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When Amy Hollingsworth left the Royal New Zealand Ballet for Europe just over a decade ago, she was, at 24, the company's youngest principal dancer and in every delicate inch that rare creature, a true classical ballerina.
Now Hollingsworth is back to star again in a new season of Christopher Hampson's gorgeous Romeo and Juliet, with the RNZB. "My life," she says of the past 10 years, all enormous eyes in a very small face, thin as a diminutive whippet, but with a distinct wrap of mature confidence about her bony shoulders, "has been very busy, very colourful. I have been wearing many different hats recently."
The big shock is not hats but shoes. Hollingsworth has not, she confesses, been en pointe for a good eight years. She left New Zealand in 1997, headhunted to join Peter Schaufuss' brand new classical company as principal dancer. In 2000, she joined the contemporary Rambert Dance Company, under Christopher Bruce.
"And he," she continues, "encouraged me to let go the ballerina side, and to find something new."
That something new was a more contemporary ballet technique: standing in parallel, for example, relinquishing the classical dancer's exaggerated turn out and developing a lot more torso strength.
"It was quite frightening," says Hollingsworth, "when my arms began to change shape. I had always had ballerina arms, very slim and not much muscle. Now I've got massive biceps. It was a real challenge at first, and I was wondering, `What have I done?' But I was never one for the easy path - and now I have done it again - back to this. But it is very gratifying."
Hollingsworth has known Christopher Hampson for a long time and well enough to refer to him fondly as "Hampy". They had often talked about doing something together, and with the return of Romeo and Juliet, the time was right.
And the eight-year break from dancing on her toes has not been a problem for Hollingsworth, who has always packed a double measure of grit and determination, along with her stand-out talent. Hollingsworth is based in London, assistant artistic director of Bonachela Dance Company, and Raphael Bonachela's partner and muse.
Bonachela was a senior dancer in Rambert when Hollingsworth arrived, already deeply involved in choreography and working with the more contemporary dancers in the company. But another company dancer took a shine to Hollingsworth, and suggested Bonachela might use her.
"I wasn't that strong and hadn't had much contemporary training," she says. "But Raph decided to have a look at me and a monster was created." The two became "close friends quite fast".
Christopher Bruce came to observe Bonachela working with Hollingsworth and Martin Lindinger, on a piece they later named Linear Remains. He was impressed, told them to complete the work and it premiered at Sadlers Wells in November 2001.
Kylie Minogue's creative director saw the piece and liked it so much he invited Bonachela to choreograph for Minogue. Bonachela took Hollingsworth along for moral support and their subsequent work, for the hit Can't Get You Out of My Head, appeared on the Brit Awards.
Hollingsworth describes the experience as surreal: for the massive budget involved, the extremely high expectations and the minimum time for rehearsal. "We worked on it together for weeks before. Then it was just a few days of choreographing, rehearsal and it was all over."
Hollingsworth counts standing in for Minogue on a huge set, perched in the middle of a giant CD player and going through all of Kylie's moves for the Brit Awards, with a full complement of 20 dancers, "so Kylie could see what it was like from the front" as one of the strangest highlights of her career.
Other high points have been the dance film she made with Bonachela, called Muse; the stage version of the film, entitled Irony of Fate, that saw her winning the prestigious Critics Circle Award in 2005, and which brought the composer of the music used in that work to tears when he saw it; leaving Rambert, with Bonachela, to start their own company the following year; and performing the role of the Chosen Maiden in bad boy choreographer Michael Clark's Rite of Spring, in the Lincoln Centre in New York just one week and two days before she arrived in Wellington.
Mikhail Baryshnikov was in the audience. The avant garde work was given standing ovations every night.
"It was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my whole career, stamina-
wise," she says. "The role was originally made for a dancer who had been a gymnast. It was extremely challenging. But some people said it was the best thing I have ever done."
The fledgling Bonachela Dance Company is already making a considerable name for itself. Its dancers have to be incredibly fit and athletic, says Hollingsworth, including herself and Cameron McMillan, another former RNZB dancer who has done well in Europe and returned to dance Romeo.
"They train hard in all the disciplines they perform in," Hollingsworth says. "The company takes two ballet classes, one on technique, one release-based, as well as a contemporary class. They practise yoga for extreme flexibility and a highly trained gymnast in the company leads them in strength work. "The choreography is risky - lots of dangerous moves. Everyone is extremely focused."
Hollingworth is thriving on the challenge of it all, including the business of administration in the tough environment of arts management.
"It all makes hopping up on your toes again, after eight years, look a bit of a doddle really, just another little project."
Who: Dancer Amy Hollingsworth in Romeo and Juliet, with the Royal NZ Ballet; Hollingsworth alternates in the role with Megan Futcher.
Where and when: Aotea Centre, July 23-27
