney Dance and of me as an artist came from a place of truly valuing what the arts brings to all our lives. Around the Board table she was an incredible diplomat with wonderful tenacity - a powerful combination. Carla always put the art first.” Each February, on an invariably balmy summer evening, Carla would throw open the doors to her beautiful Woollahra home to host a fundraiser to support commissioning of new choreography, music, costume and design. At our last in February 2020, a matter of short weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic, guests were welcomed with a garden duet by Davide di Giovani and Juliette Barton from Rafael’s then forthcoming work Impermanence, a powerful reflection on the fragility of life.

There is so much about Impermanence, whose journey to the stage was ultimately delayed for twelve months with the onset of the pandemic, that has been resonant for all of us this in this uncertain time. We will forever be grateful to the belief that Carla showed in us and the encouragement she would provide to Australian artists. One of my favourite of her attributes, often delivered with arched eyebrow and mischievous droll humour, was to help us understand the essential balance between the head and the heart that dictates most human endeavour. And undoubtedly that of an arts Board. Carla was part of the Sydney Dance Company family, and her family was a part of ours. In the late afternoon of April 3, as the terrible news was still sinking in, the Company performed Rafael’s work Cinco at the Four Winds Festival at Bermagui on the NSW south coast. It was dedicated to Carla with the five dancers adorned in ethereal costumes designed by her daughter, Bianca Spender. The natural backdrop provided a poignant moment to reflect on such a brilliant legacy. There will be an enormous place left in our hearts at Sydney Dance Company from Carla’s absence. But it is not an unfulfilled place. There was nothing about Carla that could be described as such in so bountiful a life.

Brett Clegg, Chair Published in the Australian Financial Review, April 5 2021