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Transcript

What I've Learnt - Performer Gems (2022) · WHAT I'VE LEARNT

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, welcome to the Weatherflight Podcast.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Luke, one of the producers of the show.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: As a producer, I love my work and helping Deborah and our team share so many wonderful stories.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: From food to fashion and art to music, we've got you covered.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: As the end of the year is fastly approaching, we thought we'd look back at some of the best performers from this past year.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: So sit back and enjoy.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Patron Deborah Lee Finesse and Stella much-loved actor Sigrid Thornton, now starring in her new role in the Chekhov classic The Seagull at the Sydney Theatre Company, are just two of the wonderful actors supporting what many dub one of the best acting schools in Australia, the 16th Street Actors Studio.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Its director, Kim Cragus, has brought some of the world's most renowned acting coaches and directors here, including Leonardo DiCaprio's acting coach Larry Moss, Bradley Cooper's acting coach, Elizabeth Kemp, and Ian Rickson, who directed Hugh Jackman on Broadway.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Kim has elevated what training means in this country and exposed actors at all levels of their artistic development to the world's best.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Australian actors seem to be thriving and striving.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: How do you see the acting landscape adapting to the avalanche of streaming and other filmscape opportunities?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: And how is that changing what actors should do and learn, if at all?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_05: It's a complex and interesting question, Deb.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_05: It has multiple sides to it.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_05: The answer's multifaceted, I believe, anyway.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_05: There's been a massive increase in the need, a desperate need for product internationally, which places Australia in an excellent position in all sorts of ways, and by virtue of that, Australian actors in a very positive and advantageous position, which I believe needs to be tempered with a vigilance regarding Australian content.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_05: You know, just to start with Australian content and we can move on to the opportunities that we all know, and most of the viewers of this and listeners to this podcast will know that Australian content is something that we can never take for granted.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_05: It's amalgamising a whole lot of different platforms and this massive need for product, which is fantastic, but at the risk of homogenizing those English-speaking platforms, we need to continually remind ourselves of the uniqueness of our cultural landscape and our societies and the fact that we are still discovering and rediscovering every day, every week, every month, who we really are.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_05: And the way we explore who we are and who are we becoming and ask those questions is through storytelling.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_05: And it's not necessarily through storytelling from other English-speaking platforms, it's also through storytelling, just exclusively Australian storytelling, as it were.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_05: That said, Australian storytelling, as we've learnt with something like Heartbreak High, which has just gone global on Netflix.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_05: Huge.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_05: It's been huge.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_05: And you could argue quite a colloquial production.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_05: Is you know, there is now this thirst for content which is different.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_05: Australian actors feed into this really well because I've always said that uh Australian actors, even when they're playing with an American accent, have a kind of, there's an individual um individuality that they can bring to the landscape, which is born out of the fact that they are different.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_05: So when Margot Robin work, for example, works with an American accent, she's bringing a different cultural sensibility, nevertheless, to the work, which I think differentiates her from the field, the rest of the field.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_05: And so I think we can we can work this to our advantage, but we need to be ever vigilant, I suppose, is a sort of I've taken a long time to answer that question.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_05: No, it's a really good point.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, and it was multifaceted, and I think that's because in a way what we're dealing with is multifaceted and multi-layered.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: And your points are really interesting.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Kim, you're seeing obviously as director of the studio, you would be seeing this sort of you've also been doing it for a long time.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: So you've seen these wonderful actors and actresses go out into the world and be successful via the studio.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: What are you observing in terms of who's coming through the pipeline and how are we meeting the demand?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: Which, as Sig pointed out, is quite monolithic, whether it's parochial local work or whether it's overseas like Margot Robbie, what are you seeing come through the studio?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_04: Deb, I don't understand the question.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, can you try that again?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: So what I'm saying, what I'm trying to understand is as the studio, the people that come into the acting studio, has that changed?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_04: Or I is well, yeah, I think something has definitely changed in a sense of the effect of what's happening in the world.