No one really wants this kind of inspiration.
The contemporary ballet choreographer Alice Topp, a rising star in her native Australia and beyond, was already thinking about resilience and tenacity in January when bush fires broke out across the highlands of Central Victoria, where she lives.
She was preparing her first commission from Houston Ballet and wanted to base the dance on the Finnish concept of sisu. It’s a compact word that resists easy translation but suggests “finding hope when you can’t see the light,” as Topp puts it. She loved the idea but didn’t have a concrete approach to it yet.
When the bush fires came, people in dozen pastoral communities – including Topp and her partner, the Aussie rocker Tim Rogers – had to evacuate. Ultimately, about 300 homes in the nearby hamlet of Harcourt burned to the ground. A beautiful place known for its apple orchards was reduced to rubble and ash.
“It was heartbreaking to witness,” Topp says, “but the way the community has lifted also has been heartwarming… and the way the landscape has begun to regenerate.” Neighbors have rallied to help those who lost everything. Even the blackened trees have sprouted strange green leaves.
Houston Ballet’s An Evening with the Stars
When: 7:30 p.m. May 28 and 30 and June 5 and 6; 2 p.m. May 31 and June 7
Where: Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas Ave.
Details: $25-$225; 713-227-2787; houstonballet.org
The disaster also gave Topp the visual footing she needed for her ballet, illuminating sisu in concrete ways. She begins each project by collaborating with the Australian set and lighting designer Jon Buswell. For her, a backdrop alone doesn’t suffice. She wants immersive environments with the power to affect dancers and give them something to respond to.
From the ashes
Buswell’s landscape for “Sisu” evokes a volcanic storm that showers ashes onto the stage.
The piece premieres Thursday as part of Houston Ballet’s “An Evening with the Stars” triple bill, which includes Jerome Robbins’ iconic “Dances at a Gathering” and Stanton Welch’s finely-woven “Tapestry.”
Topp starts her dance with Arvo Pärt’s “Fratres,” a composition whose poignant strings sound to her “like a heart breaking.” She choreographed the second section to Pärt’s more expansive “Summa,” which suggests a community rising and recalibrating. His searing “Darf Ich” colors the final section, “a moment of the light at the end of the tunnel,” Topp says.
During her own 17-year dancing career, mostly with the Australian Ballet, Topp performed a full range of classical and contemporary works, including dances by Welch. She gravitated to choreography four years before she hung up her “pointe boots,” as she calls them, in 2020.
The award-winning “Aurum,” her first major piece for the Australian Ballet, led to a five year stint as that company’s choreographer in residence. As a freelancer since then, Topp has been booked solid. Houston Ballet has been a “bucket list” company, she said.
She and Houston’s dancers did a three-week deep-dive early this spring to build the dance. Topp returned last week to get them back into her groove and incorporate the orchestra, sets and costumes.
“Sisu” has a cast of 12, plus alternates, from all levels of the company.
Going global
Topp chooses performers who aren’t afraid to play, make mistakes and share private things about themselves, such as where feelings such as grief and pain reside in their bodies. “The movement will be born from that,” Topp says. “Creating an environment where we’re all open to trying things that are out of our comfort zone makes a very beautiful little incubator… I feel like we’re just making a cake together. All of this goes into the melting pot.”
This way of working is not common in mirror-lined ballet studios where every day is about attaining the next level of perfection. From the looks of it, Topp is a tender-hearted leader, still sensitive to what it feels like to be on the other side of the room during rehearsals.
“I don’t know how it’s going to play out,” she admits. “I’m not going to pretend I know what I’m doing.” She does know that somehow, what gels will look like a Topp dance — fluid, sensual, sweeping and emotionally driven. Not interested in beautiful movement for its own sake, she also wants dancers to find the purpose behind their steps. “Unless you’re two bodies having a conversation or as a group you’re responding to each other and connecting, it won’t reach beyond the curtain,” she says.
Topp clearly is doing something right. She and Buswell have unveiled two major full-length productions, “The Butterfly Effect” and “Macbeth,” for large companies in New Zealand and Western Australia since last September, with another one percolating. They’ve also created one-acts for the Singapore Ballet and Germany’s Oldenburg Ballet.
“I’ve had the great privilege of exercising my passport a bit,” Topp says. “It’s amazing to get to create art with beautiful, like-minded people. It’s a real kick.”
Subscribe
There’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.
This article originally published at Houston Ballet’s world premiere piece ‘Sisu’ was inspired by a devastating fire.
