Grace in times of adversity

The Australian Ballet’s newest principal has had to overcome serious injury on her journey to the top, writes Karen van Ulzen.

There are some moments in childhood we never forget. For Robyn Hendricks it was her first ballet class at the age of eight. She was put with children much younger than herself and the class was very basic but she remembers having enormous fun. It was the start of an obsession that has taken her from the coastal town of Port Elizabeth in South Africa to the hallowed stages of the Australian Ballet.

Hendricks is one of three children in a high achieving family – her father is a merchant banker and her mother a psychologist. Although she was initially expected to find her way into academic circles, she proved to be the artistic one in the family. She studied Cecchetti method classical ballet and very quickly realised that she had found her calling. When she qualified to compete in an international Cecchetti competition in Melbourne, she made the trip to Australia at the urging of her teacher. She did not win the competition, but in the audience was a representative from the Australian Ballet School, who offered her a coveted place. Before her place was confirmed, “I had to do a class on my own taken by Mark Annear and watched by the director Marilyn Rowe. Pretty scary!” she remembers.

South Africa does not have a national ballet school like the Australian Ballet School, and career options in ballet are limited, with many theatres and arts companies having closed after the dismantling of apartheid. “ Anyone who does want to make a career [of ballet] has to get out quite young,” Hendricks says. The opportunity to come to Australia was too good to miss. The young Robyn left home at the age of 16 and was soon immersed in the full-time studies. “It was hard but I loved it. It took me a long time to get
used to the hours. I was exhausted for a lot of it. I had never done contemporary or character and I really struggled to pick up exercises and different sorts of movement. “But you grow up really quickly, and as much as some days I wondered if it was really worth it, I knew that I had it in me and that it was going to be okay. I was really driven and motivated to reach the end.”

You can read the rest of this article in the August/September issue of Dance Australia. Don’t miss out! Buy your copy from your favourite magazine retailer or subscribe here, or purchase an online copy via the Dance Australia app.