It’s all pom (pom) and ceremony: Tony Bartuccio (left) at rehearsal taking Chess dancers through their moves. (RoBeRT Banks)
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ive, six seven, eight … with cheerleading cartwheels and pom-pom pirouettes, Tony Bartuccio’s dancers make their Chess moves on a raked stage in a Southbank rehearsal studio. Bartuccio, dressed in dance gear with his hair tied back in a ponytail, is nimble in his soft-leather dance shoes as he gives his dancers the count to the beat with a click of his fingers. Calmly he directs, stopping the soundtrack repeatedly to improvise where a series of steps on paper do not quite fit the carnival beat of The Merchandisers from the musical Chess. Each move takes into account the angle of the stage for fancy footwork. The square, raked stage slopes towards the audience, and at the Arts Centre’s State Theatre this month it will be covered with black-and-white squares when The Production Company’s Chess opens for a short season. But for now, it’s a challenge for the dancers to balance as they perform acrobatic moves on an angle and remain upright. The dancers also have an incredibly tight rehearsal schedule; they have only three weeks to learn the choreography and rehearse with the ensemble of 20. Bartuccio says more than 700 singers applied for an ensemble role at the auditions in June. He gathered his own troupe of six dancers from Australia’s leading dance companies, including Melbourne’s Chunky Move and Sydney Dance Company. Since joining the creative cast of Chess in April at the request of its director, his friend Gale Edwards, Bartuccio says he has absorbed and “fallen in love” with the Chess score by ABBA musicians Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. “The music creeps up on you – it’s so dense and rich,” he says. He plays it in the car for his many commutes between his Melbourne bayside home, dance-rehearsal studios and the airport. “In my car I have got the music on and I’m by myself. It’s my isolation booth,” Bartuccio says. “I do great preparation there while I’m driving. It’s another world. I love that time to myself. The problem is, since I left my own performing-arts studio to go freelance, it takes me interstate and overseas a lot and I’m always coming and going from the airport.” In 2003, Bartuccio and his wife, actor Caroline Gillmer, closed the Prahran dance studio Bartuccio had run for more than 20 years for a career change. “Retirement is not ever on our radar,” he says. The Tony Bartuccio Dancers that came from his studio performed twice a week on The Don Lane Show from the
“We have spent a lot of time rewriting, it’s really exciting,” late ’70s to early ’80s. They were also a featured act on In says Paladino, who plays Florence and sings the show’s hit Melbourne Tonight with Frankie J. Holden for three years in duet I Know Him So Well with Alinta Chidzey, as Svetlana. the ’90s. “I wish we had more time to do even more with it. Gale and “We still get phone calls for classes,” Bartuccio says. “I Tony are amazing, they work very well together and in these can’t walk down the streets of Melbourne without a mother situations with a tight schedule you have to,” Paladino says. stopping me to tell me we taught her child. Thankfully for Paladino, there are no acrobatic dance “We educated young dancers to appreciate movement and moves scheduled for her character. She says she has, music and have a love of the arts. I am very proud of that. The however, had some basic choreography from Bartuccio studio was such an important part of our lives and nurtured at a Showstoppers concert they did together at Crown so much talent.” Casino. “Just a few shimmies and side steps … I’m a mover, A graduate of Bartuccio’s dance studio, Ballarat-born Craig not a dancer!” Revel Horwood, went on to become an international star and Bartuccio scored his first major role as a young dancer is now a successful director and choreographer in London’s in 1977 when he auditioned for director Michael Bennett West End. in New York and was cast as Greg Gardner for the first “Two years ago Craig did a travelling concert version Australian production of A Chorus Line. His co-stars of Chess in the UK,” Bartuccio says. “The story is so bleak included David Atkins, Peta Toppano, Karen Johnson it needs as much colour and movement as possible. His Mortimer and Angela Ayers. production was very entertaining. He’s given it eye candy, Bennett won “outstanding director of a musical” in and the costumes were quite outrageous.” 1976 at the Tony Awards in New York for the original Bartuccio says he likes German choreographer Pina production of A Chorus Line and is again a contender Bausch’s unusual style of gestures in her dance “The for “best choreography” and “best direction” in a works, which he says he is keeping in mind as he forms his choreography for Chess. music creeps musical at the 2012 Australian Helpmann Awards for his latest version of the musical to Lyricist Sir Tim Rice’s musical began as a up on tour Australia. concept album in 1984 and its singing stars you …” A Chorus Line was a turning point in theatre, Elaine Paige, Tommy Korberg and Murray Head Bartuccio says, “and it really put dancers on the map re-created their roles from the album for the theatre like So You Think You Can Dance has been a pivotal when Chess premiered in the West End in 1986. moment for dancers”. Set during the era of the Iron Curtain, Chess is an Bartuccio left the stage for television choreography and allegory of the Cold-War struggle between the US began a long relationship with Channel Nine and its variety and the Soviet Union played out in a world championship shows. His current project is The Footy Show’s 2012 AFL chess match. grand final player revue. “Chess is a really intellectual, sophisticated piece … for “There’s obviously a joy in performing … but I don’t want people in the industry it’s a Stephen Sondheim,” Bartuccio to go back and perform again,” says Bartuccio, who is coy says, referring to the American composer renowned for his about his age. witty and insightful lyrics. “I really look after myself and put the right sort of food into “Probably, if not for The Production Company, we would my body and maintain a level of fitness. not see this jewel. We are fortunate to get this opportunity “I don’t do ages, but I don’t live in a Peter Pan world either. but, of course, it’s quite a challenge. When you have a profile, for some reason people look at my “There has been many a version. It’s called a rock musical name and say ‘Oh my God! He was doing a TV show that but it’s not a musical, it’s a rock opera. The ABBA boys wrote used to be on five years ago!’ the most exquisite music – without a show in mind.” “I live in an ageless world and I look upon people as ageless Rice’s work has been rejigged many times. One of the as well. I think you are as young as your spirit dictates.” \ singing stars of The Production Company’s Chess, Silvie editorial@theweeklyreview.com.au Paladino, says Rice’s introduction in the Chess book invites theatre directors to “feel free” to add or subtract songs from » www.theproductioncompany.com.au the score. august 22, 2012 \ The weekly review 25