Isabella Stone - Transcript

This transcript is from an interview that was first published on 21th of June 2019. This transcript has been edited slightly to help with clarity, the audio of this episode and more information can be found here.

In this interview was conducted by Paige Carr, who was an Australian Youth Dance Festival, Youth Ambassadors.

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Paige Carr: I started by asking, where did dance start? 

Isabella Stone: I first started dancing, officially, you know -I went to a few jazz classes and tap classes as a very young person; I must have been seven or eight. And I enjoyed going to the classes, but when it got to the concert, the costume that they wanted to put us in at that age, I didn't like. It was something quite short and quite small and I came home and told mum that I wouldn't go on stage in, such a small amount of clothing. So I decided at that point; it must have been an energetic thing in reflection, but there was something that was different about the energy of the performance to the energy of the classroom that obviously scared me. So I stopped going to dancing after that. And then when I went to my local high school, I went to a public high school back at a senior high, they had a dance program. And it wasn't. It was an excellent program. I can't remember. Anyway, I had always liked moving. So mum just suggested trying it out. And I did the audition at the end of year seven. And there was another girl that I met at the audition. Our dads were friends because they both worked on radio together. And she had done no dancing. But she was a figure skater. So we became friends at the audition. So then when we turned up to the first day of school, and it both gotten into the course, you know, we kind of bonded because a lot of the other girls have really, you know, amazing and phenomenal like they were back was there was a lot of jazz, there was a lot of acrobats. So I kind of Yeah, dancing for me started at high school, it was one class a day, either do jazz or contemporary, did we do tap? We did a little bit of ballet, but actually everyone kind of pushed ballet out of the high school system.

But I met my first contemporary dance teacher at high school, her name was Danielle Rock. And she still teaches at our high school in Perth, actually. But I love her and her classes. And then she started these classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, actually. So we do one contemporary class, improvisation class and the choreography class. And the three classes were spread out over the two nights. So there was a lot of play. And there was a lot of socializing. I feel like that's where dancing started really, was a high school and largely as a fun sort of social thing.

Paige Carr: Do you think your knowledge of dance at a young age helped you succeed in your career?

Isabella Stone: I don't know if it's the dancing itself as in - I mean, I'm sure the technique has helped in some ways. So from high school, it was my final year of high school, I had a gap year between high school and wall Park because I wasn't successful in my first audition. And then I, in my first year of WAAPA, I was a member of Steps; the youth dance company for that period of time. And so I'd say the combination of these classes that I went to, throughout high school and largely the improvisation and choreography classes, and then my experience of being at Steps. It's that exposure to being in collaboration and having, you know, being given task work and having to be creative and strategic. And ultimately, that's where I fell in love with being a dancer; maybe I loved doing the moving. Of course, that's an enjoyment thing. But I wasn't necessarily driven because I wanted a career as a performer. I was always sort of attracted to understanding other people and asking questions about, I guess how I make sense of myself or make sense of doing, being a part of the world. And I was interested in asking those questions through dance. So I think that's why improvising and choreography were quiet attractive, and I would say it's those range of skills to be adaptive. So yeah, to be adaptive, and responsive, being responsive, that has helped me in my career. I think all of that exposure to that broad thinking as a teenager has kept me going.

Paige Carr: When you were trying to get into WAAPA, did you have the help of maybe a teacher or whoever that would help you become accepted?

Isabella Stone: Ah, yes. So Danielle Rock, this woman and my director of Steps at the time was Danielle Micich. I'd say they were both big helpers in me being successful, I actually went along to the first audition to keep a friend company; I wasn't necessarily convinced that it was what I wanted to do. But then, when I wasn't successful, the first time during my gap year, I kept dancing, but again, more as a social thing. I really loved the group of people. And I loved that, that environment wasn't anywhere else in my life. But yeah, I thought about it more. And I hadn't done much better, in fact, done barely any ballet. So Danielle Micich, I remember, she took me for a few private ballet classes before the audition to help me out. And then Danielle Rock actually helped me kind of compose; you had to make a solo for the audition. And I think in the end, it was the composition of the solo and being able to talk about choreography in the interview that got me across the line, in a way.

