Pre-Professional Year

2020 marked the seventh year of Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year program, albeit a very different year than any other. Over the past seven years the course has flourished and is both a critical element of the Advanced Training and Education programs at Sydney Dance Company and a unique, yet integral part of the dance training ecology in Australia. The 25 young dancers embarked on training for Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas. While the 2020 cohort was dealt some challenges, they demonstrated a maturity and resilience that allowed them to move with grace through their training in such unusual circumstances. Pivoting the course online for the entirety of term two saw the PPY ensemble undertake multiple Ballet, Contemporary, Improvisation, Yoga and Body Conditioning classes from their loungerooms via Zoom, while powering through much of the course’s written components. The students also participated in round table discussions via Zoom with Company dancers, exploring a range of topics including possible career trajectories, mental health for dancers and positive dance training methodologies. This was an invaluable and rare opportunity to converse with, and pick the brains of, professional dancers, each of whom traversed a unique road to success. Alongside this, the young dancers also got creative. During the height of restrictions, former Company dancer and Rehearsal Associate Charmene Yap collaborated with the cohort to create a film project, Habituate. The dancers responded to tasks and instructions given by Charmene and each filmed themselves on their smart phones. The result was a film in four parts, set to four new scores composed by the students of Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Composing Women 2020 program. As restrictions began to ease, the PPY dancers embarked upon another project; a socially distanced, site-specific film at Paddington Reservoir and Bombo Quary, created by Sydney-based choreographer and film-maker Sue Healey. Study returned to socially distanced seminormality by terms three and four, and across the year, the PPY ensemble worked with an array of Australia’s leading industry specialists. Three of the 2020 cohort were supported in their studies by scholarships from the Doug Hall Foundation, the Wales Family and Mary Zuber. The Hepzibah Artist Development Program, which supports the next generation of Australian artists, helped to ensure that professional development opportunities were afforded to both emerging, visiting choreographers and creatives and the PPY dancers themselves. In collaboration with Bangarra Dance Theatre, Sydney Dance Company welcomed Madison Paluch and Edan Porter, recipients of the Russell Page Graduate Program (RPGP) for a ten-week placement in the Pre-Professional Year. Initiated in 2015, RPGP provides the opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance graduates or early career artists to develop as professional dancers through training, mentoring, performance and touring seasons. With the opportunity to engage virtually with communities that 2020 afforded everyone, the Pre-Professional Year team held two Virtual Open Days, attended by dancers, prospective PPY students and their families from across the country. Attendees were able to participate in a virtual improvisation class facilitated by PPY Course-Coordinator Omer Backley Astrachan, followed by a Q&A with PPY19 and 20 dancers and other faculty members. While it was at times uncertain as to whether the PPY 2020 cohort would make it to the stage, once able to return to the studio in term three, they commenced work on their graduation performance, PPY20 Revealed. They rehearsed three new works created by choreographers Holly Doyle, Jessica Goodfellow and Omer Backley Astrachan, and an excerpt from Rafael Bonachela’s award winning 6 Breaths. The class of 2020 finally had the opportunity to bring these works to life on stage in December at Carriageworks for their graduate performance, a fitting end to the year. Sabine Crompton-Ward, a dancer in PPY 2020, was awarded the coveted trainee position for 2021 with Sydney Dance Company. Having since performed on stage with the Company in Sydney for the world premiere of Rafael Bonachela’s Impermanence, and at the Adelaide Festival, she reflects on her experience of PPY with a wisdom we can all learn from. “During my time in the Pre-Professional Year program, I have come to understand and find comfort in the fact that everything I think I know for sure is temporary. Sometimes I feel like I know nothing at all - as though I’ve only just begun. Sometimes this is scary, but this course has taught me how to learn. So perhaps this means I already have everything I’ll ever need. I am grateful to have been able to share the space with such beautiful people. They have inspired me and reminded me to place value on the things I don’t know yet.”