This transcript is from an interview that was first published on 11th of November 2016, in the very first season of Delving into Dance. This interview has hardly dated and explores the ways in which Rafael works, his background in dance and his vision for Sydney Dance Company. It is also hard to think about this interview without Kylie Minogue with Rafael choreographing both Fever and Showgirl tours. Rafael has made an incredible contribution to dance and Sydney Dance Company.
This transcript has been edited slightly to help with clarity, the audio of this episode and more information can be found here. Transcripts are a new initiative of Delving into Dance and over the following months we will be experimenting with the form of the transcripts, we welcome any feedback regarding the form and layout. These transcripts are paid for through the support of audiences. You can contribute here.
Andrew: Where did the passion for dance come from?
Rafael Bonachela: It did not have anything to do with my bringing up, in terms of my family, or, you know, we're talking Spain 1970s, you know, Franco was like, around not that long before. And, you know, my parents were both immigrants in a way within the same country, from this other Spain to the north to Barcelona, where there was a lot more opportunities in terms of industry. And so I don't come from a family that were able to, in any way in make me experience the arts. So it really comes from somewhere that I just, I can't explain, and that's the absolute truth. So why did I, you know, and not my other three brothers, you know, within the same family, and the same bringing up, just love dancing. And that's something that I don't know if it's in the genes, you know, I don't know, if we're already sort of pre made to, you know, like I was little, I had never been taken to a dance show or anything like that, I would hear music and I would want to dance and I would want to move and I would want to express myself in that way. And we're talking about a small town, also Barcelona, you know, I'm from La Garriga, I am not from Barcelona. So my references happened to come through the TV at random points, you know. Certainly seen people dancing, even in TV programs, or, you know, like I've said it before, but this is how it happened. Like, there was the beginning of the pop videos, you know, Michael Jackson, and all of these artists that suddenly had dancing in it, you know, there was Fame, you know, that series that actually was really truly the thing that made me realise that you can actually go to a school and people dance and people sing, you know, so my passion for dance is something that I just really truly felt within me, you know, no one took me to a dance school, there was no dance schools in my town, I didn't have my older sister that danced, you know, there was none of those triggers. The trigger really came from within this need. You know, and I know, and I remember with, you know, the boogie boxes and all of these - that I would constantly just dance to the music and, and then, you know, bit by bit, I got the sense of, you know, what, putting a dance together was. And that's one of the things that I did as a child I made dance, I didn't know that was called choreography. And I loved making a dance. I actually remember also, you know, I think now it's in different ways, but there used to be like four kids, they would be like, a group of kids sang and danced at the same time. You know, in Spain, we have….
Andrew: Like a Pop Group
Rafael Bonachela: Yeah, like, just the sort of pop groups. It wasn't like, the boy band scenario now. But yeah, and I would just want to be one of them, you know, I wanted to be able to be singing and dancing, you know, and that was just what I loved doing
Andrew: From dancing to choreography, obviously, not all dancers go on to be choreographers. Some try, and they're not actually great at transitioning into different art form, in many respects, for a different skill set. How was that for you? I mean, you have mentors, or -
Rafael Bonachela: Look, for me, it's interesting, because the choreography thing was always throughout because there was all these, that I’ve just explained to you. But then obviously, there was a point where I really understood you know, once I started taking proper classes at 15, I really understood that there was something great out there in terms of dance. I discovered Maurice Béjart, I started researching. And people in Barcelona gave me videos and VHS’ and by that point, I knew that it wasn't all about kids and singing and dancing, there was something greater out there.