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_04: I can see the effect of that on young people, for sure, no question about it.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_04: If I think about, well, you know, let me take myself back to when I was a young actress myself studying in England, you know, the idea, I just felt like the world was waiting for me.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I just threw myself into life and I really thought I was going to be received with open arms.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_04: So watching people, I see more anxiety and fear.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_04: I see people who now are striving somehow to get it right.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_04: And this notion of getting it right sometimes can surpass the whole idea of exploration and discovery and being in the unknown and the albeit at times frightening place of the unknown, it's where magic happens.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_04: Because if something is easy or if you know it, it's not so profound.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_04: It's when you literally are willing to risk kind of it all, what you've done before, what you've known before, and to be in that process of discovery.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_04: So I would say I see a difference.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_04: I don't see anything less talented.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's the psychological stuff, Deb, that I actually see has changed dramatically.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_04: That's the bit.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_04: And Larry Moss, the great acting teacher that you mentioned, that we bring out to Australia and hopefully will come out again at the end of next year.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_04: He believes the two things that stop actors having successful careers are psychological issues.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we all have those because we're human and lack of technique.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: And that's why you go to an acting school or you go anywhere, so you can absolutely hone technique.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_04: So that would be my response to it.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_04: I'm seeing always talent come to our studio, divine, beautiful young people with open hearts, ready to go.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_04: But this other thing, I've never seen it so pronounced as uh of late.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_05: It's interesting, Deb.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_05: Can I just cut in there and say that that's an aspect which is so important that I had omitted, uh, Kim, because the world has been changing so fast, not just with COVID, but prior.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_05: There's been this five-year cycle which we're in at the moment, which is well, it's could last who knows, could last all of our lifetimes and beyond.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, but we're in this cycle of global uncertainty.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_05: And the the very nature of performance work, as Kim has alluded to, is risk taking.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you know, it requires a lot, a lot of bungee jumping off clifftops.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_05: When people, when there's a sort of universal pull over people, uh, they're less inclined to take those kinds of risks, I suppose.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_05: And uh I think that is, you know, it's an issue.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: It is an issue.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: And also I think what's what's interesting is that is the change that you are observing.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: And yet it's interesting that the need for Aussie actors, both locally and overseas, it's never been in such high demand as it is right now.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Referring to the success of Heartbreak High as you did, Sigrid, it's it's quite extraordinary.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: Coming out of a pandemic, these young actors have suddenly, you know, I know that that generation, it's it's touched somebody, it's touched them.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: So clearly there are people preparing to bungee jump, if you like, and go back into the vortex of which has always been challenging.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Sigrid, you would have also been having to be brave to embark on the career that you have, which has been so successful, but not everybody is successful.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: It can be quite challenging.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: So, Kim, are you saying that bravery is still there, or do you think there's a lot more?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_04: I do.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_04: And I think, you know, as a training studio, I think my sense of responsibility and everybody that works at that studio, you know, well-being, and I know it's a kind of buzz phrase, it's used everywhere, and what does that actually mean?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think well-being means reducing people's capacity for resilience, for resilience.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_04: I think what it really means is holding something with the greatest love and compassion and insight and value of what human beings are doing when they decide to be actors.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I truly believe it's a noble profession because you know, who in their right mind will go into some of these places that writers ask actors to go into, and they do, and they go in with this phenomenal courage and generosity of spirit because somehow I think actors, if you're a real actor, there's a deep desire to know, to understand, to plummet the depths, to look behind the facade of life, to take nothing for granted, and a great desire to reveal something about the human condition.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_04: And by inference, you always reveal something about yourself.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_04: So it's that paradox, isn't it, Sig?