Lisa Pavane & Greg Horsman English National Ballet by Bruce Marriott and Jane Simpson
Been There and Done That... It's a busy time for Greg Horsman and Lisa Pavane, the Australian husband and wife Senior Principals at ENB. The Nutcracker is in full nightly swing at the Coliseum, they are about to jet off to Australia for two weeks to lead their annual summer school, and the Canadian Nanny is still on holiday in Canada, so their daughter (Cassandra, aged nearly 6) is 'helping' them at ENB. Lisa is having a last practice for a Gala in Paris that happens more or less as soon as they get back from Australia. A hectic life - all three of them look more than happy, but it does bring new meaning to the term 'it's a small world'! Lisa was still rehearsing when we arrived to talk to them at ENB headquarters, so we started by talking to Greg about his training and early career. As with so many other male dancers, his account of how he came to ballet starts with 'Well, my sister was taking classes...' From a local teacher he progressed to the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne - a relief after keeping his ballet classes secret from his high school mates - where he completed his academic courses ('just in case!') before being taken into the Australian Ballet, one of the few recruits not to have come up through the company's own school. Lisa, when she joined us, told us that in her case she started dancing most unwillingly - when she was only 3 she suffered from chronic asthma and was sent to ballet lessons on a doctor's advice: so to her it seemed more like punishment than fun, and she hated it! Fortunately, at about 9 she "started to look at it in a different way and I sort of started to enjoy it. It was probably at 13 or 14 I thought that there was a career in it". At 15 she joined the Australian Ballet School (presumably chucking academic caution to the wind!) and after 3 years got straight into Australian Ballet (AB). Once in the company, Greg and Lisa shot through the ranks and within 5 years were principals. Lisa comments "I think it had a lot to do with the the new generation of dancers coming in and of course there was a new Director (Maina Gielgud ) shortly after we joined. I think that we were quite lucky to be there at that time, although we had some kind of talent to go with (understatement again), but we certainly had an opportunity to do a lot of really wonderful roles". For both of them, these included the leads in all the company's productions of the classics, as well in modern pieces by Kylian, Cranko and many others - and in 'Spartacus'. Not often performed in the "west", the Spartacus production came in the 1970's from Hungarian Ballet, a spin off from the 1960's Bolshoi original. Lisa enjoyed it: "... dramatically its excellent, there's so much meat in it, though I think the scenery looked very dated." (70's Eastern block so its not surprising) "Beautiful pas de deux and gorgeous music by Khachaturian". Greg can't understand "why more people haven't tackled it, because of its score and the strong story". Later it occurs to us all that it might look rather good in the round at some time, but that's another story. They both gained a lot of experience of touring - with AB in Australia and abroad (including London), and on their own as guest artists all over the world: Boston, Birmingham, the Kirov,Tokyo, Copenhagen, Houston... Perhaps their greatest accolade was bing invited twice to the triennial World Ballet Festivals in Japan - a major compliment as the Festival sets out to be a gathering of some of the great dancers of the world. "It was great; we really enjoyed it!" said Greg. " But it was daunting at first because you looked at the list of who was there (Lisa breaks in 'the creme de la creme') and I can't believe we've got to get-up on the same stage as all those people and deliver the goods. But then we all got to know each other and got to see what everybody was doing we realised that we each had different things to offer and we were all different dancers and we felt that it was all right to be amongst these people doing our little bit". They always took a variety of pieces showing different sides of them and appreciated the Japanese audiences, (Greg again) "the audience is amazing, you really feel like a pop star when you are there. At the end of the show people give you gifts and follow you to the hotel - its nice!". Lisa takes it up; "Because they get to so many different companies they are an audience that understands. I think that's another nice thing when you actually receive a response from then; because you think this is a knowledgeable audience." So, by the early 90s they were established stars in Australia, in demand as a partnership as well as for their individual talents, and becoming known world-wide through their guest appearances. A nice house, a big car, three dogs, a baby daughter - what made them abandon a seemingly settled life to take a chance in cold rainy London? The answer seems to lie mainly in geography. Sheer distance means that Australia is still quite isolated in ballet terms. Economic considerations have put an end to the long and frequent tours which the old Ballets Russes companies, for instance, used to make, and Australian Ballet is much the largest homegrown company - Western Australia Ballet and the Queensland Ballet operate on a much smaller scale. So the opportunities for the top dancers to see and measure themselves against their peers in the rest of the world are few, and Lisa and Greg eventually decided that to continue the process of artistic growth, they needed a wider