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The Press

 

'Another gem was Alice Topps’ Little Atlas. A trio for Dimity Azoury, Jarryd Madden and Jake Mangakahia it had an appealing freshness that subtly catches the imagination. It is intricate and, at times, acrobatic but without brashness and accompanied by Ludovico Einaudi’s memorable music.' - Maggie Foyer, SeeingDance

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'A volatile work of metaphorical and symbolic monsters manifesting as devastatingly topical pressures and crises, Logos is dark and vital contemporary ballet.' - Brigitte Knight, Danz

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'Logos is the climax of the program and a staggering moment where we remember the beauty of dance, for how we can feel the proximity of beauty even in the sad moments.' - Dance Australia

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'Paragon re-introduces the heavyweights of Australian ballet to a delighted audience. It has power, passion and emotional resonance. It marks The Australian Ballet’s 60th anniversary with grace and style.' - Alex First, The Blurb

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'Paragon also gave the audience a remarkable look at Topp as a choreographer. It showed her working with a vocabulary that is clearly one of contemporary ballet, pushing boundaries, and thinking outside the square when it comes to what ballet can present in a narrative sense. Within it all was a beautiful tribute to the history of the Australian Ballet.' - Michelle Potter

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'Celebrating 60 years of the Australian Ballet, resident choreographer Alice Topp creates a  thrilling scrapbook – a Paragon - of vignettes with current and past star dancers.' - Martin Portus, Stage Whispers

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'Open Heart Story unfolds as a series of duets, trios and quartets. Featuring a costume for the female dancer that is a roadmap of arteries, the opening duet is emotionally haunting, and was exquisitely performed.'- Kim Balfour, Seesaw

 

'The second half of the bill is Paragon, another new work by Alice Topp. Her contribution to last year’s triple bill, Instruments of Dance, was confirmation the ballet’s resident choreographer is a vital voice in Australian dance today.'- Brisbane Times

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'Deeply powerful, Aurum is a showcase in strength and balance, of the true lengths our bodies can go when given the chance.....Underscored by intermingled violin and piano pieces by my favourite composer, Ludovico Einaudi, Aurum is wholly beautiful and quite moving.' - Emma Maguire, The Wellingtonista

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'Annealing..... is visually spectacular, danced on a set of imposing glass panels with the dancers clothed in silver and gold. At one point the full ensemble of 50 dancers assembled on stage, decked in magnificent golden robes which they swished about; I felt I’d been transported to some exotic, futuristic feudal society. There were also lyrical duets and solos interspersed throughout.' - Chantal Nguyen, backtrack.com

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'Topp’s piece Annealing has 50 dancers mastering some of the most diverse steps yet seen from Australian Ballet’s Resident Choreographer. Annealingis a brilliant melding of collective order and individual creativity.' - Paris Wages, classicmelbourne.com.au

 

'Topp has a remarkable grasp of theatrical effects, most evident in the group work that makes up Annealing’s central section. That purity of aesthetic – invoking the retro-futurism of Apple TV’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation – would press the piece into the ethereal if it weren’t for Topp’s earthy sensualism. Gender is malleable here too, with some stunning non-binary flourishes from Elijah Trevitt.' - Tim Byrne, Time Out, Australia.

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'The most interesting piece is Aurum,

choreographed in 2018 by Alice Topp, an

AB dancer who has been moving up the

creative ladder in the past few years.' - Jill Sykes, Sydney Morning Herald

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'Alice Topp struck choreographic gold

with her new dancework Aurum when it was showered with critical praise at its Melbourne

premiere last year, and won an award named for Rudolf Nureyev.' - Matthew Westwood, The Australian

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'... Alice Topp is a choreographer in the making. Her star is about to rise further, if new work Aurum is any

guide.' - Stephanie Glickman, Herald Sun

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'She [Topp] is now a rising star and Logos represents another step in cementing her place as a very fine

choreographer.' - Susan Bendall, Dance Australia

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Alice Topp

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Alice's video reels can be viewed here.

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Alice was born and raised in Bendigo and started dancing at the age of four. After two years with Royal New Zealand Ballet, she joined The Australian Ballet in 2007.

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Her passion for choreography began when she created her first work, Trace, for the 2010 season of Bodytorque, the company’s choreographic showcase. From 2011 to 2014, she made three further works for the Bodytorque seasons; in 2016 she choreographed Little Atlas, which appeared in the company’s mainstage program Symphony in C in both 2016 and 2017.

 

In 2018 her work Aurum, which was created with the support of a Rudolf Nureyev Prize for New Dance, had its world premiere as part of The Australian Ballet’s Verve program. It appeared at New York’s Joyce Theater in 2019.  Alice won the Helpmann Award for Best Ballet for Aurum. She has also been nominated for a Green Room Award (Little Atlas, 2017) and for three Australian Dance Awards (Aurum 2018, Same Vein, 2014, Trace, 2010).

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Alice has choreographed music videos for artists including Megan Washington and Ben Folds, and has been invited to create works for Houston Ballet II and Queensland Ballet.

 

In 2018, Alice was appointed one of The Australian Ballet’s resident choreographers. She was invited to spend a month with Studio Wayne McGregor in the UK in 2019, creating a piece for The Grange Festival. The duet she created on the company, Clay, went on to form a larger work for the Australian Ballet’s Volt season alongside two McGregor works, premiering in March 2020. 2020 also saw the Royal New Zealand Ballet restage her work Aurum which will be staged in 2022.

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In 2021/22, Alice together with Jon Buswell launched the much anticipated Project Animo - a new company of independent artists in Sydney, Australia. In Autumn 2022, Alice created two new works for the Australian Ballet, Annealing and a new work for the DanceX season and staged Aurum for Royal New Zealand Ballet.

 

Commissions in 2023 include the acclaimed Open Heart Story for West Australian Ballet as well as new works for Australian Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre and Royal New Zealand Ballet.

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www.projectanimo.com.au

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@atopps

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