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_04: Acting is not about you, but it's all about you because no writer writes about you, but you've only got yourself every moment you've ever experienced, every thread, shred of imagination, every heartbreak, every joy, all of it comes to the table to create characters that people care about.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_05: And every character, uh, you know, the character that the Juliet that um, you know, uh Lucy Bloggs will play is very, very different from the Juliet that Susie Bloggs will play, uh, because they have a, you know, unique, every person is unique, obviously, and they have a unique uh emotional, psychological, intellectual makeup.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, and they they draw different things uh from the world by virtue of that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_04: And I would say I'm just gonna say one thing, and if an actor doesn't connect into that, the absolute essence of who they are, albeit plain character and you know, create, that's a creation.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_04: If they don't, we miss something that's so fundamental to why we connect, because it's something that Sig brings to the table.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_04: That when I watch, I'm taken on this journey, and I absolutely feel and care because she's brought something of herself to this role that is so nobody else could.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's absolutely true.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: And in fact, I think the word authenticity comes to light because really, unless you can be authentic with yourself, you can't deliver that story or that plot or that that character, and that's something that Sigurd's obviously mastered and is continuing, as you always say, you're always learning.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, always learning, never mastered actually.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but it does put me in mind of what it was, Kim or you who mentioned earlier that uh Larry Moss had said that it was you, Kim, wasn't it, who said that um, you know, work on oneself psychologically is also very, very important because self-revelation is a is a lifelong journey, and some people are never able to uh to go that deep.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_05: And and but we're all learning to go deep.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_05: Creative people are all learning to go deeper and deeper and deeper, and it's the only way to keep um uh moving forward uh to keep that momentum as a creative is to is to keep going deeper.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_04: And one of my great teachers, Carol Rosenfeld from EHB Studio, who we've also brought to Australia, she says, you know, it's an inevitability that when you act, you will come face to face with yourself.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_04: And Stella Radler, who was also a great teacher of the 20th century, she said, actors have the potential.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_04: Now it doesn't mean they realize that potential, but they have the potential to be the most well-rounded individuals in the world by the nature of the work they do.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_04: So often people think that actors are just kind of scatty and neurotic and narcissistic.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_04: I would suggest, you know, if you are, you're gonna have a tough time of it.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_04: You have to find some real grounding in life to do this job.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Very important point, Kim, that you've just raised, because I think that's where the studio is quite an important, in a way, a sanctuary, I've observed, where these actors can hone their skills and develop their strengths.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: And also, as you say, it's not about narcissism and and sort of look at me.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's much more about the deep dive and trying to understand from where they come so they can then play the roles and be the storytellers.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: And what a privilege to be able to do that.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_05: Is it something that does that in spades, Deb?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_05: If that's one of the things I believe distinguishes 16th Street and has long done, I think the other drama schools are, you know, everyone's catching up now because there's a lot of um discussion about, it's not to call this, but a lot of discussion about self-realization these days, authenticity.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_05: But 16th Street has been doing this from the word go.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_05: It's had uh its MO is not only to advance the actor's skills, technique, etc., and self-discovery, but it's also to advance the actor's understanding of the world.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_05: Um they are not mutually exclusive, they are absolutely interactive and interdependent.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that Kim has taken a really, really important step in promoting that aspect of a learning performance work.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_04: And if I could just pop in there, Deb, I know that you um interviewed uh Peter Cooper and Supana, Bastin Cooper, who's now um Peter's wife.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_04: And we have this foundation that they are the most generous uh benefactors of.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_04: And the two aspects of that are to really give actors a liberal arts education because so much is happening in universities at the moment and things kind of stripping away from the arts, but also to support ways that they can develop mental, emotional, and I use the word spiritual because I think that's what we're here to understand something much bigger about ourselves, not this just tiny little sense of me and I, and all of this thing that can keep us so completely trapped, and they have supported that.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so thanks for acknowledging that, Sig.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_04: I'm really proud of the foundation and that contribution we hope to continue to make.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_04: You should be.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you should be, and and it is very important, as you say, there is an underlying spiritual element to it as well.