Karen van Ulzen meets Juliet Burnett, senior artist with the Australian Ballet.
Juliet Burnett has a fascinating background. On her mother’s side she comes from a distinguished Javanese family. Her grandmother was a principal dancer at the Sultan’s court. Her uncle is WS Rendra, one of Java’s most celebrated figures – a poet, playwright and political activist who ran a drama company called Benkel Theater. Her Australian-born father was a painter, and met her mother in Indonesia when he was on a painting trip and she was an actor with the troupe. The pair settled in Sydney, where they raised Juliet and her sister, Jasmine.
Juliet first studied ballet with Valrene Jenkins and Christine Keith, where (the late) Valrene Tweedie was a coach and mentor. She went to school at Loretto College before moving to Melbourne and joining the Australian Ballet School. She joined the Australian Ballet in 2003 and is now a senior artist.
Burnett has clearly inherited the family’s literary gene, and defies the cliché of the word-shy dancer. She loves to write, and blogs regularly for the Australian Ballet and contributes to other international websites. She likes to read, and always keeps a book of poetry on her bedside table. At the moment she is enjoying reading musicians’ biographies (perhaps prompted by the fact that her husband of nine years, Nick Thayer, is a DJ and composer).
Burnett speaks Indonesian and has visited the country often, particularly on family visits when she was young, but hadn’t learnt any Javanese classical dance. In 2011, she was awarded the Khitercs Travelling Scholarship.
This is an extract from the cover feature of the April/May issue of Dance Australia. Buy your copy now or subscribe here.