I saw more documentaries about classical dance. The contemporary dance wasn't even…you know, was the beginning of it. It's been around for forty-fifty years max. So, I remember seeing the Greek dances of Maurice Béjart, buying books, then I started reading for myself, and then eventually after working with a company in Spain, when I went to London to train, even within my years of training, I would always get my friends and make dances. So I always kept making. The whole thing about making a dance; choreography, by then I probably knew the name. I always did it because I always loved doing it. By then, I wanted to be a dancer….Now you have, you know, young dancers, wanting to be choreographers, even before they've even danced or they may not even be more interested in dancing. Choreography, you could go to choreographic school, just that didn't exist then. So for me, I went from making my dance to wanting to dance and wanting to be a dancer. And then in school, I, I did the little dance things for my assessments. And then I joined Rambert Dance Company, which was like, imagine the Sydney Dance Company equivalent. There was this incredible opportunity to dance the work of great, you know, really amazing choreographers. And then I was like ‘Oh, this is really cool’, you know, these people are actually earning a living and coming to Rambert and having 16, no, 21 dancers and making a dance. And really, really quickly, like, within the first two years of being in Rambert, there was something called The Workshops, which is what we have as New Breed. In Rambert I was only given the opportunity to dancers within the company. We do it with independent choreographers also.
So I remember saying to Christopher Bruce who was the director, I want to make a dance like I wanna, you know, I want to be one of the ones making a dance. And he looked at me and went like “you're like, 21, you've just joined” and this is true, I remember going, like, “Ugh, I'm too young to dance, I'm too young to choreograph.” Also because I was a young dancer within the company, I, you know, I was being built into the company, so, I didn't get all the roles it just was gently. So it was a bit like “Ugh (frustrated)” and I remember insisting and eventually, Christopher Bruce says to me “Ok, make a dance, just do something.”
Andrew: What was that first piece that you did?
Rafael Bonachela: That first piece was called Three gone, Four left standing. It was made through a period of months. So many months that actually three dancers had left the company. And that's what the title of the work was; Three gone, Four left standing, I have to say, and this is, you know, a fact, that work Three gone, Four left standing, was performed at Sadlers Wells. So I went from, ‘I want to make a dance because this is really cool. And I really think, you know, I really like it.’…I was gonna say everything, I'm good at it, but actually, you know, like, if I look at it now, I just had this passion for it. You know, you talk about passion for dance. And I and I also had this passion for making dance and I obviously had the confidence in whatever way it came to me. And I was told ‘No you're too young.’ Somehow, I managed to get it, you know, to get the opportunity. And then Christopher Bruce says to me ‘I think I'm going to put your work in Sadlers Wells’.
And I was like, ‘what?’
Honestly, and I didn't even have any sort of special relationship in a way, I just really made this dance that…you know, I commissioned a piece of music. I commissioned a friend of mine who was a poet who was one of the dancers, and was here on Wednesday, in Melbourne, ‘cause she’s Australian, and we're talking like, I joined Rambert in 1990. So this is the early 90s. So she's an Australian that's followed my career from that first Three gone, Four left standing, that she was in it, she was a dancer in it, she wrote the poetry in it. So it was all commissioning music, commissioning poetry and putting it on stage.
So my transition in a way was, you know, wanting to do it, not being allowed to do it, then being allowed to do it and then having the work at Sadlers Wells. That's how it happened to me
Andrew: Were you a better choreographer than you were a dancer?
Rafael Bonachela: look him at the time, I was a better dancer, than I was a better choreographer I'm sure, you know, that was the very beginning of my dancing career. I had a lot to learn as a dancer, no doubt. I then stayed for the company, you know, for the next 10 years but what's interesting is that I was a dancer and I was a choreographer throughout my career; always parallel.
My transition, the moment that I felt it was a big transition, was the moment where I actually gave up dancing. Because I was really enjoying my dancing, I was in my early 30s, only then you really mature as a dancer, you know, however good you are, you get better with time. Having been on stage, the experience, the investment that you make on your body and your artistry, you know, being 22 year old dancer and being a 32 year old dancer is a big thing.
But the choreography thing, I was getting so many opportunities at my early 30s to already choreograph, but it was also enjoying dancing immensely and my real transition was actually to say ‘look, I have to stop dancing now.’ And the truth is that I stopped dancing at the point that I felt really at the height of it, you know, that I could have kept dancing, but in choreography I wasn't there. So when I actually gave up my dancing feeling really good at it, I was actually not you know being the most…I was you know people talk to me about the future you know like an upcoming talent and you know…what's it called
Andrew: I read before that many choreographers say that their freest time is when I just start, because they don't know the rules or they just kind of take more risks maybe not even knowing that they’re risks. Do you feel that? Like when you were younger did you produce different kind of work to now?