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I've really observed some of the work that you do at 16th Street is um, you know, I know you get very attached to a lot of the people that come through, and that it's almost like a family, isn't it?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: It it really is quite unique in that sense.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: Do you see that some of these actors coming through have now, you know, are they recovering from this whole pandemic era and that you know, they've all been through an extraordinary time in history.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think the arts is recovering?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think it's you want to go first on that?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, no, no, don't please, Kim.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_04: Please.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know what?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_04: Storytelling is in our DNA.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_04: It's who, it's how we make sense of the world.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_04: And I believe artists will always have a role to play.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_04: I keep, I keep my everything crossed that that is the case, what I just said.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_04: And ensembles coming together with that joint purpose.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_04: And whether you're a gaffer on a film set, you're a director or an actor, or just there for one day, you are a part of something that gives people a respite.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you let's look at what happened through that pandemic.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_04: We all had a refuge in watching stories, in watching films, in watching television.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_04: And without all of that happening, you know, I think it may have been a tougher pandemic to have gone through.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_04: So I am very, very uh optimistic about the future.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_04: I think we will always find our way.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_04: I just hope that along the way we keep making it the basis of everything is kindness, generosity, and that through the stories we tell and we watch, we just reduce our what at times feels like a fixation on judging, just allowing some kindness and gentleness into our world.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I think I think we'll do it.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: Byron Bay bass soul singer Lisa Hunt has performed with Pavarotti, Andrea Pogelli, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, James Brown, Joe Cocker, Miles Davis, Macy Gray, Tana Turner, and Brian May.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: And that's just a few of the incredible people that she spent her life performing with.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: And as we know, music is a universal healer, and you've been singing for many years.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: Can you talk to me about where it all started?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: New York, where I was born.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: So uh just music has been a part of my life from from you know, as early as I can remember, through uh church.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: We sang in the gospel choir, sang in school choir, and sang in the community choir.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's just just the little singing that we sang out on the streets of uh Brooklyn, you know, just me, my friends, we'd be harmonizing on this on the steps in in uh during the day.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just I my my destiny was written.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: And and what a destiny it was.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, really, it's quite it's quite an incredible story, wasn't it?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: Because as I understand it, and you can tell the story that that somebody approached you to come and sing in Italy, is that right?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: Can you tell us a little bit about that?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's life-changing for you.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, it was life-changing.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was at the time I was living in London, and um yeah, this Italian superstar kind of I was busking at um Coven Garden, and as it as it stood, he missed his plane to go back to Italy and came there to just to hang out for the day, and there was performing, and he has, I want you to come to Italy to sing in my very good Italian accent there, Lisa.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm quite impressed.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really, and uh initially it was just gonna be three months, and then that turned into a 20-year relationship of touring and recording, and yeah, interrupted only by um a two-year stint with Jimmy Barnes, who also had I was doing uh a charity gig in Sydney, and because no one knew who I was at all, I was like on last.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: So by the time I went on, it was late night, no one was left.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: But Jimmy had left his uh sunglasses in the dressing room and came back for him while I was singing.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I get uh this guy comes out and he's like, Jimmy Bells wants to sing with you.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: He jumps on stage, and you know, I think we sang River Deep, you know.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, great song, and you'd be so good at that.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: I think I've heard you sing that actually.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a great cool.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what an incredible story.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Came back for his sunglasses, and then he wants to sing with you.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: So you do River Deep.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: I bet there were plenty of people listening.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Probably about three weeks later, uh get a call from this lawyer guy and sitting with the Jimmy Barnes is looking for you.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that wonderful?
