Blood on the dance floor as Spartacus gives ballet a political update

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Blood on the dance floor as Spartacus gives ballet a political update

By Stephen A. Russell

Immersed in the fake blood and real sweat of the Australian Ballet’s all-new Spartacus, dancer-turned star choreographer Lucas Jervies sees echoes of the Thracian gladiator’s rebellion against the Roman Empire everywhere.

It’s hard not to, he says, when the US President attacks the media and the judiciary on a near-daily basis, and an accidental parliamentarian raises the spectre of the "final solution" in his maiden speech in Canberra.

"If we were going to retell this story in 2018, we couldn't just focus on ancient Rome, we had to speak to totalitarian regimes across history," he says during a break from intense rehearsals that have seen the predominantly male ensemble, led by Kevin Jackson's eponymous hero, immersed in hand-to-hand combat training under the guidance of fight director Nigel Poulton (The Bourne Legacy).

To that end, Jervies with set and costume designer Jerome Kaplan have drawn visual inspiration from the Third Reich and North Korea, as well as Stalin’s Soviet Union.

"Even some of the rhetoric that's coming out of old orange face [Donald Trump] has been discussed in the studio and considered by the dancers as character-building stuff," Jervies says.

"It's crazy. You want to be able to speak to what's going on around you and before you walk into work you see your own politicians using this kind of language in Parliament. What the f---?"

Spartacus was first unveiled by Russian-born composer Aram Khachaturian in 1954 and the Australian Ballet performed it for the first time in 1978, the year Khachaturian died. But it was during their 2002 production, in which he played a lowly Roman soldier, that Jervies first became enraptured by the work.

Kevin Jackson as Spartacus for a new production by The Australian Ballet.

Kevin Jackson as Spartacus for a new production by The Australian Ballet.Credit: Simon Schluter

He remembers watching slack-jawed as Steven Heathcote’s Spartacus danced the final pas de deux alongside Nicole Rhodes' Flavia, and the music transported him.

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Now that his ambition is finally being realised on a grand scale at Arts Centre Melbourne's State Theatre and the Sydney Opera House – with Jackson opposite Robyn Hendricks – Jervies freely admits that for all his detailed research now, back then he wasn't at all clued up about ancient Roman history or the political context in which Khachaturian wrote the piece.

"I guess I was a bit naive in the beginning," he says. "I was just reacting to the really accessible melodies. So when I actually became more aware, it was fascinating and intriguing and gave me even more reason to want to do it."

Considered one of the Soviet Union's leading composers and conductors, Khachaturian nonetheless had his work briefly blacklisted in the USSR over his alleged "anti-people" formalism. But after less than a year out in the cold, Spartacus was his big comeback. It may well have been his revenge, too.

"Their perception was that Stalin (or Lenin) was Spartacus, but what I actually think Khachaturian is saying is that Spartacus is the oppressed artist, and Stalin is [Roman general] Crassus," Jervies says.

Khachaturian never had to worry whether or not Stalin, who shared his Georgian background, would twig, because the leader died before the ballet debuted.

I said 'no weapons' ... because I thought it would be much more interesting choreographically to have raw fighting

Lucas Jervies, choreographer

Jervies revels in these ambiguities.

"I've tried to manifest that through Spartacus himself," he says.

"Kevin's maturity was the first thing that drew me to him. He's done everything in the ballet canon, he's beautifully built and muscular; but you meet him and he's so sensitive and kind, and that's kind of who Spartacus is. He needs to be this leader, but he's a sensitive new age guy."

We are all Spartacus: Choreographer Lucas Jervies, right, looks on as Kevin Jackson and Robyn Hendricks regearse a scene.

We are all Spartacus: Choreographer Lucas Jervies, right, looks on as Kevin Jackson and Robyn Hendricks regearse a scene. Credit: Simon Schluter

The opening act presents Spartacus' more tender side in two solo adagios. "He's quite vulnerable and soft with his movements. He's almost been forced into this predicament and I think that's a very interesting angle, rather than a brute-strength man who beats his chest."

There's an intimate eroticism to the swordless fight sequences too, with Jervies translating Poulton's wrestling-inspired moves into dance.

"I said 'no weapons', other than some batons, because I thought it would be much more interesting choreographically to have raw fighting, if you will," he says.

"It's harder to kill someone without a sword and it touches on the beauty of the body. They wrap around each other to get their opponent down on the ground and there are intricate punch sequences you couldn't do with a big clunky sword in your hand. So even in the most brutal moments, it's incredibly refined.”

The Australian Ballet performs Spartacus at Arts Centre Melbourne, September 18-29, and Sydney Opera House, November 9-24. Details: australianballet.com.au

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