Rafael Bonachela: I think for me was different for me. When I was young, I was in Rambert, which we were dancing the work of Merce Cunningham without seeing the work. I mean, My dancing career was brought up in England, you know, in the UK, which had a real sort of modern American influence, not so European in a way.
Although then when Christopher Bruce came then I danced the work of Jiří Kylián, like a lot of the more European choreographers and at the very beginning, I was trying to be something that I wasn't. And then at some point, I clicked and I decided that I was going to just make the next piece and do whatever, I really, really, really, whatever feels right for me.
Without, it's interesting…like I was almost a little bit self aware of, I thought I had to be really modern, really, this… I can't quite explain it. But for me, it was different. I was trying to be many things and then at some point I realised that I could only be myself.
Andrew: What piece was the first piece where you felt like that was being..
Rafael Bonachela: Being myself ?
Andrew: Yeah
Rafael Bonachela: It was a piece called Linear Remains. And I had made, you know, Three gone, Four left standing and another piece called at any time and possibly other smaller works you know, and then with a Linear Remains which was also performed at Sadlers Wells, I just really went for something else, which was a lot more technically demanding, more virtuosic.
Because sometimes actually in contemporary dance virtuosity and technique are frowned upon. The fact that you kick your legs, the fact that you do a pirouette, you know, it's like that’s just not contemporary really that's actually you know, really too technical and I actually was a dancer that could do those things and the enjoy those things. Then I just embraced virtuosity and the dancer pushed physically in a way that’s demanding to their capacity as artists and to the physicality of, you know, what I am right now.
But before I was trying to just be something that I wasn't, which is really understated and really gentle and really something that wasn't me [16:09]
Andrew: When you choreographed for Kylie Minogue for those tours, Was that a very different approach? Because I mean, anybody that’s seen Kylie Minogue live. It's such a spectacular show, she’s the Showgirl.
Rafael Bonachela: Yeah, look, I really knew…I have to say, just because we've just spoken about Linear Remains, that that was the world that they saw. So at the point that I decided to just forget about all of the rules that I have put to myself, then I made Linear Remains. And you know, that's the work that suddenly changed my life in a direction that I didn't expect. Suddenly I was choreographing pop concerts.
But look, when I went to the Kylie Minogue world I didn't have a clue about that world. And that is just the truth I just didn't. Like, I went from really dedicating myself to being a dancer and wanting to be a choreographer within the contemporary dance world to suddenly being proposed to choreograph for a pop artist. It was something that at the time right there and then in the UK, and nowhere else that I knew any other choreographer was doing… contemporary dance maker, collaborating with pop artist. It has happened now since, but not then. So for me it was something that I didn't have any other choreographers to look up that they were doing that, but also for me, I didn't have my own dance company. I wasn't running Sydney Dance Company, I was just someone that wanted to choreograph.
And when this opportunity came, and I met Kylie and I met her team, I had this absolute instinct that I had to do it. That I would enjoy it and that I will learn a lot. And I went for it with their trust on me and their belief on me as a choreographer, but me actually not knowing how I could actually choreograph a two-hour pop concert, or even you know, pop video because I've never done anything like that.
So in a way, I think, you know, it’s that thing that not having references really helped you because you can do your own thing. So that's what I did. I did my own thing. But what I really understood is that this was…they actually, what was interesting is, that they said to me, ‘Look, we don't want this concert to be like any pop concert, the reason why we want you is because we want these concert,’ it was the Fever Tour, ‘to be really like a contemporary, something a lot more contemporary, something where it's not just about topless… you know, not just about, cause there were topless guys, you know, a performing, ‘but we don't want the choreography to be the usual pop concert choreography with that language, we want it to be something a little bit more abstract, a little bit more, more like what you do’, that's what they said to me. I said, ‘Okay, well, then I just do what I do.’
