Australia's Billy Elliot in Houston
When young Rhys Kozakowski landed the title role of Billy Elliot in the Australian production nine years ago, he was a
publicist's dream. The parallels between his life and that of his fictional character made great copy. Like Billy, he lived in a coal town – Newcastle – in a house with his parents and his grandmother. His father drove coal freight trains for QI National. And Rhys was a boy who loved dancing.
But there the similarities end. Unlike Billy, he has not had to surmount great obstacles to achieve his dream. Instead of having a hostile father opposed to his dancing, Rhys's parents were all for it. "It was a really understanding and accepting family,” he says. “Everyone was really pushing and enjoying my dancing. That wasn't a struggle for me at all.”
Thank goodness for that! It would have been a crime to have stood in the way of such talent. It was clear from his performance in Billy Elliot (one can still see him dancing the solo “Electricity” on youtube) that the boy had prodigious gifts. The role called for ballet technique, which Rhys mastered despite having mostly only jazz and tap training. He didn't really learn ballet seriously until he joined the Billy Elliot ensemble.
Playing the major role in a hit international musical is obviously a lifetime highlight. The show played for three glorious years in Melbourne and Sydney. Rhys, still only a school boy, lived the high life, boarding away from his family in the Billy Elliot mansion with the other boys from the show and being treated like a celebrity, appearing on television and even being awarded a joint “Best Actor in a Musical” (with the other three Billies) at the Helpmann Awards.
His return to real life was hard, he admits, but he had gained a new ambition – to be a classical dancer. He joined the National College of Dance in Newcastle and achieved his diploma in dance. “That's pretty much when I saw the ad for the Houston Ballet audition in Sydney.” The ad was for a competition run by the Australian Institute of Classical Dance, directed by Marilyn Jones, mother of Houston Ballet's artistic director, Stanton Welch, which provides a six week scholarship to the Houston Ballet Academy summer school. Kosakowski won the scholarship. While at the summerschool he was offered a place in Houston Ballet II, the Houston Ballet's junior company. A year later he was in the Houston Ballet proper as an apprentice.
His might have been an easy path, but life in the company is hard work. Compared with his experience in Australia, he says Houston is like "a different world”.
“It's crazy. You have just got to be right on your ball game 24/7. There is no sitting down and checking your phone.”
He explains that the dancers in Houston Ballet II often cover roles in the main company and therefore have to know the ballets inside out and be ready to step in at any moment.
"You've got to know your stuff really well otherwise you get pulled up. People from the company come in and watch. If you'r fluttering around and you don't know your stuff well and not concentrating that tells them you don't really care about being in the company. You've got to be so focused and so – just always on it. You kind of have to see it to believe it.”
He first joined Houston Ballet as an apprentice. "An apprenticeship is for one year and if you're not good enough for the company then you don't get rehired. So it is like just one big year-long audition. Being in HBII and being an apprentice were the hardest years of being here because you have to prove that you're ready for the commitment and hard work.”
He made the grade, however, and is now one of the 24 members of the corps de ballet. He is already ticking off personal highlights. He lists performing at the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland with HBII as an “amazing experience”: “the crowd went insane.”And he has enjoyed working with Christopher Bruce, Houston Ballet's associate choreographer, particularly in Ghost Dances and Intimate Pages.
The company's performances in Australia will be his first in Romeo and Juliet. He is looking forward to dancing on home stages once more. Rumour has it that half of Newcastle is travelling south to see him.
- KAREN VAN ULZEN
This article is in the current issue (June/July) of Dance Australia. Read the full article on Rhys and the Houston Ballet! Buy a copy from your favourite retail outlet or subscribe here.
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