With all three of Australia’s ballet companies this year performing works with strong character roles for men, both male and female, it seemed an ideal time to look at these roles from the artist’s perspective.
Matt Donnelly, Paul Boyd and Colin Peasley are each at a different stage in their careers as performers and as character artists. They each bring a unique view to this fascinating performance genre.
Colin Peasley
Colin Peasley can quite rightly be considered the grand master of the character role. Although now retired after a prestigious 50-year career with the Australian Ballet (AB), he is still as busy as ever and about to reprise the role of Madge the Witch in AB’s forthcoming production of La Sylphide. When I caught up with him by phone he had a veritable wealth of knowledge and anecdotes to relate about the many characters he has played over the years.
Peasley joined the AB in 1962 and shortly after performed his first character role, Drosselmeyer in David Lichine’s The Nutcracker. “So I was very lucky in the beginning to be shown the way to go, as obviously you don’t join a company at 28 and become a classical dancer.”...
Read all three interviews in the June/July issue of Dance Australia. OUT NOW!