But, you know, you have an artist, which is Kylie Minogue in this instance, that's the centre of attention in many, many ways. You then have a team like William Baker and Alan McDonald, who work collaboratively with Kylie and with me in terms of the themes, the different sections of the work. So for me was interesting actually to enter ‘Okay, this is the nightclubbing section and this is the more futuristic section and this is a more so and so section.’
For me, it was about bringing my craft my knowledge as a choreographer at the time to fulfil what is essentially a very collaborative project, a collaborative environment to make, you know, the work of these artists, Kylie, you know, just shine and just be, you know, magic.
Andrew: As an Artistic Director, you're thinking big picture as well as little picture. How was that transition coming to Australia, I know you had your own company, but heading up a company that already had an image, already had a name, already had audience expectations, and was already embedded in kind of the fabric of Sydney. What was that like, as a process?
Rafael Bonachela: Well, the wish, at the time was to really start a new chapter. So, I was very lucky, as you just said, to inherit a company that had a very, very rich history. But it was also at the same time, a company that really wanted to transition into something that is now very very different. So in a way that was good for me, because I wasn't asked to keep the same image or the same anything. It was like, Look, this is a company that's, you know, very, very loved and very, very well respected, and that has this, you know, a heritage, but also, we now feel like the company needs to shift.
So, I, in fact, you know, what the truth is, when I did my interview, I proposed to the board and the panel, that this company should be a repertory company, that this company should not have just my work, that this company should be giving Australians the opportunity to do the work of the greatest choreographers alive, that we should be commissioning new work ,that this work should not just be narrative, that this work should just be what contemporary is right now. And I was never asked to deliver this, you know, so what we're doing now, what Sydney Dance Company’s performing now, it's something that I came up…
Because I learned a long time ago that I could only be the best at being me, and offering what I think I'm good, and what I have actually learned in my experience. So I came from a company that was a repertory company, I came from a company where dancers were able to learn and enrich themselves like I did, by the work of different choreographers. I know what that gave to audiences. So for me, I went to that, you know, to that interview, knowing that if I was given this opportunity, it would be an amazing opportunity for me to grow as a choreographer, but also to shape in really…erm…or to give an insight and a vision and to move people through contemporary dance and the many things that it can be beyond my own work.
So in a way, for me, it was easy, because I was never asked, ‘this is what we want a company to be’, I came into a room and I proposed, ‘I think this is what Sydney Dance Company should be.’ And of course, I really, truly understand that, you know, this is not my company, this is not Rafael Bonachela’s Dance Company. I'm employed to do the best job I can do for what is already a great company. But in a way, you know, it was, I’m going to say easy, and this job is not easy in any way, you know, but I'm allowed to be who I am. And to make choices that I believe in. And that's the only way that I could be doing this job because I can defend everything with my teeth, every minute. And every choice that I make. [23:55]
Andrew: Some choreographers don't make great artistic directors, so clearly, you've made that shift as a leader, in the rehearsal room to a leader of a company.
Rafael Bonachela: And look, that's just like, I mean, I was happy creating my own work with my own company, you know, and when this opportunity came up in, I thought it would be just, you know, an amazing opportunity. And I think the, the skills of being in the studio making work to the skills of running a company are very, very different. And for whatever reason, you know, I happen to really, really enjoy to be able to be doing both things,
I think I thrive on the pressure that there is every day and every week, because it isn't an easy job. But at the same time, all of the challenges that running a company that, you know, at the very beginning, even of …you know, I learned a little bit with my own company, but that was never, it was never going to prepare me for the immensity of a company like Sydney Dance Company.
But I remember that my first, you know, five year plan that I had to do for my own small Bonachela Dance Company, and I was with my Executive Director at the time. And I was like, ‘What do you mean, what do I want to be in five years?’ I didn't even know what I want to be doing now. But it was like, ‘No, no, this is just a guessing game. You know, you just have to guess and what are your dreams?’ And I realised that I spend my whole time dreaming since I was, you know, eight years old and I realised that something called dance could become a profession. So it was is just about keep, you know, to keep dreaming to keep having a vision.