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm touring with Jimmy for me courting with him for two years.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, what an experience! And what did you learn from Jimmy?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: What did he teach you?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just um what I observed is he taught just how to every day is like the first time he's singing.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've never seen, even since then, I've never seen anyone that like enthusiastic about music as like just breeding it and you know, he's always happy to get to the to wherever he's performing and to you know get ready for the show.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: And just like for me, it's like when I'm doing the show, that's when when all those all the joy comes, you know, when you actually for me, when I'm actually performing, he's like, ooh, let me at it.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: And you can see even during COVID, every day there's they're doing a song online with the whole family.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Family, I love it.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's another child each each day each week, there's another child.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, there's another child on his lap, or you know.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: That kind of that kind of love of music is just um you know, insane.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's insane.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's a pretty cool, yeah, pretty cool grandfather.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I love the way all these kids sing.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you've obviously I I think you've done some, have you done some performing with Malia, his daughter at Mahalia?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, they obviously got such an incredible energy.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: So you love touring with him, and also he obviously gave you the platform to really reach other people that you might otherwise not have, yeah.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what once you it's the thing about you know, if if you perform with Pavarotti, it means something to people.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: If you perform with Jimmy Barnes, if you've sung with Midnight Oil, it means something to a lot of people, even though.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: When as a performer, um, we say you're as big as your next geek.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so it's um but it but once you it's almost like when you read back on your own history and you go, oh yeah, I did this, I did that, oh that was great, and you have all those memories collectively, it turns into you know a pretty nice, pretty nice story.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very good one, it's a great one.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's a nice way to look back and and remember what you've done.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I like doing that.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I have, you know, I think on my phone it's about 30,000 pictures and videos.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you've got some great history, and I I mean, even in my research, just looking, there's so much that you've done, but also what a great way to spend life traveling the world playing music.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not, I mean, I'm not glib in the sense that I know how hard what hard you work and how demanding it can be, and how you gotta, as you say, you've got to be the show must go on, and there's plenty of obstacles, but there's something incredibly cathartic about what you do, and you also heal others, and that's it's a very spiritual thing.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, that's amazing.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know, giving others your musical energy.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that a lot of people through COVID and through these crises find music extremely healing.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so, from that perspective, I think you've given a lot to the community just in the way.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I know how many times you've performed at that Byron Bay Hotel, the beach hotel, and you know, you've got a very big following, people adore you.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: What's some of the highlights for you?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: You mentioned you you played with Midnight Oil, um, Pavarotti, and I've got that, I've mentioned that in the intro.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me some of the highlights for you that you can recall.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: And some may not also be, they may be celebrity oriented, but there might be others that that resonate for you.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's you know, there's always your favorite places to play, like the Beach Hotel was was just epic.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: And for that to be my hometown was just uh, yeah, what more can you ask?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: Every you once a month you get that, you get that healing.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's great pubs.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: I like playing.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Kingscliff Beach Hotel.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, cool, yeah.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: How we mowy, you know, and and uh yeah, then there's that's that's consistent, those are constant things that that you know are gonna come up and they keep happening to you.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: I've done like things that people don't know, like amazing weddings, like beautiful uh weddings where you're not the performer, you're just part of this uh intimate thing, once in a lifetime kind of situation.