G'day all,
On
Friday March 15 there was a memorial at The State Theatre to celebrate the life
of Dame Margaret Scott AC, DBA, OBE, better known as Maggie or Miss Scott.
Hundreds
arrived at the Arts Centre: teachers, past and present, ex students, Board
members, choreographers, television performers and others, whose lives had been
affected in varying degrees by this formidable woman.
 |
| Guard of Honour |
On
slowly filing into the theatre we were greeted in the aisles by a “Guard of
Honour“ by what seemed zillions of students from “the School,” causing me to
reflect that 52 years ago “the School” in Brunswick St, Fitzroy consisted of
only some 30 boys and girls of the First and Second years.
I
watched the audience shuffling past as the students stoically maintained
graceful posture, particularly the girls, having to hold their arms out so
their hands were at tutu’s edge and further reflected on the audience /
performer relationship with a misappropriation of Milton’s, “They also serve
who only stand and wait."
 |
| Angus Denton |
10
minutes later Steven Heathcote introduced proceedings with heartfelt tributes
from himself, Maggies son Angus, Colin Peasley, and David McAllister AM,
Director of The Australian Ballet. Heathcote, Peasley and McAllister were
generally all young contemporaries and noted how, through their association
with Maggie their lives had irrevocably altered, something they would never
change
Interspersed
with these tributes was a poignant work, by Paulina Quinteros, ”Embrace”
dedicated to Maggie’s husband Dick and sons Matthew and Angus, and beautifully
danced by Chloe Reynolds ( NCD, Newcastle) and Daniel Savetta (formerly
Washington Ballet.)
 |
| "Embrace" |
Graeme
Murphy’s tribute followed and for perhaps the next 10-15 minutes (?) he took us
on an enthusiastically spontaneous, note-less journey: part history, part
anecdote, part aesthetic and manifesto but all highlighting his joyous
relationship with a like mind; and who, as a protege and later in his own
mature creative works paved a continuum of Maggie’s legacy and that of a ballet
tradition in Australia.
I
thought, too of the tenets of Noverre, Blasis, Diaghilev, the works of Martha
Graham , Pina Bausch and others and that “...many are called but few are
chosen.”
A
delightful pas-de-deux, from Murphy’s Nutcracker was movingly and fluidly
performed by the AB’s Benedicte Bemet and Jarryd Madden...a testament to his
amalgam of historical acuity and contemporary elegance.
 |
| Nutcracker, Pas-de-Deux. |
Tributes
from Marylin Rowe AM, OBE and Lisa Pavanne, respectively, former and current
Dir: ABS followed and Stephen Baynes,”Ballo Barrocco” was then well danced by
the Level 8 students from the School with the memorial finishing with a video
presentation of a fruitful life with past staff and students filing onto the
stage to lay a rose in honour of Maggie.
 |
| "Ballo Barrocco" |
It was
quietly, emotional.
 |
| Rose laying tribute. |
To Dick,
Angus and Matt and families, condolences, hopefully the extensive sympathy
publicly expressed for your wife and mother’s death will in some way assuage
your private grief.
Lawrence
Winder