So when I came to Sydney Dance Company, and I have to think in five years in advance, It wasn't so much like it was the first time. In Bonachela Dance Company, I also had a board of directors. I remember my first ever Board meeting I was like, ‘What am I meant to be doing in the Board meeting?’ But, you know, it was a small company and I had two people there supporting me. So when I came to Sydney Dance Company I had my first board meeting and it wasn't the first time so there was things that I had been, you know, I made my first poster with my friend, you know, I get, you know, I put flyers on like…I knew that there was something…you know, the marketing. But also I have to say that I spent 14 years of my career as a dancer and then as a resident choreographer, associate choreographer of Rambert Dance Company, in a company that was also like Sydney Dance Company. So, because as a person I was interested in other things that were not just dancing, and choreography, but I was always interested in the visual identity of, of the company in what those things bring. So I learned a lot, I was always learning and always observing how, you know, Rambert did that. So when I came to Sydney Dance Company, I had had been a dancer in a company that had toured the world, that had toured England extensively, that did Regional tours, so I always, I learned a lot
Andrew: What makes an effective dance leader, what makes somebody effective as a leader. Because clearly, I mean, it's working for you. [27:21]
Rafael Bonachela: I don’t know I like, I never really look at, you know…What makes an effective life? I just work bloody hard, you know that? Sorry (laughs)
But no, I mean, you're in a way I don't really analyse myself, like, I think all I know, is that often I think about what this work requires. And energy is a word that comes to my mind a lot, because I always think, ‘Will I have the energy, you know, to go into the studio and create from, you know, 11 until 6, and then have a quick shower and go to a dinner when I meant were meant to raise, you know, over $200,000?’, and that's expected, so that we can keep creating work for the next, you know, I'm able to really articulate what I'm passionate about, and, and then I'm able to, you know, eat my lunch. Well, I'm having, you know, six people come in one after the other with requests about every aspect of the company, whilst I have that amount of energy, which, at the moment I do, and I really enjoy it, because, you know, for me, it's about being in a theatre, on stage, giving people the experience that we do. So, for me, all of the elements that I'm talking about, that are required from me, pays off, in every way.
But having energy, having vision, treating people with respect, you know, making people really understand what, what we're all doing here. And I work very collaboratively with everybody, you know, with the dancers with, with the admin team, you know, with my executive director…I am not doing this job by myself, I am doing this job with the support of a lot of people. That is my board that's really supporting Sydney Dance Company in every aspect. But at the same time, I guess they also really believe in my artistic proposition, you know, so I try to make the best artistic job that I can do then, and have the best ideas that I can have - I really listen to people, you know, I don't always have the best idea. Sometimes other people working with me will come up with excellent suggestions that I'm like, ‘hey, yes, let's do it.’, you know, and that doesn't scare me.
I don't know, I don't believe I know everything either. So I'm someone that's really I always say to my dancers, and to everyone that works with me, my door is open. And at any point, I am not scared of conflict either, you know, and I’ve learnt along the way. So I don't know if what I'm telling you, I'm trying to describe the way that I work, you know… [30:15]
Andrew: Yeah, it’s not an easy thing to do, to kind of reflect back on what is…
Rafael Bonachela:…Exactly. I’m in this whirlwind and I'm going with it, and I really care about it, actually, I really care about the fact that we're being supported and that we have a great responsibility in this country and worldwide also to keep, you know, inspiring people through dance and through culture and through the arts. And we're in a very, very privileged position and there is not one day that I do not…that I'm not aware of that, and that I do not value that, and that I do not do everything I can do, you know, I'm here now. And, you know, I'm living the moment and I just, you know, I want to make sure that this company lives for another 50 years, you know, if not longer
Andrew: In terms of that privileged position. I mean, recently there's been huge funding cuts and transferring funds particularly in the medium and independent sector. How does Sydney Dance Company, which its funding is secured, does it have a role in the bigger sector? In terms of the bigger dance…
Rafael Bonachela: Our interaction with the small to medium, it's huge at every level.
