Q&A with Academy Associate Teacher Amelia Waller
Written by Cassandra Houghton
From the first few beats of highland music heard as a young child in regional Victoria to the sounds of orchestras across the world while she performed onstage as a professional ballerina, Amelia Waller’s passion for dance has been unwavering. After retiring from the stage in 2015 and joining the Queensland Ballet Academy faculty to share her talents with the next generation of dancers, Amelia is exploring her choreographic skills with The Poetic Tantrums in the upcoming Aspire season. Read about her incredible dance career below.
You’ve performed across the world with companies including Queensland Ballet, National Moravian-Silesian Theatre, and Germany’s Leipzig Ballet. What are a few of your favourite highlights from the stage?
Performing Principal roles in Carmen and A Streetcar Named Desire in Queensland Ballet, as well as Chaplin in Leipzig Ballet, were definitely highlights from my dance career. Charlie Chaplin’s daughter, Geraldine Chaplin, attended our premiere and I was very fortunate to meet with her which was a very emotional and unforgettable experience. I have also been very fortunate to tour all around the world, from South America, to Japan, Taiwan and Spain to name a few. Having the opportunity to merge my two passions of dance and travelling is something I never took for granted.
What do you love about dance?
Being a professional dancer is unlike any other career and it has only been since my first retirement that I have really reflected on why I loved it (and still do) so much. First and foremost for me, I love the artistic element of dance whether it be portraying a narrative in a classical ballet or exploring a more abstract concept in contemporary dance. I always enjoyed the process of researching different roles and looking at various artforms such as paintings, fashion, and film to find inspiration. I truly believe that dance has the ability to bring out our subconscious in a way; through different characters and concepts we can learn more about ourselves.
As with most dancers, I also love and am slightly obsessed with music and I enjoy personifying that music through movement. Now, as a teacher, I can enjoy sharing my diverse music choices with my students which will hopefully ignite their imagination as they perform their class work.
What does your job as Associate Teacher at Queensland Ballet Academy involve?
I teach Levels 4, 5, and 6, as well as Pre-Professional Contemporary. I also teach Drama to the Level 1 and Level 2 dancers, which is really enjoyable. Within the lower school, our priority is for students to work on their contemporary technique - focusing on alignment, pathways in space, and gaining awareness of where movements are initiated from. In saying that, I also encourage students to harness their creativity within choreographic tasks and feel this is very important at a young age. The PPP (Pre-Professional Program) artists mainly focus on implementing their technique into creative projects, repertoire and performances. I am very fortunate to be creating on them for this year’s Aspire.
Tell us a little about your piece for Aspire - The Poetic Tantrums.
The Poetic Tantrums is a phrase I heard whilst watching a film and thought it would make a great title for a choreography. I then had to work backwards in putting the puzzle together, as I had so many ideas and sources of inspiration. I decided to create a narrative to give the protagonist a reason to throw a series of childlike tantrums; creating a cohesive narrative has probably been the most challenging aspect of this choreographic process. I also wanted the piece to have a strong acting component and am encouraging the students to be very theatrical and exuberant in their gestures. I hope this sense of playfulness will be entertaining for the audience to watch.
Favourite thing about your job as a teacher?
Sharing my enthusiasm and knowledge about the dance profession with my students. I want my students to learn to love everything about the dance industry, from working on technique, to connecting to the music emotionally, to choreographing and improvising, as well as being open-minded to meeting people with different ideas and styles. At the moment, I’m personally really enjoying collaborating with our incredible costume and technical teams, and sharing ideas and possibilities to bring The Poetic Tantrums to life. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about this profession, it’s that you never stop learning whether it be as a dancer or teacher, so that’s really inspiring.
What do you think sets Queensland Ballet Academy apart?
Aside from our world class facilities at Kelvin Grove, I believe QBA has an incredible faculty who truly want each and every student to succeed in whatever path they choose. All teachers have danced professionally both in Australia and overseas and are able to share a vast range of experience. We also now have an incredible contemporary course for students who wish to pursue a career in neo-classical and contemporary genres, which is fantastic.
After working and travelling the world, what do you enjoy about living and working in Australia?
I feel so lucky to work and live in Australia, especially in Queensland where the weather is always warm and there are beaches close by. Our circumstances here are very good compared to many countries, so I feel it is important to be grateful and to not take things for granted. I particularly enjoy working at QBA as I get to work alongside so many fantastic people, many of us danced together in QB so we feel like family.
Aside from Aspire, what else are you looking forward to this year?
Aspire will definitely be a highlight for me this year but I will also have some other opportunities later in the year that I’m really looking forward to. I also plan to return overseas at the end of the year and look forward to not only catching up with my close friends but watching as many performances and rehearsals as possible to gain a sense of what European companies are doing stylistically. Can’t wait!
