Fairytale Beginning For Boy Ballet Dancer

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday November 28, 2007

Valerie Lawson

WHEN Mitchell Hughes was almost three he saw a group of dancers performing behind the four Wiggles.

He told his mother, Jodie, "I want to do that".

"Two-and-a-half year olds don't usually ask to do something", said Jodie Hughes, so when he was old enough for the tiny tots class at the local ballet school, Mitchell was enrolled.

"We thought it would be short-lived, two or three years," Ms Hughes said. After all, no one in the family has a theatre background.

Mitchell interrupted his mother with a long "Noooo" and a look that said his parents would be doing the afternoon school-to-ballet-school run for many years to come.

And now there is the Sydney Opera House journey as well, with Mitchell, 11, chosen to dance the main child's role of Fritz in the Australian Ballet's new production of Nutcracker.

Fritz is the naughty son of a Victorian-era household who breaks a nutcracker toy given to his sister by Drosselmeyer, a mysterious family friend and magician, danced by the Australian Ballet's Steven Heathcote.

The ballet, which had a sellout season at the State Theatre, Melbourne, comes to the Sydney Opera House with a set largely rebuilt to fit into the smaller Opera Theatre. One of the main pieces of the set to be adapted was a vast Christmas tree that appears to grow up and across the stage.

Among the cast are 10 children recruited from local ballet schools and chosen by the Australian Ballet's ballet master, Mark Kay, with David Pavey, of Sydney, alternating in the role of Fritz.

Late last week, before rehearsal, Mitchell posed by the sails of the Opera House as hardcore joggers ran up and down the steps and the noise of the Australian Idol grand final preparations boomed around Bennelong Point.

Mitchell jumped and stood in an arabesque position oblivious to the clatter around him. Earlier, asked why he loved ballet so much, he said: "When I'm sad it gets rid of all those bad feelings".

And on stage? "I'm excited. It makes me feel happy".

The Peakhurst boy spends about eight hours a week in the studios of Rogerson Dance Studios in Mortdale, studying tap, jazz and contemporary dance as well as ballet.

Mitchell is the only boy in his class ("Yeah, well, it's OK. I'd like another boy") but joins other male students during his trips to Melbourne to take part in the Australian Ballet's junior interstate program.

He has already appeared with the Australian Ballet in Don Quixote and in The Sleeping Beauty. As a rat in Sleeping Beauty he danced in "a big, fat rat suit, a padded costume. It was very hot in there."

Earlier this year Mitchell auditioned for the singing and dancing role of Billy Elliot the Musical and "got through a reasonable way" in the selection process, Ms Hughes said, but afterwards he told her "I don't want to sing; I just want to dance".

The Australian Ballet's Nutcracker opens at the Sydney Opera House on Friday. This production is adapted from the Birmingham Royal Ballet's 1990 production choreographed by Sir Peter Wright. It is considered the definitive production in that both acts, often wildly at odds with one another, fit together in a logical sequence. The Sydney season has been sold out.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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