Five Minutes with Aurelien Scannella
As you enter your eighth season, how would you describe Season 2020?
Ambitious. It’s a real turning point for our Company as we go from five seasons in 2019 to seven in 2020, including the introduction of a new multi-work contemporary season and a tour to China.
Since coming to Perth I’ve known that our dancers have needed to be performing more, dancers are made to be on-stage and it’s been a long-term goal of mine to have an extra contemporary season. We’ve added that in 2020 which is great for both the dancers and audience. The new season, STATE, will be hosted at Heath Ledger Theatre in June.
Juan Carlos Osma and Aurelien Scannella rehearsing Giselle. (Photo credit: Frances Andrijich)
We’ve also been working on our long-term international touring strategy which in 2020 has seen us confirm a full Company tour of our beautiful Giselle to China over October which is exciting.
Share with us three of your favourite programmes from the upcoming season.
Well Season 2020 is a dream year with a lot of great works, to pick three is difficult but personally I’m looking forward to seeing two sides of world-renown choreographer Krzysztof Pastor with his contemporary work In Light and Shadow making its Australian Premiere at our Ballet at the Quarry season, as well as the return of the award-winning Neoclassical Dracula which he created for us in 2018.
The Honourable Governor of WA Kim Beazley AC with full Company (Photo credit: Scott Dennis)
Otherwise we’re premiering The Sleeping Beauty in May choreographed by Javier Torres which will be a beautiful Classical ballet for the whole family and something I think the people of Western Australia will love, and to close the year we’re presenting GALA, a multi-work season that features a ‘resume’ of our best works from the past eight years which is exciting.
Tell us a little bit about yourself: What got you interested in dance and what do you like most about it?
I had an interesting introduction to ballet/dance, when I was seven I was hit by a drunk driver while riding my bike. I spent three months in the hospital and the doctor upon discharge recommended I either do yoga or ballet to strengthen myself after the injuries. My sister was already doing ballet so I went along and gave it a try and the rest is history. At 14, I left home and went to the Royal Ballet School of Flanders in Antwerp, then earned a contract with the Company at 17 and started my career.
I think I fell in love with dance because I had to, I needed to do it for my recovery as a child but later is because of the story, the physicality and the thrill of being on-stage.
In your opinion, how have your works touch the lives of people?
What our work, and the work of many performing arts companies does is evoke emotions from the audience through our performance. It could be a different emotion for each person such as happiness, awe, fear, calm or joy.
West Australian Ballet’s Artistic Director Aurelien Scannella (Photo credit: Frances Andrijich)
In many ways we allow people to travel or dream for two to three hours at a time but that could enrich their lives for a few hours, to inspire them to make change or try something new.
We cause the uplifting effect that you see as people leave the theatre after escaping what may be happening in their reality.
If you could be any animal in the world, what animal would you be and why?
A big bird I think, maybe an Eagle?
The reason would be that you’d have the freedom to fly, freedom that you can’t have as a human and you’re able to see everything from a bird’s eye view, the bigger picture.
What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently?
Recently two of our dancers performed for the draw of the Fed Cup (the world cup of tennis) which was held in Perth between Australia and France, and we were kindly invited by the French team to come along to the matches.
So we went along and I thought being in Perth, there won’t be much of a French audience but when we arrived there was a loud box of French fans directly behind us that had trumpets, drums and tamborines! Of the 12,000 in the audience maybe 1,000 were French supporters, all in this box and drowning out the sounds of the 11,000 Australian supporters! It was quite funny to think that the French were rowdier than the Australians.
Aurelien Scannella on Giselle Opening Night with wife, Principal Ballet Mistress and Artistic Associate Sandy Delasalle (Photo credit: Ellysia Burton)
What’s the most interesting thing about you that we wouldn’t learn from your resume alone?
I’m a motorbike enthusiast! I’ve had motorbikes for a long time and love the freedom that I feel when riding them which links to the animal analogy.
While riding it also gives me those moments alone to think, I always think about what I can bring to WA, thinking far ahead in the future of the next goals or initiatives that could be established.
Click here to visit West Australian Ballet’s website.