Paige Carr: Nice, what was some of the experiences that you encountered that you feel made you the dancer and choreographer you are today?

Isabella Stone: I think, well, there's a few things, first thing that comes to mind is the people. So it was meeting the other people in my year two of which I would say, Emma Fishwick and Ella-Rose Trew who have become not only my good friends, but I think the three of us have continued to work closely together. So I think we're in a period after leaving university where things I didn't know, you know, we thought we didn't have any work, we sort of kept each other going and perpetuated the beginning of each other's, sort of interesting careers and directions that I think we went off in. And then as well as the experience, meeting classmates, there are certain the exposure to certain teachers, and, you know, teachers and choreographers that sort of came in, and I had an amazing experience with that might have only been making that certain work that we performed, or they only came in for a semester and could do a semester of teaching. There were some very transformative people in that area, but then also, some of the core teachers that the University have, I guess, like, I would say that they are my friends, but over the years, and particularly in that time, the kind of conversations we had, and the support that they gave me, and the help they gave me as an understanding that I could be interested in performing. But I could also be interested in the choreography and the belief that I could pursue the two at the same time, I think that experience was really great.

I mean, I guess the experience; I had never done training at that level before, in kind of anything in my life. I was always active as a kid, but I wasn't a competitive sports person. So physically, I moved, but I wasn't physically driven. I always went to sports clubs or dancing, because I liked socializing. So when I entered that sort of arena at WAAPA, where it was, you know, you were really physically working, I remember, you know, I started eating heaps at night; I was just hungry all the time. And I was tired. And I didn't understand. But that sort of experience to find that rigor and that drive for working, and the importance of self teaching and self learning in those environments, when they're not easy. They're chaotic. There are lots of people for teachers to talk to and attend to. Maybe you get a choreographer that isn't so interested in you, but you're interested in them. So as I, okay, how do I work through this process? And how do I still make it enjoyable for me and get the most out of it? It's all of that, the experience of that? Yeah, showing up every day, being attentive, being interested in what you're interested in, being curious about the people around you. And really developing that skill to kind of self-teaching and self-learning. I think that has been very important to kind of keep me going to where I am now.

Paige Carr: After finishing WAAPA did you know exactly where you wanted to go from there, whether that's through dance or not?

Isabella Stone: I'm in the middle of my second year at university, I was quite convinced that I was going to leave. It was a lot. But I had many phone calls with Ella-Rose when she went back, she is from Canberra. So she was at home at that point in time and we had a lot of phone calls. And I decided to come back. And I think it was when I came back halfway through second year that I just sort of said to myself, okay, this is it. I do really love this thing. But if I'm going to keep going through this, it's going to be for some time, and I don't know what that meant, or what it looked like. So when I got to the end of third year, I wasn't ready to leave Perth.

I still had lots of friends outside of dancing that were very attached to. And then, in some ways, quite a homebody. I knew that I wanted to stay here for a while, we also graduated at a time where the state had - it was quite rich in its funding at our time of graduation. So though there wasn't, and there wasn't company work to be had. And I think I knew that I wasn't necessarily preened or - it’s different now. But if I'm honest, when I graduated, I didn't think I was good enough to be a company dancer. And the idea of doing an audition and having to do a kind of display of technical excellence petrified me because I knew what I was good at. And I felt like my skills, greatest in a collaborative process or in a room where there's discussion as well as performing and once I get on stage, it's fine. But um, that thing of having to perform class work I always found difficult. So yeah, a company wasn't going to be for me at that point. So yeah, I was determined, and class used to run five mornings a week in Perth at that point. So I'd get up and go to class every morning. And I just sort of would turn up and I did every single workshop with STRUT Dance between 2011 and 2014 or 15. So yeah, we'd sign up to everything.

And I went overseas; we would perform at this annual season Shortcut. So it kind of kept us going; I started making work. So yeah, that's what it mean between Emma, Ella and I, one of us would make work, one of us would perform. And then there were some graduates in the couple of years below me who stayed in Perth, who I was always interested in them as performance, having watched them at the university. So when they graduated, I started making work with them. So yes, I think there was lots of uncertainty. But in reflection now, I was obviously quite certain that I wanted to be making work. And I wanted to be in the dance community. So I was kind of saying yes to anything that kept me in that place.

