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Ballet start to stage workshop Moranbah Daily Mercury 23 October 2009 MORANBAH dance students will dance alongside top ballerina Lynette Wills tomorrow. The Australian Ballet's former principal artist will touch down in the Central Queensland mining town to host an exclusive workshop with students from Moranbah Dance Centre. The school scored this rare opportunity after entering the Australian Ballet and National Australia Bank Dance The Dream competition. They were selected from more than 750 entries nationwide throughout May and June. The school was selected by a panel of judges from The Australian Ballet and NAB because of their commitment to providing a positive learning environment for their students. Teachers travel two hours from Mackay for about 300 students a week. “It's a great opportunity for me to visit Moranbah and spend some time with the students at the Moranbah Dance Centre,” Ms Wills said. “NAB Dance the Dream is a great opportunity to be able to give back to the community by nurturing and engaging young dancers. I could only have wished for such a scenario as a young student.” A much-loved member of the company, Ms Wills has toured extensively with The Australian Ballet. Ms Wills will host an exclusive class for a select number of students, followed by a question and answer session for the school and the wider community. Farewell Lynette Wills The Australian Ballet 25 June 2009 One of The Australian Ballet’s most loved and dedicated dancers, Lynette Wills, has announced her retirement from the company after a distinguished career spanning almost 19 years. Although her final performance was in the La Bayadère pas d’action, part of the Ballet Imperial programme in 2008, Lynette will take her final bow following curtain down at the opening night of Paris Match at the State Theatre in Melbourne. “Lindy is one of those dancers who stamps her presence all over the company,” said Artistic Director David McAllister. “Both on and off stage she is a hugely respected and loved artist, and there are roles she has danced and created that will be the benchmark for years to come. I want to congratulate her on a wonderful career on stage and wish her every success off stage,” he said. In 2007 Lynette became a mother to Thomas, 18 months later she and husband Tim Burke welcomed their second child Sophie. Adelaide-born joined The Australian Ballet in 1991 and was promoted to Senior Artist in 1996. She has toured extensively with the company to Italy, London, Paris, Taiwan, China, Japan and the United States, and was promoted to Principal Artist after her fiery and moving portrayal of Baroness von Rothbart in the Sydney premiere of Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake in 2002. Off the stage, Lynette visited a Cambodian dance company in 2005 as The Australian Ballet’s ambassador in a joint initiative between the company and CARE Australia. Another talent Lynette has fostered off stage is photography. A collection of Lynette's photographs, called Step Inside The Australian Ballet, was published earlier this year. Reflecting on her career Lynette said, “Working with The Australian Ballet has not been a job, it has been a childhood dream realised.” Lynette looks back Behind Ballet, 25 June 2009 Lynette Wills, one of our most loved and dedicated dancers, bids farewell to The Australian Ballet tonight after a career spanning almost 19 years. She shares some of her favourite ballet moments. Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake I have such a special memory of being promoted to Principal Artist after the Sydney premiere of Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake. I was fortunate enough to dance the role Baroness von Rothbart many times. With each new season the character evolved and I would find myself portraying the Baroness differently. I feel emotionally attached to this role, and such a close bond formed between Steve [Heathcote] Madeleine [Eastoe] and myself as we told the story. Don Quixote I first performed Kitri in my third year in the company. It was a big opportunity for me. I was dancing with Andrew Murphy, who I had trained with as a child in Canberra, which made it extra special. I have performed Kitri several times since and, although it’s extremely exhausting, I love the cheekiness and energy of the role. La Bayadére The first principal role I performed with Steven Heathcote was Gamzatti in La Bayadére. It’s a beautiful epic ballet and another great character, with so much scope for personal interpretation. The last time I performed La Bayadére I was partnered by Robert Curran and it was my last show with the company. I was four months pregnant with Sophie. Manon I was chosen to play the Mistress for the simulcast of Manon at the last minute. I look at it now and don’t remember feeling any of the confidence I displayed while filming. It’s a role that really challenges you each night. Agon I have danced many roles over the years with Robert Curran. We have a mutual respect that makes us work well together. He is a generous and gifted partner and always sets you at ease to make you look your very best. Ballet dancers keep in step with family life Carmel Egan - February 15, 2009 A BEAUTIFUL pas de deux is as central to a ballerina's repertoire as a tutu and pointe shoes. But in the top rank of the Australian Ballet, there's a whole new dance for two: mother and baby. Principal artists Madeleine Eastoe and Olivia Bell are expecting their first babies in the middle of the year. Lynette Wills is on maternity leave after the birth of her second child. Lucinda Dunn and Kirsty Martin have recently returned to work after having children. Not long ago, it would have meant the end of their dancing careers, but in 2007 the Australian Ballet introduced one of the country's most flexible and generous family leave schemes. Artistic director David McAllister, himself a former principal dancer, was instrumental in the introduction of the scheme after watching so many of his contemporaries abandon their careers in order to have children. The Australian Ballet's leave scheme offers 14 weeks post-natal paid leave; leave for fathers, flexible safe duties for pregnant dancers, the opportunity for families to travel and stay together on tour, assistance with air fares and accommodation, and support in maintaining peak fitness in preparation for a return to their previous dancing roles. Lynette Wills was the first person to use the scheme when Thomas was born 18 months ago. She is again on leave after the birth of her daughter, Sophie, eight weeks ago. "I was on the committee which formed the policy," she said. "Until the introduction of maternity leave virtually 50 per cent of dancers left to