So any cuts that are taken away from the small to medium really affect us in every way, because we have collaborated with and commissioned and put the work on stage of a lot of Australian choreographers that come from that, you know, and the list is endless, you know, we have a New Breed system, which now is happening three years in a row, it's been happening, but before that, we've done it about four or five times also, so where that's where I draw from, I mean, I go to see the, you know, the work of independent choreographers so that I'm able to find talent that I can support and that I can commission and that I can, you know, expose as, as much as I can. The work of an independent choreographer, Gabrielle Nankivell, was created through New Breed after I had seen the solos that she had done with money from project based - from the Arts Council. And then now the work is being put in our main season in Sydney next October, and subsequently will go on an international tour, you know, so, for me, it's like, you know, because we’re Sydney Dance Company, we only have so much…
You know, we have funding, but if you look at what we get from the government and what we actually function on, you'd be really surprised
Andrew: Oh absolutely
Rafael Bonachela: You know, people think that we've just been funded in a way that we can just function, we need to…you know, huge pressure on selling tickets, huge pressure on philanthropy and on actually generating the rest of the amount of money so, you know, the New Breed Season is supported by the Balnaves Foundation, who I went to, and I said, ‘Look, you know, there is a lot of great Australian choreographers that don't get enough support, and that we should be supporting, would you do it?’ and so, you know, I’ll do anything in my capacity, and in my role, to be able to keep interacting with the medium to small companies to be able to, you know, we facilitate studio space too many of these companies because they should be able to keep making work and to keep growing as artists and that's not even we going into the dancers. You know, sometimes they come straight to Sydney Dance Company, but that's quite rare. A lot of our dancers have danced with other companies before they come to us.
Andrew: So, bigger than this, what type of leadership does the arts sector need, in terms of pitching to government or pitching to society, about the importance of this type of support and funding.
Rafael Bonachela: You know, the fact that money's being taken away from the Arts just, I just do not comprehend how that cannot be understood how the value of Culture and the Arts to us, the community and human beings isn’t understood right at the top. You know, the people that make the decisions, in terms of politicians at the end of the day, you know, so, unless that chip changes, you know, and people are elected, that we really, truly absolutely value what we do, then things won’t change. And we can keep advocating, and we can keep doing what we do in the best way that we do it, but it is people in power that can make those sorts of decisions that can change things within a day, you know, and that's about us, you know, voting - well I don’t vote in this country, but, you know, electing people that, you know, really, truly value that and understand that and asking questions and really making them understand and really making them experience it also.
Andrew: You know, you're not a citizen in Australia, your…
Rafael Bonachela: I am on my way, though,
Andrew: Are you?
Rafael Bonachela: Yeah. I’ve lodged it. So I just now need to, you know, do my exam and hopefully I will be very soon this year.
Andrew: So will your future be in Australia? [35:47]
Rafael Bonachela: It is right now. And in any way... I'm not like… I'm very much I mean, you cannot live the future, you can only live the present, yeah? But to the question of like, am I thinking about where will…
It's interesting. I was back in London two months ago, and everybody was like, ‘When are you coming back?’ And I'm like, I'm not even thinking about coming back. You know, like right now. I'm super happy doing what I'm doing right here, right now in Australia.
But even to the point that I may not be directing Sydney Dance Company in a few years and here in Australia still feels like home. You know, so I'm not like thinking, ‘Okay, well, look I’m doing this job. And, you know, when it's done now move on, or something’, like I'm here, I'm just here right now. This is where my, you know, destiny, you know, where my future has taken me. I ended up in London, going to a school that I took as an opportunity. And I spent 20 years there. I never thought I would be living in Australia and my destiny and an amazing opportunity took me here. And now I feel nothing but really at home and enjoying what I do. But also the people that I have met, the friendships that I have a developed and I feel like really happy. At the end of the day that's what we have to be as humans. [37:14]
Andrew: In terms of your five-year strategy, not necessarily your personal one, but what do you want or imagine the dance scene in Australia could be or should be into the future. Like, what - your optimal kind of vision I guess?