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's beautiful, you know.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have celebrity moments, you're doing some kind of you know, international fundraiser, and that's oh, that's it, oh that's oh, oh, uh it's all just one big beautiful pie of music, and um I'm glad I knew from an early age what I wanted to do, because a lot of people don't know that.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: They just, you know, I I see people feel like what am I gonna do with my life?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I had no choice what what I was gonna do with my life because that's how badly I wanted it.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: So whether I was busking on a street or singing in the subway, or singing with a hundred thousand people with midnight oil, or you know, or on on the stage in Italy with Pavarotti, it's all part of that living that dream.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh the dream is to to make music, so you can have in that, and I'm still doing it, and that's because you're so good, that's why you're doing it, because you are so good, and I I love your music.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it it's it's a gift, but it's also you have to have the passion that you want to do it above everything else, and so you're willing to put in the phone calls, just everything involved, you know, booking flights and planes.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not like a celebrity where you know I have a secretary and a travel agent and a manager and all that, so pretty much do it all myself, which is interesting because you do a lot of it, so it must be pretty busy.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: But actually, recently with it being hit by the arts being hit so hard.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: Lisa Balti is one of those rare talented people whose life as a principal ballet dancer has taken her across the globe, mesmerizing audiences with her stunning and elegant performances.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: She is truly a national treasure.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: Lisa danced with the Australian Ballet Company from 1986 to 2002 and then again in 2007, and was promoted to principal artist by the revered artistic director Maina Gilgud.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Highlights with the Australian Ballet have included performing principal roles from the entire classical repertoire, including the mentioned Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, La Silfide, Ramonda, Don Quixote, Maynon, Anna Karenina, and the list goes on: some of the most beautiful ballets to ever be created.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: As a guest artist, Lisa performed with Mureev's Farewell Australian Tour in the 90s and with the National Ballet of Canada in Swan Lake and the Merry Widow.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: In 1998, Lisa was awarded the Mo Award for the Best Female Dancer after her performances in Romey and Juliet.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: She really is quite an extraordinary dancer and is revered across the ballet world.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: Currently, she's the Southern Chapter Chair of the Australian Ballet Foundation Board.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well, she now shares her knowledge learned through years of being coached by wonderful artists herself, mentoring full-time ballet students in Melbourne.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's you wouldn't believe it.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I was just that.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: I started to dream of dancing.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_03: We actually lived on Stradbroke Island in Queensland, and my dad was working regrowing all the forests just after they'd been mined, and uh we'd we're just in a miners' cottage there, and I started to talk about learning ballet, and and you know, mum and dad wanted more for us as children and wanted to give us the you know the opportunities that Australia had at that time in the 1970s, and so um dad inquired with the Queensland Ballet to see if there was any way they could send a teacher over to Strabroke Island, but of course that was you know impossible.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_03: So in our around 1970, I must have been 197 sort of five, is five or six, we moved to the mainland and and I began my little um journey with ballet, and you know, right from that very first class, that first year, I loved it.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_03: I loved everything about the movement, you know, waltzing to music, learning party polka, hearing we danced to the blue Danube.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: I still can remember the music I danced to in my very first concert, and and it set the seed for my life.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: I really, I knew that you know, this is what I wanted to do, and and then just worked.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_03: A couple of years later, um, mum put me into a school that she thought would give me more, you know, more of the discipline, more of the really intense um quality, quality training of ballet.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_03: So I I then went from to Caprice Dancing School, a really beautiful uh ballet school in Queensland, um, in the Redlands area, and learnt with Margaret Lucas and Janish now.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_03: And right until I left home at um at the age I was just turning 16 when I got a place with the Australian Ballet School.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's a really beautiful story, and I particularly like the way that your parents made obviously quite a big move to support you.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that actually is quite a pivotal part of the story because really you can't you need to start ballet early.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: And if you don't have the parental support or somebody's support to do that, it becomes quite difficult, doesn't it?