have a baby. It is a shame that people should be forced to give up their careers before they are ready." Research conducted to develop the policy found most dancers would delay having children until they resolved their career ambitions, human resources manager Helen Williams said. Inevitably this meant dancers were leaving at the peak of their careers. "We are dealing with elite athletes who don't compromise their drive or their careers for personal reasons," Ms Williams said. "Ours is really a family leave policy because it also involves being a good employer once people have had their babies. It is about much more than the preliminaries and the return-to-work policy. "In the past they had to leave in order to have a family but now we are having dancers return shortly after having their children. "Under the safe-duties policy, dancers have the opportunity to work in other parts of the organisation: in wardrobe, publicity and media relations, in reception or on research projects." Ms Williams said neither the company nor the dancers were driven by monetary motives, but the policy helped both. "There is a huge investment in developing a dancer, so there are rewards for both when they return to work," she said. "When you have a supportive workplace there is a greater productivity." Madeleine Eastoe, 30, danced up until the 14th week of her pregnancy. She has been a principal for two years and her first baby is due in May. She is currently helping out in the wardrobe department. "As a dancer you are so busy that you tend to see these faces around but don't fully grasp the contribution of others until you are working side by side," she said. "It opens up challenges for improving your skills. It is something I have been grateful for. "If it were not for the maternity leave program I think I would probably have postponed having a baby a little longer. "If you have devoted your life to training and going up the ranks you want to be able to pursue your career further." Although uncertain of the challenges ahead as a first-time mother, Eastoe is planning to return to the stage as a principal artist. So far six women among the company's 68 dancers have taken leave under the program, with one male dancer taking paternity leave. It's a girl! The Australian Ballet is closing the year on a high with Principal Artist Lynette Wills giving birth to a daughter. Sophie Bella Burke was born in Melbourne on Monday 15 December, weighing in at a healthy 7lbs, 11oz. She is the second child for Lynette and husband Tim Burke, and the first sibling for one-year-old Thomas. Mum and baby are said to be doing exceptionally well! From the Stork to the Swan Sun Herald Sunday March 30, 2008 Andrew Taylor Childbirth couldn't keep Lynette Wills from the ballet, writes Andrew Taylor. AFTER dancing with the Australian Ballet for 17 years, Lynette Wills is no stranger to the intense physical demands of her profession. Yet Wills says it took longer than she expected to regain her ballet body after the birth of her first child, Thomas, last August. "Dancing is all I've ever done so working that hard and getting my body into shape is all I know how to do," she says. "I was hoping to throw myself on the floor and do a few sit-ups and my tummy would be flat again. But it wasn't quite as easy as that." The 36-year-old Wills, who is now the company's oldest dancer, is the second principal artist currently juggling motherhood with dancing for the Australian Ballet. Fellow principal artist Kirsty Martin has a son, two-year-old Oscar, while 34-year-old Lucinda Dunn is expecting her first baby in July. In the Australian Ballet's latest production of Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake, Wills plays the Baroness von Rothbart, who conducts an adulterous affair with Prince Siegfried both before and after his marriage to the young, vulnerable Odette. The parallels with the real-life British royal love triangle are obvious as Odette is committed to an asylum where she finds solace among white swans in an icy dreamworld. Murphy's Swan Lake departs the realm of fantasy, turning the famous ballet into a human story of betrayal and unrequited love, Wills says. "I guess it's a story you can relate to now. It's not a fairytale about a man falling in love with a bird, which was always a bit weird." Wills's part in Odette's downfall cannot be overestimated; one reviewer described her as "satanic" at the end of Act One when her rival is taken away. "I was surprised by that," she says, laughing. "I try not to think of her as quite as evil as that. She's certainly much more knowing and mature compared to Odette who doesn't really know how to fit into society." Wills admits to feeling nervous on the opening night of Swan Lake's Melbourne season earlier this month but is treating every performance as a "bonus". "When I was pregnant I hadn't completely decided if I wanted to come back to dancing," she says. "It was really dependent upon what sort of baby [Thomas] was and whether I felt I could get back to work." Wills performed until the third month of her pregnancy but continued with barre work as her belly grew bigger. "There was no bending backwards or jumping or kicking your legs up in the air," she says. "Everyone had a big laugh at my big tummy poking out." Five weeks after giving birth by caesarean section she was back in training, albeit under the strict supervision of the Australian Ballet's medical staff. It can be a challenge for a mother to return to work after giving birth, but the physical demands of dancing were the least of Wills's problems. "It's more about planning your life with a child," she says. "We tour for six months of the year so you have to decide what to do with the child when you're away. We work in the evenings, too. There's so much to consider. If both parents work, do you get a nanny and how do you afford it?" Happily, Wills's husband, Tim Burke, was able to take paternity leave to care for Thomas while Wills resumed her career. The Australian Ballet has also made a concerted effort not to waste the talents of its dancers by becoming a more family friendly workplace, offering 14-weeks' paid maternity leave and allowing pregnant dancers to move to other jobs when they are no longer able to perform. The company does not have child-care facilities but Wills says children are always welcome. "Everyone loves it when Thomas comes in," she says. "There are 70 pairs of arms reaching out to hold him. We're a bit baby-starved in this building." However, Wills admits that many dancers fear pregnancy will put an end to their career: "It's a real concern when you're at that age - the mid-to-late-20s. You're really starting to blossom as a person, a dancer and an artist and many people are hesitant to just stop."

