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Alumna Jessica Fyfe (2009)

by The Australian Ballet School |

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Jessica was born in Brisbane, where she began to dance at the early age of three. Her family moved to Newcastle when she was 10 and that is where she first realised she wished to pursue a career in ballet and so she auditioned for Level 5 of The Australian Ballet School.  She moved to Melbourne and away from her family at the age of 14 to begin training at The Australian Ballet School in 2005. She represent the School in the Prix de Lausanne in 2008, The International Beijing Ballet Competition, also in 2008, and was a guest artist at Malaysia’s Performing Arts Festival in 2009. These experiences taught her a lot about the international ballet world and she made friends and connections around the world which she still cherishes today.

During her time at the ABS she performed on the regional Dancers Company Tour and had the opportunity to dance in a work choreographed by her colleagues and herself by Tim Harbour. The Dancers Company tour offered an amazing opportunity to visit so many places within Australia, but it also really demonstrated to Jessica what is required to be a true professional.  She learned about the rigours of performing while traveling, how to take care of her body on the road and how to manage her time. These are lessons that she still uses today as she travels and performs around the world.

"The Australian Ballet School gave me so many tools that I still call upon today and I am immensely grateful for the education I received, which has surely helped me reach the heights in my career to date." - Jessica

After graduating dux of my Level 8 class she joined The Australian Ballet Company in 2010 and went on to dance many solo roles in her first few years with the company. Two of the highlights were the roles of Clara from Sir Peter Wight’s Nutcracker and Olga from John Cranko’s Onegin.  While a member of The Australian Ballet Jessica experienced a serious injury, which she remembers as one of the low points of her career. As tough a time as this was she learned so much about not only herself, but the ups and downs of the life of a dancer, and this has made her a more resilient person.

After five years with The Australian Ballet Jessica decided to reach for new challenges. She had the opportunity to guest with the English National Ballet for three months, but it was at The Stuttgart Ballet that she found the challenge she had been seeking.  She joined Stuttgart in 2016 and it has truly been a life and career changing decision for her.  At Stuttgart she has had the opportunity to dance in some amazing works, from choreographers both past and present, but two particular highlights have been dancing the roles of Bianca in Cranko’s Taming of the Shrew and Olga in Cranko’s Onegin on international tours.  She has also had the opportunity to dance many other principal roles, such as Prudence in John Neumeier’s Lade of the Camelias, the 4th Movement Principal in Symphony in C by George Balanchine and Lise in Sir Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal Gardee. Dancing with one of the major companies in Europe has also allowed her to work with some of today’s greatest choreographers, such as Akram Khan, Christian Spuck, Marco Goecke and the legendary Jiri Kylian.

"Being far from home and family presents its challenges and it is certainly very different living in Germany to back home, but I am living a wonderful life and truly following my dreams and I have both The Australian Ballet School and The Australian Ballet to thank for that." - Jessica

 

Photos by Stuttgarter Ballett

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