Dancing the role of Clara in 2018’s The Nutcracker season during her first year as a young artist at WA Ballet is a career milestone Asja Petrovski will never forget.
“It was such an amazing opportunity, and I was so grateful to see my name on the cast list,” Petrovski recounts.
“I was second cast to Carina Roberts, who the role was created on (in 2016). She is such a brilliant, outstanding dancer, and I felt so honoured and privileged to also be Clara. My biggest memory is being extremely nervous because it was my first major role, and it was a big deal for me.”
The production was choreographed by former WA Ballet principal Jayne Smeulders, Aurelien Scannella and Sandy Delasalle-Scannella — the company’s artistic director and ballet mistress respectively at the time — and has been a festive favourite ever since.
Petrovski is embarking on her fourth and final season of this version before it is retired from the repertoire.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling for me because half of me is excited to have the idea of a new Nutcracker one day but I’m also a very nostalgic person, and I know that after this season, I’ll feel a bit sad that it’s over,” the 29-year-old East Perth dancer says.
“It feels like the end of an era of my life.”
Born in Auckland and raised in Melbourne, Petrovski’s mum enrolled her in ballet at three years old with high hopes for her daughter to enjoy dancing but never an expectation she would ever continue it professionally.
“I cried throughout my entire first lesson, but it wasn’t the ballet that I hated, it was just being apart from my mum for the first time,” Petrovski shares.
A few years later, her ballet teacher suggested she audition for The Australian Ballet School in Melbourne, which she successfully did and started training at the home of The Australian Ballet at age 10.
“Once you’re there, you’re working really hard towards something and I got to see the professionals in the same building, The Australian Ballet dancers, and that was really inspiring for me,” she says.
“I trained part-time to begin with, going to school and then The Australian Ballet School at the end of the day, and then started full-time ballet in Year 8.”
A contract after graduation to dance with Ballets de France in 2017 saw Petrovski relocate to Toulouse and extensively tour around France, excited by the prospect of taking the company’s Peter Pan production to Paris.
Sustaining a broken foot during a performance devastatingly dashed the dream and she returned to Melbourne for rehabilitation on the injury, opening the door to join WA Ballet the following year where she has since danced as Clara, along with other roles including Lucy in Dracula.
She was most recently on stage as one of the scene-stealing influencers in the Australian premiere season of Alice Topp’s Macbeth.
“I love playing quirky roles,” she says.
“We don’t train for that, so it’s fun to just be able to let go and be as crazy as possible.
“All those different roles that I’ve played, like the influencers in Macbeth, or other wacky characters like Lucy in Dracula, Mina’s friend who turns into a vampire, even though they are the complete opposite to Clara, I think they have all helped me become a better storyteller.”
Petrovski says she loves being able to portray the childlike innocence and range of emotions Clara experiences as the ballet’s magical journey takes her and the Nutcracker from defeating the rascally Rat King to dancing through the Land of Sweets with the Sugar Plum Fairy.
“She’s super curious, imaginative and brave,” she adds.
“She’s kind-hearted and determined and playful and full of life, and playing her reminds me of what it’s like to see the world through a child’s eyes.”
The biggest challenge of the role is in the physicality required, where Clara’s non-stop movement — particularly in the first act — has Petrovski feel like she is running a marathon.
On top of that, there is also the issue of the actual Nutcracker doll being surprisingly heavy to hold.
“I always wondered why we couldn’t get a plastic doll or a foam doll because to me it’s like dancing with a dumbbell,” she explains.
“I’d love to weigh the doll and see how much weight I’m carrying because it’s very hard dancing with it, but I’ve gotten stronger, so I think it’s easier for me now rather than eight years ago.
“I do really work on my strength. I started strength training four years ago, which has helped me so much with ballet.”
As the holiday season approaches, Petrovski reminisces about her earliest encounter with the sweet and magical story of The Nutcracker.
“It was one of the first productions by The Australian Ballet that I ever watched,” Petrovski reflects.
“I love the idea that we might be someone’s introduction to ballet, and we may have a future Clara sitting in the audience who watches this and is inspired to dance.”
WA Ballet’s The Nutcracker with WA Philharmonic Orchestra is at His Majesty’s Theatre, November 20 to December 13. Tickets at waballet.com.au.
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