The Australian Ballet Dancer Download: Lynette Wills What’s your number one interest outside ballet? Currently it’s photography. It’s an exciting way to study form, line and light in a new medium. My fellow dancers are my favourite subjects. Favourite album? Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ No More Shall We Part Dance is such a demanding career – how do you relax? Walking my Labrador, Tyler, with my husband Tim to our favourite coffee shop, Growers Espresso. Do you have any advice for aspiring dancers? Stay focussed, find some balance, and keep an open, positive frame of mind. Do you like to cook? Love to. I mainly cook dishes with an Asian influence. Pointes of different set aside as four primas go toe to toe In a rare treat for Sydney audiences, four of the Australian Ballet's five principal female dancers will dance together in a "devilishly difficult" set piece tonight. Ballet fans will be able to compare the styles of Lucinda Dunn, Nicole Rhodes, Simone Goldsmith and Lynette Wills as the quartet perform the short, fast-moving Devil's Dance segment from the George Balanchine work The Four Temperaments. It is believed to be the first time that four Australian Ballet principal ballerinas have danced together. For the dancers - close friends despite rivalries for roles and arduous apprenticeships before being elevated to principals - it will be a unique opportunity to briefly share the stage with each other in the company's new triple bill, American Masters. "There's no tension - we've all known each other so long," said Goldsmith, 29. "Your friendships are separate to your work . . . if they can't withstand the pressures, then they're not worth it." The newest principal, Wills, is keen, too, to puncture any perception of rivalry. "You learn so much from each other. If someone is finding it a bit difficult, and you have a little secret on how to do it better, you let them know." Lynette Wills Edited transcript of the Live Chat with Lynette Wills on Monday, December 11th 2000 Interviewer: Tonight we are talking to Lynette Wills, senior artist with the Australian Ballet. Hi there Lynette how are you today? Lynette Wills: I'm fine thank you Interviewer: Freckles: Lynette, what has been the highlight of your career so far? Lynette Wills: the highlight would be Onegin and swam lake and numerous Jiri Kylian works, all his works are just magic. The other highlight would be having ten years of being involved with such a talented company. Interviewer: How long have you been with the Australian Ballet? Lynette Wills: This is my tenth year, I’ve just qualified for my long service laughs basically that’s a long time for a dancer :) Interviewer: What made you choose Ballet as a career? Lynette Wills: I didn't choose ballet, it chose me. I was born with something wrong with one of my legs and the surgeon suggested I do ballet to strengthen my leg, I guess by the time I was about 12 I was addicted Interviewer: How old were you when you started ballet dancing? Lynette Wills: I was 5 when I first started, a lot of the dancers start about that age Interviewer: Do you have any regrets? Lynette Wills: I regret not finishing my HSC properly and not listening to my dad and doing my studies while dancing. I don't have any real regrets as they are only the mistakes you make in life and without them you don't learn in life. Interviewer: What do you think you would be doing if you weren’t a ballet dancer? Lynette Wills: I'd probably be doing something that’s constantly changing because I would get very bored, probably advertising, acting or clothes designing, or... events co-coordinating Interviewer: penny18: Do u no the roles your playing next year Lynette? Lynette Wills: ahh... I know a few of them. Of course that could change before then, I can pretty much guarantee that when we do Giselle I'll do the queen, and I know I’m in a ballet called Carmina Burana Interviewer: penny18: Have u ever thought of moving to another ballet company / Freckles: do plan to stay with the ABS? Lynette Wills: Yes I plan to stay with the Australian ballet, I intend to support David McAllister. Yes I’ve wanted to leave at times, but have not done it because its difficult to find another company that has such an exciting range, but I’m always interested in guesting with other companies Interviewer: Freckles: any tips for us young dancers? Lynette Wills: Don't be disillusioned by the obvious like the really long legs. The people who make it to the top are the ones that are the most determined. For you to be happy in a ballet company there are just as many lows as highs so you have to be ready for some pretty hard knocks and if you don't love it, don't do it Interviewer: Do you have any lucky tights/shoes etc that you always wear while on stage? Lynette Wills: I pretty much wear a new pair of shoes every time I step on the stage, but I am superstitious and can't stand shoes on the table, so if