Paige Carr: When choreographing, where does your main focus go towards when creating a dance or a piece of movement?

Isabella Stone: I think it's in storytelling. As vast and as vague as that answer can be. How do you communicate? I don't, it's difficult to answer.

Yeah, I think it is storytelling. So it's in telling some sort of story, whether that's, I wouldn't say my works are strict or classically narrative. But they definitely have some sense of journey or beginning, middle and end. And when I'm in the room and watching, yes, I am watching the movement. But I think as long as there seems to be a collective energy between the dancers, I'm not going to clean something in terms of like limbs or pointed feet out. I will pay attention to timing and rhythm and detail in like the detail of the rhythm and timing. And then I think my other big interest is between the relationships between the performance. I don't know whether that's through looking at each other or whether that's through them dancing together, spatially timing. Yeah, I mean, all that really. I mean, I think that's what most choreographers do, but I think it's in the relationships in the storytelling more than I say. The interest is on creating highly skilled, virtuosic sort of movement.

I'd say it's more in the performance and the structure that I am attracted to, those things. But that makes it sound like those things are separate. And I also don't think that's just it.

Paige Carr: What do you think is so exciting about dance or even just using it?

Isabella Stone: I think youth dance is exciting. I don't know, I've always found I find young people fascinating. I think that period of time in your life growing up is when you're - people are asking like quite big questions. And there's lots of information coming in. So you're sort of like a sponge at the same time. You can be on this is all from a personal reflection, you also sort of resist certain information because you're developing a sense of self, so what I love about youth is listening to all of the questions getting asked, I also love that use of dance, for me was a place where, yes, I had lots of friends, but there was a certain part of my soul or my being that came alive in the community of youth dance, that didn't feel like it was fostered anywhere else. So, I feel like I stumbled into this place where I was like, Oh, this is like a real sense of belonging in my whole being like in my moving body and in my thinking body. And I could ask silly questions and that wouldn't be laughed at. And I could be my very performative, forward, outgoing self, and that would be welcomed. But I could also be very quiet and very observing. And people understood that. So now in working with dance, there's that energy that still exists there. So I know with the companies I work with, that the kids… yes, they come to dance, but they also love coming, because they really love hanging out in that group of people. So I think that sense of community and family that exists in the friendship is really beautiful to watch. And that excites me. The questions being asked both, you know, when you talk to people, but also when they're moving, and they're working together is fascinating. I love watching. Like a sense of leadership, or a sense of supporting a person, or a sense of like, designer. Like it's like all these little strengths come out in youth dance, particularly once you start working on a show. You really -I feel like I really noticed some people want to lead the group, and they want to talk about the movement and they know it, you know, that'd be it. Like we jokingly call people dance captains. And because there's always a stranger, some people really take on that care role, making sure that everyone's understanding and they're like coaching from the inside or from side by side with people. Some people really want to talk about that concept of design and story. And so then you end up on these big kind of long, extended, trippy, sort of - I know, like, sort of philosophical, but also sometimes like dream, like stories - and I think that's great. And then some people really want to talk about this space, and they're pushing objects around or directing people. So yeah, it's like you see, everyone; how they look at the world really comes out in the room, when you're making the dance. And I think that's fascinating. There's a space where young people can start to understand those things about themselves. And yeah, and be challenged to maybe take on the characteristics of another person or be interested in other person, but that everyone's got the time to ask questions and be listened to.

Paige Carr: Well being a choreographer and even being a youth dancer yourself, obviously would mean that you would have worked closely with other youth dancers. Do you think that they can evolve dance into something different because of their age?

Isabella Stone: Yeah, I think so. I think if you were to spend time in the studio with them, and the way that the collaborative processes work at the moment, when I'm working for this company with this company, I think that's where they're developing gaps into something else.