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because really, had your parents not made that decision and seen your talent or your ability or your passion, then you would have been on Stradbroke Island, as beautiful as that is, which we all agree, it it's quite remote and there certainly wouldn't have been a ballet school.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: So, how much of that do you put down to your parents supporting your your journey?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, so much, so much so, Deb.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_03: I I couldn't have done it both my parents in their individual ways.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_03: You know, mum was of course the one that, you know, she drove me to all my lessons.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_03: She made all my ballet costumes, my sisters, and for a while my brother learned.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, she made maybe 30 costumes a year, and she'd often make other children's as well for the concerts, and you know, she really they're they're divine.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_03: I've just had an exhibition up in Queensland where I I lived, and we were able to um you know find some of those costumes, and they're still in immaculate condition.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, so mum, you know, mum did all of that, and she was she was really um you know just very grounded and and and then dad was the the the force where you know he was so positive about me dancing, and he he he used to um you know see me dancing around the house and I'd always have this music on, and he'd see me sort of making up stories to to beautiful music.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_03: And and I know when he was when I was young, you know, we we used to go to people's places, and you know, dad in all his innocence and he they were only 21 when they had me, so they're quite young parents.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_03: Very young, very young parents, yeah.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_03: They and he used to say, you know, to to my uncle or to to close friends, he's just like, you know, she's going to do it, she's got the talent.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, whether I really, you know, did at that age or but to have your father believe in you like that was just such a gift, you know, because he he, you know, you I you of course hear those things, and then my uncle over the years he used to say, you know, your dad used to say he had the talent.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_03: We used to laugh at that because how could you know that a 10-year-old had the talent?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, but you know, that's and then it carried right through, Deb.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_03: It was very grounded, you know.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_03: I was a very um just a normal Aussie kid.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_03: I had the, you know, the my three brothers and sisters, and we just, you know, we played out the back in the garden, and you know, we went on two-week holidays to my grandparents.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_03: It was a very normal Aussie life, and and they they supported me, you know, with my dream.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_03: And then when I got that position at the Australian Ballet School to leave Queensland and fly to Melbourne to set up in an apartment in Melbourne at 16 with you know, three kids that I did barely knew, and uh, but they supported me with that, but you know, both with the the monetary support, but really, you know, they were there every week to to talk to me on the phone once a week, and they they had mum had written this beautiful little book of you know, just little sayings, things to how to behave when things are are difficult, how to, you know, have confidence in your friends, you know, choose your friends well and have confidence that they're they're going to be there with you and trust your family, you know, just little things that really I could follow my life by.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_03: And mum and dad, you know, they they didn't, you know, they weren't because of the younger brothers and sisters, they weren't able to come down all the time.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_03: But for the really important things, like mum came to see me dance at Covent Garden when I was 21, and I'm sure she did.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_03: I wouldn't miss that to the world.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_03: That's pretty impressive.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_03: They flew to um they flew to London to see me dance the lead role with Stephen Heathcote in um The Sleeping Beauty when the company was on tour there in in 1988, and then and then another time my dad, you know, was opening doing my first opening night of Swan Lake, and my dad flew to Melbourne and and he sort of he flew down and he called me and I was in the dressing room.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_03: I was always in the addressing room preparing very early for a show, you know.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: You'd get in for a show around, you'd finish rehearsals around three-ish in the day, and then you'd you'd start preparing for that show around 4 30.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_03: And and dad, I got the call from him down in the dressing room at the State Theatre, and he's he's like, Lise, um, I'm here.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_03: I just wondered, I've got my suit, my dinner suit, but I can I wear my riding boots?
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just like, Oh my god, your parents sound so beautiful, and so there's a really beautiful.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I were there five of you.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: Is that right?
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_03: There were four of us, actually.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: Four of you, right?
