When Australian dancer David Jonathan was invited to create a new ballet for the Astana Ballet in just three weeks, he leapt at the chance. That ballet, Instinct, is now having its premiere season at the company’s home theatre in Kazakhstan, in the capital city of Nur-Sultan. The ballet is a one-act, 24 minute neoclassical ballet en pointe, with 14 men and seven women.
Jonathan has had an extensive career as dancer and choreographer, first with the West Australian Ballet, then the National Ballet of Flanders in Belgium. He has been a principal dancer with the Astana Ballet since 2016. Last year he was nominated by Dance Europe magazine as a “Dancer to Watch”.
Instinct was inspired by the pandemic, “which sounds cliché, I know”, he says. “I am one of hundreds of thousands of Aussies who have been stranded abroad not able to get a flight home to Australia due to the caps the government put on the number of flights allowed into the country as well as the $3000 quarantine fee. So, this has had a major impact on my creative process and concept.
“Although abstract I think the libretto speaks for itself and allows enough space for the audience member to relate or interpret the ballet in their own unique way.”
The ballet opened on October 30, with further performances on October 31 and November 6 and 7.
Watch the preview here.