And by that, I mean, I think there's a lot of conversation around bigger social topics, around political things, around what's inspiring, we talk about what's happening at school. So that's what I mean, this space has been created, where there's lots of time for asking questions. And sometimes it's not necessarily about the dancing. But the other thing that is expected and accepted is that there's time for listening. So it's all of that belief that actually everything that's going on, informs the way that you do the dancing, and what you're creating. You know, and we talk quite conceptually with some of the seven and eight year olds. And I think that's fascinating, because I, you know, they're totally capable, they keep up and they're really on board with kind of all of that conceptual thinking, which I think is fascinating. And they're so young. And I mean, I don't know, there could be many other situations in their lives, that’s given to them. But I don't know if I was given that experience so much at a really young age.

So yeah, and I think there's some really great leaders in that group and whether or not it's through dance. But can I make that something different?

That whole element of imagery and visualization that exists in dance; like I think there's lots of people that accept that the moving is really important, and understanding of being a great dancer is important, but I think they're also really learning that the sensitivity and the performance and the engagement in imagination, in storytelling, how can prop and imagery and design support your ideas? I think they're really starting to think about all of those things. So if they were to continue in that, yeah, I think it would be interesting. And some of them are very, you know, like, they really, right. Like they love like talking and singing and doing. You know we ask them to do something, and they'll just say yes. And I go, Oh, wow. Like if that space is there for people to feel that brave, then yeah, I think they can go forward to do lots of years.

Paige Carr: When you traveled to Europe, do you think it allowed you to see certain parts of contemporary dance that we don't have here in Australia?

Isabella Stone: Yeah, I do. I remember one of the biggest things that became apparent to me in Europe was, what made me hopeful was, that I saw a lot more people performing well into their 40s 50s and 60s, and it was quite common.

And I hadn't, and maybe haven't had the experience of seeing that so much in Australian dance.

So the sense that you could have a career as a performer into your later years was really inspiring, and also really beautiful. Because the inherent sense of the qualities that come out with time and with age are really beautiful. And I was attracted to that, even as a, you know - I think I came back at 22 and was telling everyone that I thought that I was going to be my best performer when I was 15. I was like, yeah, things just get better with age.

What was the other? Yeah, there’s just so much I remember, feeling quite saturated, and quite surprised that you could go to a show almost every night, depending on what city that you're in. But there was this availability and performance. I was, it was great. And things from a really small scale to quiet, you know, to kind of the big world names that you say, and the ability to dream big, in some of those bigger companies like the sets, and the design. And the imagery was unbelievable, you know, that whole theater; feeling like they're collapsing and transforming right in front of you. And also just the range of - if we're talking about movement, that physicality is so sure, I saw some really extreme, athletic, totally powerful performances, but then also some very slow… I don't know almost that you were watching a pedestrian street scene unfold in front of you, but they were performed, you know, depending on whatever the work was performed with.

It's almost like the intensity and the detail gets turned up on the night while you're sitting at the train station, watching people pass. Like that ability to still remain so relatable and so human, but be such a phenomenal mover that you make me as an audience feel like anything is possible. But also I can relate kinesthetically in a movement way, but also, in terms of sensation, and maybe the emotion that's going with it, it doesn't feel far away and in a mythical sort of fantasyland. Yeah, just remains very human, in a way. Yes, just the range of stuff. And you know, some really extreme stuff, like, lots of nudity. I think the year that we went overseas with my honors group, we went to this certain festival in Spain. And let's say we saw like 10 works. And nine of the 10 works that we saw, the performance ended up nude; which it didn't like, I wasn't fazed by it. But I do remember that being a reflection where I'm like, Okay, so the way that the body is understood, and showing is quite different, depending on the cultural and kind of social understandings of the city that you live in and you grow up in.

Yeah, so the way that you can go - I don't know, I’ve never been to every city in Europe, so I shouldn't say that. But you travel a lot. And this thing of like, nudity isn't such a big deal in lots of big European cities. And the body is just accepted as the body. And it's kind of beautiful in all its ways, but that also translates into the theatre and on stage. I do remember feeling like I was really excited by that, actually.

Paige Carr: What do you feel is a big topic in everyday life that can only be shown, talked about or explored through dance?

