Olivia Pickford interviewed by Anja Schall

Olivia, you are currently in rehearsals for Snow White for London Children’s Ballet which will open at the Peacock Theatre, London on 23 April 2009. Together with LCB you auditioned 600 young dancers and you are now working with a selected group of 50 dancers aged 9 to 15 years.  Snow White is not the first time you are working with LCB. Do give some more background into your relationship with LCB and the significance of your current role.

I first was introduced to LCB by Irek Mukhamedov, Former Principal Dancer with The Royal Ballet as I was teaching his daughter at Tring. His son Max was having his first trial lesson with me for the Junior Associates and it ended in tears and although I thought I had blown it, Irek saw how I worked with children and asked me to be his ballet mistress for Prince and the Pauper. This was an honor on every level for me as Irek is a 'hero' for me. Thereafter, I became ballet mistress for Vanessa Fenton from The Royal Ballet whilst I was still working for Tring and was choreographing for their dance show. I invited Lucille Briance, Artistic Director of LCB to come and watch and she loved what I had done for The Adams Family and asked me to be choreographer for Snow White. I am so thrilled to be asked and it really is a special opportunity for me.

Producing work for children and working within outreach contexts has remained at the very heart of your professional career in dance. You enjoy both, working within choreography and teaching. In your view, how do both areas complement each other and what are the elements you enjoy most when stringing the two together?

I absolutely love teaching and always try to teach in a way I know I would like to be taught. Not being the brightest cookie around, I always had to break down information in my mind or add in imagery in order to sequence steps. When I choreograph I give information as I would be in teaching so, although I am focusing on the choreography being fresh and unique, I am constantly thinking about the child achieving his/her best and doing the steps correctly as he/she clearly understands what is being asked. I admire those choreographers so much who have their own dance language which I am working towards. I try to bring the best out of the children by making them come out of themselves and dance in a completely different way and perhaps that is all part of choreography when you see someone with new dynamics and expression and a freedom of movement.

In our conversation, we looked at your creative stimuli and movement vocabulary. You mentioned imagery as being a major source within your choreography and the devising process. Would you share some sources of inspiration with us that are feeding into Snow White both in terms of choreography and translating your ideas to the group of young dancers?

I know that from past students they always tell me they can remember certain imagery I would give for a step or a word to shout out to get the correct rhythm or something. My imagery tends to always be related to food or animals!! I have also had pianists in class say that a two hour class is like a comedy session as they laugh openly to some of the images I give to a class. I know humour is a big part of me and if I cannot openly laugh or use humour as a device then I do slightly wither. And I think it is a proven fact that when kids are pushed really hard but there is warmth and humour in the studio you get the best out of them. With Snow White I tell the dwarves that they have to constantly feel like they are trying to steal biscuits from the cookie jar and no one must catch you. I think when we first see them come down the stairs, I have told them they are like Micheal Jackson in Thriller. I know the patterns in the very first large snow scene have been referenced to a cracked Cadbury Creme Egg with all the goo coming out as well as Terry Chocolate Orange segments. Our Jester is based on Fosse and Kenneth Williams and the cupcakes have stepped out of Moulin Rouge!!!

Choreographing a full-length ballet, you are working alongside and in collaboration with the artistic director of LCB, a script/ storyline, the musical director and a set music score as well as a dedicated ballet mistress, costume designers and a technical/ production team. How do you see your role as choreographer within the context of the artistic team? How do you tackle your choreographic responsibility within a time restricted creation and rehearsal period and - what will be the most poignant learning experience that you will take away as part of your professional development?

My role in this production team is to get that story told through movement. Tickets have sold so quickly and I know LCB tend to stay away from fairytales but in this case they have sold at a more rapid rate because it is Snow White. Every kid knows it and wants to see what the dwarves are like, how wicked that queen is and what the mirror is going to be like? So, my role is to get the story across brilliantly and with humour. I have learnt to work swiftly and under a time pressure with a big group of kids and it has really made me disciplined and will stay calm whilst moving at a great speed. It has also allowed me to work with a production team of high professional standard as this is completely a collaborative event and we are truly working together; I am learning so much because of this.

You work both in ballet as well as contemporary dance; differentiating the two particularly in terms of the implementation of music, dynamics and counts, are there any aspects working alongside a score and specific counts that you will take away from ‘Snow White’ into your contemporary dance practice?

I have to really count in rehearsals and really understand the score. I am not saying that in contemporary you don’t have to do this but I know a lot of the time in contemporary we come up with the concept and movement before we know which music we are using. I am working very closely with the rehearsal pianist, who is very patient with me and I am really trying to get the classical vocabulary to match exactly what the score is doing. It is something I have been really apprehensive about and I have literally stood beside Mark the rehearsal pianist and counted along with him to check I am on the right musical footing. I know in the past, the children have become disorientated if the score sounded differently from the rehearsal studio to when the orchestra played the score in performance, so I have to be really on top of it all. This has definitely rubbed off into my contemporary teaching and I feel that being very disciplined to counting has enhanced my contemporary teaching.

You spent many years of your career as dancer, teacher and choreographer overseas in Japan, Australia and Norway. You have taught for K Ballet for four years and during this time, you also choreographed a site specific commission for a gala commemorating earthquake victims in a local Sushi restaurant. I was curious to hear what your impetus was to working overseas and what experiences you gathered whilst working in the individual countries inform your practice today? What brought you back to the UK?

Travel opens your mind and I specifically gained my RAD teaching qualifications as I know it is recognised in 83 countries and it was my ticket into living in a new country and could lead to other work and get out of a comfort zone. When you see how other countries approach dance, teaching and running a company - it just informs you and opens you up to approaching things differently and keeps you so open minded. In Australia the standard of dance in local schools is very high as they have very few vocational schools and they really do approach dance with a certain energy. When you live in a country that takes six hours to cross in a plane and has three different time zones and is huge on every level you see it affects how people dance and they do have an energy and use of space like no other. Japan was a completely different culture and approach to dance and it was very foreign to my natural instincts and I really struggled there but again, it pushed me forward. My husband is Australian and I know he longs to be back in Oz as he doesn’t like warm beer. I just had to come home as I missed the radio, British humour and the arts in this country but I have learnt to put the beer in the freezer to appease him.

Thank you very much Olivia!
Anja

Snow White showed at the Peacock Theatre, London on 23 April 2009.

For further information please contact Anna Hickman Lewin at London Childrens Ballet on Anna@londonchildrensballet.com or Dance UK on info@danceuk.org