Now an educator and Artistic Director of Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy, retired Principal Dancer of the Australian Ballet and Sydney Eisteddfod Alumna, Lucinda Dunn ponders her dance beginnings and the unheralded but important role Sydney Eisteddfod competition played when as a young girl she learnt to tie her ballet shoes…
As I look back on my days as a young girl dreaming to be ‘a ballerina’, I realise that my ‘City Of Sydney Eisteddfod’ experience, as it was called in the 80’s, was a really positive tool in my training and a very useful step towards a professional career.
In many instances as I moved through the professional ranks I found myself reliving my Eisteddfod experience as I waited in the wings anticipating my entrance at the end of a solo, minus the bell! Funny how the memory of that bell – signalling my turn in the competition – stuck with me over the years… I competed in a variety of sections during the ‘City Of Sydney’ seasons over many years, groups and solos, in classical ballet, demi, jazz and lyrical.
Australia has so much talent in the arts, and specifically the very competitive dance field. For an aspiring and impressionable young dancer competing in Sydney Eisteddfod events as you develop your skill is a natural and important process. Further, the very high calibre of the adjudicators offers young dancers a rare opportunity to get relevant and positive feedback in a safe and nurturing environment.
Lucinda Dunn coaching Olivia Betteridge
Sydney is fortunate to host the most prestigious career launching competition in the southern hemisphere – the annual Sydney Eisteddfod McDonald’s Ballet Scholarship. With the final staged at the Sydney Opera House and adjudicated by Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet, David McAllister, the standard is incredibly high, draws talent from many interstate cities and is the calendar highlight in many ballet studios/academies across the country.
My earliest memories of the big “McDonalds” challenge are of watching the prestigious “Stuyvesant”, then becoming “Rothmans” at the Sydney Opera House when I was a teenager, and admiring the “big” girls.
I was a Rothmans finalist in 1990. I still remember being incredibly nervous walking up the staircase to side stage of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. I danced Aurora Act 1, and my demi was a Dragonfly, in which I got entangled in a rope handled by 2 of my friends on the side…
Tanya Pearson and Lucinda Dunn – A Sydney Eisteddfod Win
Also to be commented on as a strong memory was the fun, excitement and camaraderie I had in the dressing rooms with fellow competitors. So young and energetic with huge make up cases, mandatory “cedel” hairspray (even to this day those spray cans invigorate my competition memories!) and what could be mistaken for a giant frisbee protecting our precious tutus!
I have travelled a fair amount internationally in recent months in my new role as Artistic Director of the Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy, and Australians always hold their flag high and proud. The depth and calibre of competition in this country plays an important part in achieving that status.
Now as a coach and director I’m fortunate to be able to guide wide eyed, ambitious young dancers to experience and learn from these invaluable Sydney Eisteddfod competitions – and this is much more than just technique!
The 2015 Sydney Eisteddfod McDonald’s Ballet Scholarship is to be held at the Sydney Opera House this August 2nd at 6:30pm.
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Photos courtesy Lucinda Dunn OAM
