Entertainments Editor Viv Hardwick talks to the director of the Australian Dance Theatre, Garry Stewart, about his decison to bring a more aggressive version of Swan Lake to the North-East, and how the Art down Under has benefited.

CLASSICAL ballet, contemporary dance, martial arts, breakdance, yoga, contortionism and gymnastics are mixed in with video art and techno music, under the semi-serious title of Birdbrain, make the Australian Dance Theatre debut on Tyneside worthy of note.

This fast and aggressive reworking of ballet classic Swan Lake tomorrow and Saturday, is all the more intriguing because Newcastle's Theatre Royal has booked the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre to perform Tchaikovsky's definitive work on February 16-19.

So how does ADT director and choreographer Garry Stewart defend his decision to update ballet perfection?

He says: "I think it's more of an interesting point of discussion for a choreographer rather than a necessity because it's such a strong cultural icon within dance. The thing about Birdbrain is that it's not a contemporary interpretation of the narrative, it's all those elements of Swan Lake pulled apart and deconstructed and reconstituted to form something else.

"My interest was in what makes the original ballet pre-eminent and that was one of the questions when I was researching Birdbrain."

The production also uses words on the dancer's T-shirts which "forces the audience to look at the work from the perspective of language and thought as well".

He explains: "One of the things that has always struck me about classical ballet is the two-dimensional perspective to the drama and the acting and theatricality and I feel words on shirts like Royal Disdain and Peasant Joy, Longing, Despair and Lover can allow anyone to be any character. He created the work about five years ago and made "micro-changes along the way and reached a point of finality".

"Some of the music is created electronically by sampling the original score but a lot of it doesn't have anything to do with the original. The reason I work with this kind of music is that it's the most current approach to creating music in the way that Tchaikovsky's music score was the most current of his time.

"His score had some dreadful reviews when it was first performed, the whole work was completely panned and the music was rated as not worth listening to and, of course, the work has had its revenge." As for his choice of Birdbrain, Stewart responds: "The name indicates that you're looking into the psyche of the swan, plus it also means some is a bit of a simpleton and gives it a certain sense of humour and irony.

"Swan Lake's an incredibly earnest 19th Century myth taken from Germany and the work is delivered with great seriousness, so the irony is a gentle undercutting of all that and calls the power of the work into question."

The work is performed by ten dancers plus a yoga contortionist who takes the role of Baron von Rothbart, the evil sorcerer. Stewart chose yoga because the baron is a shapeshifter turning from man to owl and "when the body is so distorted I guess, historically, we make those associations".

On the decision to include Newcastle in the tour, Stewart says: "We presented Birdbrain in London and Snape Maltings (in Suffolk) about 18 months ago and the work was received really warmly and we gained positive reviews," explains Stewart. As a result the Australian Dance Theatre were asked to undertake a major Arts Council England-funded tour.

"We were fortunate to receive this kind of help in the UK being a foreign company. It was fantastic there was so much faith and support in the work of ADT."

He goes on to explain that the stronger links between ADT and the UK have come as a blessing to the Adelaide-based company, who have traditionally struggled for funding.

"I think there's a troubled relationship between dance and the Australian culture because sport tends to rule in general. What's incredible is that in the last two Olympic Games we came fourth in the medal tally yet we only have a population of 20 million. But, at the same time, it degraded the kind of focus and support given to the Arts. But we are in a better position than the United States where dance is in a sad state of affairs and the Art has all but been dismantled because there isn't the support. In Australia we're somewhere in the middle, but we need more support.

"It is possible to practice your craft and gain Government funding, but, at the moment, it's under great pressure.

"Once Australians see there is approval outside the country then they start looking at their own and, for us, the tide started turning when we began touring and being asked to return to New York and London. That really made people look up in our home town and now audiences are expanding."

* Birdbrain runs Friday-Saturday at Newcastle's Theatre Royal. Box Office: 0870 905 5060.

Published: 10/02/2005