Page 57 - DANCE 2020 Full Time Studies Guide

Full-Time STudieS Guide 2020
A dream realised
For this dancer, a knock-back only crystalised his ambition.
After two years, as much as he enjoyed dancing with the company, he couldn’t deny his dream any longer. He auditioned for The Australian Ballet. This time he was accepted, and he joined in January of 2016.
The main benefit of his studies at the ABS, he says, was receiving “the highest standard of classical coaching daily as well as incredible guidance in pas de deux, contemporary, character, music, body conditioning, psychology and anatomy”. “As a male I would say the excellent training in pas de deux is what I am most grateful for. The partnering skills
I learnt at the School have helped me in acquiring soloist and principal opportunities
in both companies.”
Nathan was promoted to coryphee in 2017 and is revelling in the opportunities coming his way. At the time of writing, for example, he was on his way to perform in New York with 12 other dancers from the company.
What does he wish he’d known as a student?
“I wish I had known that a lot is beyond your control. You can’t control how a director, superior or audience member feels about you. I’ve learnt that instead of focusing on what you can’t control, focus on what you can, which is how you can work to better yourself and be the best artist you can be.”
FROM the age of 10, Nathan
Brook regularly went to see The Australian Ballet perform at the Sydney Opera House and dreamed
of joining the company one day. So when he wasn’t offered a contract after graduating from the Australian Ballet School, he was “disappointed, to say the least”.
He had trained intensively up to that point. He left secondary school after finishing Year 8 and moved to Melbourne to study full-time at the ABS and continue his academic studies at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School. Before then he had attained his RAD Intermediate Certificate.
His dejection soon turned to joy, however, when he was offered a position as
a Young Artist with the Queensland Ballet (effectively an apprentice year). “While the disappointment of not getting my dream job
was challenging, I believe that this moment in time was the making of me,” Nathan says now. “I realised what mattered was that I was dancing. During my two years at Queensland Ballet I learnt how to work in a company. The extensive classical and pas de deux training
I had received at the Australian Ballet School had put me in a great position to be useful.
“While at Queensland Ballet I had opportunities to dance in every season and was nurtured and often privately coached by their excellent faculty. Through this time I learnt to motivate myself rather than rely on a teacher to externally motivate me.”
One challenge he hadn’t expected, however, was homesickness.
“Nothing can prepare you for the loneliness that can come from living in a new city. Luckily, everyone at QB was welcoming and I made some close friends.”
Nathan with Australian Ballet principal Lana Jones performing the bedroom pas de deux from Graeme Murphy’s ‘The Silver Rose’.
AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2019 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU | 57