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_03: And and my mum and dad, so six of us all together.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I mean, everything that you're describing just shows how pivotal they were to your journey, but also that beautiful little authentic them trying to make sure that you know that he wears the suit with the right shoes and and to be there at the things that matter, because you were actually quite young, and also it takes a lot of courage, I know as a parent, and you'd be the same, to let your 16-year-old go and you know, set up in Melbourne with three, as you say, people you didn't know.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: But that must mean that they had a lot of trust and faith in you and that your core values were sturdy enough to be able to sustain that journey.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_03: I think so.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, along the way, it wasn't an easy journey that very first year at 16.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_03: It was so difficult, you know, you're training in a whole new way, and it was wonderful training, but at the time you suddenly, you know, you've been a big fish in Queensland, you know, with all your your friends, and and and then you come down to Melbourne and suddenly I was with the most talented young dance students in the whole of Australia, and that was overwhelming in itself.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: And then my teacher, who was was brilliant, at the time it was a lot of new new parts of dancing, and and really looking into yourself that it was a different different way of learning, and that was very confronting.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, I used to have you know two hours, five of us on Friday afternoon, coaching, and literally every time I'd go to move, she'd sort of say, No, you know, every Friday afternoon for a whole year I was virtually in tears because you know, I just felt like you know, I was not moving forward.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: But funny enough, that persistence thing in life where you just you just keep doing your homework, you keep listening, you keep trying to do what your teacher says, and slowly, slowly, you know, I I gradually, you know, with my parents' support, um, you know, Mum had encouraged me to go back each semester after after a holiday, and she'd sort of said, you know, just try and stay to the end of the year and just try and she gave me all these little you know, little pinnacle things to get to get through to the next point.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_03: And and then it came to the end of the year, and my favourite thing has always been performing.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_03: I just love performing, and we all had to audition for this ballet um graduation ball, and they actually let the very first year students audition for the lead roles, and by chance I gained one of those roles for the for the lead roles.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: It sounds like not by chance, but by absolutely hard work and focus and and discipline.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_03: It was hard work, and but you know, I I just it's like anything when you feel that you're doing something that you love and performing was something that I love, and I had a character to throw myself into.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_03: And like you say, um, you know, you saw Romeo and Juliet just last week, and the Australian ballet, you know, are performing that at the moment for the first time after 19 years.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_03: And it's a ballet that beautiful every every dancer of the Australian ballet and many around the world, that is the ballet to dance.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's one of the great works, and um, and you know, you I loved it when you could throw yourself into a role and something like to Juliet or something where you can be a character.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_03: Giselle, you know, which is also beautiful, you know, which I know you've also done dance.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you can study the character and you can you can read books, you can you can read history books that are similar to the time that that you were in, and you can you can listen in depth to the music and get the phrasing just right.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, that was always just so interesting, my whole career.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: And of course, you got better and better as you evolved in your career.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_03: Perhaps as a young dancer, I took a lot of notes.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I used to always write myself notes leading up into the performance.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I've got quite detailed notes of you know the week before preparations for my role, uh, what I'm reading, what I'm what I'm delving into, um, the music, and then right as far as you know, what I'm going to do on the day of my performance.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_03: So I'd I'd delve into you know what I what I do for rehearsals, what sort of notes I'd I'd I'd need to do on stage just before I go on stage and and warm up and what time I'll do my hair.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_03: And it sounds very um.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: No, it sounds actually very particular, but also I don't think people fully appreciate.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_02: And what you've just outlined is really fascinating to me.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: The level of discipline, yes, which is evident, but also the multi-layering of a cultural immersion in the story, the history, the notes are a reflection of your research.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure that people fully appreciate just how complex taking on that role is.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just a matter of being disciplined in a dancer that's amazing and beautiful, but actually having a sensitivity and an enculturation of sorts, is that which I find really quite an eye-opener.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I I sort of felt, you know, from a young age, it was what I loved about dancing was actually the storytelling.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, of course, I love the classical technique and moving to music and making making the whole full experience, but but you know, when you look at it from an artistic or an acting point of view, you know, actors have got the the different methods and styles of acting, and and I guess I read books along those lines as a dancer as well, and what actors did to make their movies and their performances really rich.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I sort of felt, well, why not align that with my own career?
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_03: And and um, you know, if it was a ballet like Romeo and Juliet, you know, what would I be feeling as I'm you know running in to see the nurse in the day, and and what I feel, what my relationship was like with the mother, as you know, you know, is she being a mother that's been very very distant, and you try to please her, but you can only you know you can only please her on some level, and you know, all of those different what all of those nuances, you know, that I actually observed and I'm reflecting on having recently seen that particular ballet.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you talk about you know, the clearly the the discipline is evident, and your first year is a really good exemplification of how much you have to push through.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: The What I've Learned Podcast comes out every Tuesday for more fantastic stories from amazing guests.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Check out the What I've Learned Instagram for more updates.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: And as Deb would say, stay tuned, kind, and curious.