Karen comes in and puts my new shoes on the table she has to take them right back again Interviewer: Do you ever receive gifts from fans? If so are there any memorable ones? Lynette Wills: I've received lots and lots of flowers, and gifts from any fans are always memorable, I’ve received a lot of letters from fans and their words mean more to me than any gifts could Interviewer: What do you do to relax after a performance? Lynette Wills: Well sometimes some of the dancers all go out and have something light to eat but most of the time we just go home to watch some really bad late night TV, have a bath, glass of wine and go bed Interviewer: How do you feel just before the curtain goes up? Lynette Wills: Lots of things, nervous, excited, determined. When the curtain is about to go up and your playing a person, you really focus on getting in to character and becoming that person, as soon as you step out on stage the nerves just disappear Interviewer: What is your favorite venue to perform in throughout Australia? Lynette Wills: I’d have to say the State Theatre in Melbourne has the best stage, but the Capital Theatre in Sydney has the best atmosphere Interviewer: Have you ever performed overseas? If so where do you feel more comfortable performing? Lynette Wills: It all feels just the same the second you step out on stage, its just the same. Sometimes you have a really exciting audience, which makes all the difference, it is twice as hard when you have a really dull audience. The American audiences where very vocal which was good, lots of screaming Interviewer: Are you enjoying your role as Queen in Mirror Mirror? Lynette Wills: Yes very much, this particular queen has some very serious psychological issues and I’m enjoying playing that out on stage laughs Interviewer: What is your favorite role to dance? Lynette Wills: Tatiana in Onegin without a doubt, which wins hands down Interviewer: Do you ever read reviews on your own performances? Lynette Wills: Yes I do, we all read them with a little bit of trepidation but its only one persons opinion and you have to keep that in mind. Only twice have I had a bad review that’s made me not want to go back out on stage Interviewer: penny18: I had really bad training and have only now started going to a good ballet school. My teacher there said I had a fairly natural talent but had been poorly trained. My new teachers really good. Do u think ill ever be able to be a ballerina or will my bad training be too difficult to correct. Lynette Wills: No it’s definitely not too late for you to make it as a dancer. It sounds like you have a good teacher now, work hard and stay determined. Learn about your physical body and anatomy, it helps a lot if you want to become a ballerina and good luck with it penny Interviewer: Freckles: who is your favorite male partner? (as in performing on stage with) Lynette Wills: laughs On stage I would have to say there are a few but Steven Heathcote is a dream to work with. I've also had some magic moments with Matthew Trent, Dion Van Der Wyst and most recently Robert Curran and they have all been magic partners Interviewer: Do you admire other forms of dance apart from ballet? Lynette Wills: Absolutely, all forms of dance. I think one of the best companies in the world is The Netherlands company and the Sydney dance company is doing some fantastic work, and the Latin dance is just too cool and sexy for words. Who doesn't like Latin dancing. Interviewer: Do you dance much when you go out to clubs etc? Lynette Wills: Yes, you can't keep me down laughs Interviewer: Do you ever surf the net? Lynette Wills: No not really, the strongest connection I have on the net is emailing. I email dancers in other companies overseas, and I’m getting a bit addicted to that Interviewer: How long do you practice each day? Lynette Wills: When we are performing we work from 11 am to 4 pm and then we will have a warm up bar at 6.30pm and the show goes from 7.30 to about 10 pm, and when we aren't performing we work from 10.30 am to 6.30 pm 6 days a week. Sunday is always free Interviewer: Do you have a special diet that you have to follow - or you just eat what you want? Lynette Wills: I'm not on any specific diet but all the dancers are more conscious of having a stable diet rather than a diet to lose weight. When your working really really hard you need a low fat, high energy diet because you burn it all off anyway. The latest diet we are all trying lately is high protein and low carb with lots of greens Interviewer: How do you get motivated each day? Lynette Wills: Basically if you don't get up and do class, then class the next day is going to be really bad, the more you miss the harder it gets Interviewer: Thanks for your time Lynette, any final comments that you would like to make to the chatters? Lynette Wills: its been fun and hope to hear from you all again and to see you at the ballet as often as possible.

Lynette Wills