I'm not interested in a group of people with some sort of incredible homogeny,a group that can do the movement I want. I'm interested in people whocan take the movement somewhere.
And dance is wonderful because dance is so immediate.
For me it was really important to get the essence out of the music for the story and not, sort of, press the music into the service of the whimsical telling of it.
I'm in the position to pick the cream of the crop.
I wanted to give people - which is fairly bizarre considering my whole life is contemporary dance really - I wanted to give people a really fulfilling sense that they had seen a white classical ballet - in a very pure form.
If the year 2000 can help us move into the future, that's fine, but I am afraid that people see it as a full stop and that one can take a big breath afterwards - you can't.
No one was creating and I always wanted to be created on.
Normally our season is seven weeks in the Drama Theatre and four weeks in the Opera Theater.
SDC has a great reputation for putting live music on stage.
Sydney is a very good market for us - we have a very strong following here.
Mostly, I'm in the very enviable position that no one dictates what I do.
I'm interested in people who can take the movement somewhere.
I think it requires a bit of honesty, Swan Lake.
I actually build my dreams around the dancers I've got in my company.
I always figure I have this tree and there's always some green fruit that's not ready to pick or blossoms that are ready to flower; there are always some ready to drop off too.
I look at the dancers and I get the inspiration for the work from them.
And currently, there are four to five new works in the pipeline for upcoming celebrations such as the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Australian Federation, my 50th Birthday, and Sydney Dance Company's 25th Anniversary.
Some are less giving, others are more reticent and you actually have to create for them. Others have within them the next step.
It's the emotional trigger points that are important to me because I know if I could believe in the characters and try and imagine how they felt then I'd be able to do something quite honest.
There's a line of dancers waiting to get into Sydney Dance Company.