experience. "We looked at several companies, the reputation they had, the number of performances they gave... we felt comfortable with Derek (Deane) who was new and we had heard a lot about what he wanted to do and his personality seemed quite sort of vibrant and he had a bit of energy. The company had been down and it would only be somewhere we could help lift-up". "When we arrived it took only a very short time to feel part of the furniture". Lisa chips in "Within a day I think!". When they first joined ENB Thomas Edur and Agnes Oakes were still there to share the load, so Greg and Lisa could revel in the dancing without feeling the pressure of having to "carry it all", which had begun to get to them in their final years at AB.And is it a problem switching from guesting with the Kirov and at the World Ballet Festival to Mid-Scale tours in Swindon, Truro and Barrow-in-Furness? No sweat; the pieces they do are just as testing and enjoyable and their commitment just as strong. (Lisa) "I think its good that you can take ballet out to these places that would never otherwise see it. You know the theatres are a bit drab or a bit small and the stage is a bit raked and you are all in one dressing room and it's really like 'bug-in' time'. Its great!" This seems to sum-up the robust Australian 'get up and do it' attitude. They both take pride in hardly missing any performances and while Greg (or Lisa) would not like "to cause a huge diplomatic incident, there are certain nationalities that seem to have a lower pain tolerance; the slightest thing might be a sore and they can't work through it". In fact reliability is the only thing they admit they have bought to ENB, their essential modesty showing once again. They let the audiences and the facts of where they have played speak for themselves. Although they have both danced the whole repertory, we talked mostly about the recent 'in the round' Swan Lake and about their current concern - Derek Deane's new Nutcracker. They had doubts initally about the new 'Swan Lake', but for different reasons both enjoyed it in the end.. Lisa: "I loved it, I loved every minute of it. It's so strange everybody saying 'doesn't the space kind of scare you and all that running' but I absolutely thrived on it." Greg felt that, paradoxically, the huge space and the vast audience made the experience actually more intimate than in a normal large theatre like the Coliseum. "It was impossible to try and project out to people....so you concentrated on the role rather then projecting" - and it turned out that one person could fill the stage and hold the attention as much as the famous 70 swans. A useful lesson for Romeo and Juliet this summer, perhaps? ( Casting is not announced yet though naturally they would hope to "do their thing"!) So far as 'Nutcracker' is concerned, apart from the pleasure of appearing in a proper, and vey beautiful, theatre instead of the make-shift Festival Hall, Greg is enjoying the contrast of alternating the Prince and Drosselmeyer. He prefers the latter, as there is so much more he can put into it - rather too much, in fact, as Deane told him he was making it too complex and asked him to turn it down a bit! And Lisa finds her doubling of the Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy much more comfortable than in some earlier productions. Finally we get to the really personal questions "Can you imagine what it would be like being married to somebody else - who was not a dancer"? Greg "I think it would make it difficult". Lisa: "It really worked for us because of the fact that we have come up pretty well at the same level, we have progressed professionally as well as personally together and I think we are fortunate". The real truth also emerges "We've had to work at making it work professionally... fighting in the studio you know; it's had its moments!" So when they dance together, is there anything extra? Lisa again: "We have worked together so long it's like hand and glove and we can each help each other do more". Greg "In some cases - Romeo and Juliet for example - we have been more open with each other on stage than we would with somebody that you weren't in a relationship with". But both note that they can't grow fully as artists just working with one person and they enjoy dancing with others when the opportunity presents; indeed more opportunities would be nice. With so much done, what are their challenges for the future? "Well, we are moving on (in the life sense)" says Greg, "and our dancing days aren't going on for too much longer and we have to work out what we want in the future. We want to have more children...[broad agreement that two more would be reasonable!]. I'd like to be a Director and run a company. I'm looking at ways that I can get involved in that now". According to Lisa, "ultimately we obviously want to go back to Australia to spend the rest of our lives. But if we need to stay overseas for a few more years to get in that way [ie to became a Director] and then go back, we are more than happy to do that." Having chatted at length we finish with Cassandra - clearly a performer in the making, who has been entertaining us in the empty studio - indicating that she has danced enough , and subsequently rested enough, and its time to go back and start packing the bag for the Australian trip. Lisa and Greg have achieved what many dancers and principals can only dream of. There is more dance in them yet but their talent and Australian zip and style gives them the capacity to do far more for ballet yet - wherever in the world.
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