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Juliet Burnett: Spreading the message of ballet
JP/Tertiani ZB SimanjuntakThe famous Australian ballet dancer Juliet Burnett is deeply connected to Indonesia
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JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak
The famous Australian ballet dancer Juliet Burnett is deeply connected to Indonesia. Although she may remain unknown to most people in the archipelagic nation, Burnett embraces Indonesia as her second home.
Growing up in Sydney, Burnett made annual visits to her mother's home country during her childhood.
Aside from three years of disciplined training at the Australian Ballet School, during which she was only able to make two visits to Indonesia, she never misses the chance to spend holidays with her cousins.
'We have more family in Indonesia,' she says, although one cannot immediately tell the Indonesian influence in her.
It seemed natural for her parents, Kyle and Widyas Burnett, to enroll her at the local ballet school at the tender age of 5. She was drawn to it as a young girl.
Her grandmother from her mother's side, Raden Ayu Ismadillah Chatarina, was the star palace dancer of the Surakarta Sunanate, who held the privilege of performing the royal court dance Bedhoyo Ketawang at special events.
At the age of 14, Burnett choreographed a repertoire called Campursari (Crossover) for her class performance. The dance infused classical ballet with Javanese dance positions and gamelan music.
'Mum made the costume,' she says.
But it was in 2012 that she got the opportunity to learn traditional dance in Surakarta, directly from the maestro Ibu Rusini.
'I was somehow in rhythm with the dance. It has the same elegance, grace and simplicity with classical ballet. I realized then that dancing was in my blood.'
Burnett argues that there are similarities between traditional Indonesian dance and classical ballet, and for this reason, Indonesia its ready to develop its own ballet enriched with local characteristics.
'I encourage the Indonesian style to emerge and put its name on the world map,' says Burnett.
A professional dancer upon her graduation from the Australian Ballet School in 2003, Burnett, now 31, was dubbed a 'dancer to watch' in Dance Australia's 2008, 2011 and 2012 annual surveys.
She was nominated for the 2009 Telstra Ballet Dancer Award and she has developed her career abroad since then.
She recently resigned from the Australian Ballet Company after 12 years and she plans to pursue a career in Europe. Before leaving for Europe, she had her 'homecoming' performance in Jakarta in August, where a vast network of family and friends watched her on stage for the first time.
As part of the first Indonesian Ballet Gala, Burnett taught ballet to children living in the slum areas along the Ciliwung riverbank and scouted out talent to be awarded scholarships.
With her dance partner, Christopher Hill of the West Australian Ballet, Burnett performed the timeless duet in Giselle, exhuming the heavy emotions of the titular character out of her lithe and graceful movements.
'One thing about this profession is that it is very consuming. You end up living and breathing the profession. It's a life, not just a job.
'It's important to maintain balance. You have to surround yourself with family to remind you what your value is as a person, friends who are not in the profession to share with you what's going on in this world that's not ballet,' she says.
Burnett regularly updates herself with current affairs not only to enrich herself as a citizen of the world, but to help her to find ways to express herself in dancing.
'Even on bad days, an understanding of the world puts everything in perspective.'
Married to musician and producer Nick Thayer, Burnett said that the world of the arts is her calling. It was not always thus. As a child, she used to check the job openings in the newspapers and circle the jobs she wanted to do, one of which included working with animals.
'I always have the urge to dance, and so as long as I have the urge, I'll keep dancing. If it's not there, I'll move to something else. I'm always happiest in the arts, whether it's dance, visual arts or music,' she says.
Her close attachment to her late uncle, the seminal poet, stage actor, writer and activist WS Rendra, must have in some way or another got under her skin in a positive way.
In the same year of Oom Willy's passing in 2009, Burnett was chosen by a writing team to contribute to the Australian Ballet's blog Behind Ballet. She is now a regular contributor for the Dance Tabs website and has written for other publications including Dance International and Gourmet Traveller.
Last year, she created her own blog, Dancing in a Turning World, in which she talks about her Indonesian heritage, her contemplation of things and the development of dance worldwide.
'I love teaching but I can't see myself as a teacher. Spreading the message of dance is my life now,' she says.
Burnett marks 100 as her age of retirement and she says that the loss of people close to her reminded her how precious life is.
'Life is short and you want to make the most of it. It sounds cheesy, I know, but really, every day counts. Always give the best you can. As for me, I go with the flow.'