Rafael Bonachela: Well, for us, there's been a huge investment in in education. And the reason why I'm saying this is because, and that's something that I think is where it all lies. If every young child in Australia has an opportunity to experience contemporary dance. Yeah? At least once, if not twice, within all of these years that we spend in school, being educated, you know, into this world; I think that will have a huge impact in the future of the audiences. And, you know, in in the last, you know, four years, maybe more, our education department in Sydney Dance Company has been established in my time with the company that was one of the things that I wanted from the very beginning, that I really was passionate about, and insisted upon on my board, you know, to support and to start building this, which is now growing and growing and growing. To the point that we have a full time year, pre professional year, where 25 incredibly talented Australian, young, 18 year old 19, 20, 21 dancers, spend a year intensively working with dance professionals at Sydney Dance Company, we're in our third year. We've just started a youth program where young - from, you know, very, very young to 15 - can come and experience what creativity and contemporary dance is. This has just started now. We are having full houses at Sydney Dance Company performances, matinees, of primary school matinees. I'm talking that there is not even one seat left. And these kids, eight year olds, get the show that you got. So this is not like some, you know, watered down version of what contemporary dance can be or it is, this is the real thing. And it's incredible and beyond the responses to the works. And, you know, we ask them to, you know, give us feedback. And we also do an introduction to, you know, what, a contemporary dance class. So what I'm seeing in the, in the future. is that all of this work that we're doing, you know, with all of these young people that have never experienced contemporary dance and this big gap that has been for, you know, however many years.
That we don't have to keep convincing people anymore, you know, that this is such a great art form that can really transform you, move you and inspire you, but that this is something that people can just, you know, feel a part of it, you know.
I think dance, movement, is something so, so primal, you know, and it's something that so many people could get so much more out of it. So, for me, I guess it's about this whole thing…we're creating great work, we will keep raising that bar at Sydney Dance Company and we will keep in every way we can making the work of the - the most ambitious. Ambitious? - you know, work and of high quality that's just a basic thing for like, that's just what the everyday thing, but what I want is that more and more people are able to enjoy that, you know, that's really where I'm at, for me. And that's really where our vision is at. Like, how many more people here in Australia and the rest of the world, you know, who's really really appreciating the world of Sydney Dance Company everywhere we go. You know, I'm very proud when we go to - we've been to Switzerland, Germany, Brazil and Santiago this year already on a five or six week tour where audiences were just blown away by the dancers and the works that we're presenting and that feels great. And you know, it's all about being on stage and performing
Andrew: Lastly, I know that in your office you have a wall where you put stuff that inspires you or things that you thinking of, that's right, isn’t it?
Rafael Bonachela: Yeah
Andrew: What's on the wall at the moment?
Rafael Bonachela: Oh, God, let me think, because I haven't been there for six weeks
Andrew: What do you want to put on the wall, that’s not there?
Rafael Bonachela: No, well, actually there’s everything. All of the notes that there was for ‘lakhs’ …for Lux Tenebris, sorry. You see I’m becoming so Australia now that I'm saying ‘lakhs’ instead of ‘looks’.
Lux Tenebris. All of the drawings, actually, of the map of the lighting of the floor, it's still there, and all of the references in terms of the feel for the world. So the truth…,but you know, I, because I've been on the road, my board, it's been on my computer. The next work I’m creating is called Anima, which means soul, breath, air, and at the moment, with Anima, actually, we're having some research and development next week with a filmmaker working with an Australian filmmaker, so they will be a film element to it. And that will really be the sort of strongest and most…what will give the visual identity to the world.
So interestingly, I've not been searching for so much in terms of Anima, because it's all it's all going to be done live next week in the studio. So we will be getting these cameras and I don't want to t….
Andrew: You don’t want to give it away?
Rafael Bonachela: Yeah, I mean, No one even knows the title, you just, there's a press release. So don’t blush, it’s ok, it’s ok. Anima, the press release will come out next week, because I didn't have a title because it took me a while to actually find the thing. So I've got two works going at the moment; one that's Anima and then another one, my first work for next year, which of course doesn't have a title and I'm starting to shape up you know, ideas and thoughts and concepts that could really trigger it and make it happen. [44:12 ]
Andrew: Very exciting, Thank you so much.
Rafael Bonachela: No, my pleasure.