Isabella Stone: I don't know, if dance is the only - I don't know if there's a certain thing that only dance can explain. But I think what only dance can do is provide a space for people to have a kinesthetic response to something. And to be given a place to meet their body in watching another body move and ask the questions that the performer - all choreographers putting forward through their body, through the experience of watching the dance. And I think that sense of questioning without talking. And without language, as we know it through conversation and through writing, is a really worthwhile way of questioning what we're doing and how we exist in the world. Right?  It just requires a sense of time and a sense of patience and listening. That in the current moment, maybe not all of us have a practice of asking questions; and it requires reflection. I think that's the fascinating thing about performance. So I don't know if there's a big topic that only dance can do. But I think what only dance can do is provide this certain way of asking questions, and I think that's why it’s a really amazing form.

Paige Carr: As I've now learned, that no matter what you do, or how well you may do it, everyone has influences. Who was some of your influences? And what do you think they influenced you in? Whether your influences that through dance?

Isabella Stone: Wow, that's such a nice question to be asked. But there's so many. I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is people. And like I've mentioned, Emma Fishwick and Ella-Rose who are two of my peers. And my best friends, would be big a influence. I still credit those early teachers, Danielle Rock, Danielle Micich, Alice Holland was - she took my audition to get into high school dance. And I didn't say it for a few years following, but she was an assistant on one of the Steps projects that I did over the years, she was an assistant choreographer, and then became a teacher. And I've worked with her since. And I think she would be another one. Sue Peacock, and Michael Waites; so the two teachers at WAAPA, who were not only my teachers but have become friends. Sue, I've taught a lot about choreography, which she was my mentor on my first major work, and she actually made a work on Ella and I, back in 2011 when we first graduated, and so she definitely has influenced my choreographic style. And the way I look at choreography, influences, there's a French choreographer who has been to Perth quite a bit, and I was fortunate enough to get to perform two of his work studio, Didier Thèron. And although they were not the longest period of time I’ve spent with a person, his movement quality, really, the memory of it is really strong in my body. And the way he teaches class and speaks about performance, I would say he's a very big influence on me.

Who else in recent times? Oh, I do a lot of reading. So I devour a lot of books. And I would say whatever, artist, author I'm reading at the time, generally, towards, even if it's subconscious over what I'm making, and I also do this thing where I can be quite addictive as a person. So generally, if I read one book of someone and like it, then I feel like I need to read their entire series of books.

There's a woman named Brene Brown, I guess you would say she's a, what does she call herself? A social researcher, an American woman, she got famous for her TED talk on vulnerability, but also have over the years, I've read a lot of her books, I'd say she has influenced me recently, maybe not in terms of my work. But in terms of how I look at what sort of space do I work to create while I'm teaching or while I'm working? What's important, and how do I practice listening? Certainly Sally Gabor, who's a beautiful Indigenous artist. I saw the works of hers at the NVG Australia a few years ago. And, you know, I just, I remember spending ages in the gallery and standing in front of one particular painting and crying. Yeah, the way that she used color, and she's actually passed away but she also created a lot of her works in her 80s. So also that thing is that isn't just proceeded at a certain age. It's just how you be in the world. But yeah, artworks, I would say a big influences in terms of their movement and color and texture. And sometimes I'll just spend time looking at a book daydreaming about stuff.

I don't know. Oh, sorry. Sometimes I have this thing where I tend to end up being a person that people love to talk to in public places. And I quite enjoy it. But you know, we were on a regional tour recently, and I was sitting outside a shopping centre waiting for the others, talking, and this woman who was so - she was so funny. She had this big knitted jumper in like different shades of purple. And we are in Narrogin, which is just inland, Southeast, I think - I’m terrible with directions, don't ask. Just on the edge of the Wheatbelt. And yeah, this like, great, really tightly curled, bright red hair.

She was telling me all about her friend that she was going to visit who’d been diagnosed with cancer. And she bought her $10 gift voucher for Coles. And she thought that this friend could get some new socks. And so then we had a bigger conversation. And we talked about her being a Big Docker supporter and stuff like that. But anyway, interactions like that are quite common for me. You know, even if I think of like Uber drivers, I often end up having great conversations with Uber drivers about arranged marriages and all sorts of funny things. So inside, why is it those little, those interactions that make me come back into the studio and want to ask certain questions. So sometimes it's just the random bus ride or the saying something peculiar, or when you sit on the seats on the train, and you're traveling backwards instead of forwards and that sort of stuff.