Meet TBDA nominee Jasmin Durham
The 2015 Telstra Ballet Dancer Award nominees were unveiled earlier this year by The Australian Ballet. Nominees include company dancers Benedicte Bemet (Mackay, QLD), Jasmin Durham (Gordon, ACT), Robyn Hendricks (Port Elizabeth, South Africa), freshly-appointed principal dancer Ako Kondo (Nagoya, Japan), Amanda McGuigan (Summer Hill, NSW) and Marcus Morelli (Brighton, VIC).
As part of a new series of unique artist-dancer collaborations produced by major sponsor Telstra, each nominee was paired with a talented Australian installation artist or designer to create a work that was filmed and photographed.
The Telstra Ballet Dancer Award (TBDA) is considered the most prestigious prize in Australian ballet and is one of several initiatives run by Telstra in partnership with The Australian Ballet, aimed at fostering young ballet dancers to reach their full potential. Now in its 13th year, the award will bestow one winner with a $20,000 cash prize and be announced on Thursday, December 3. The winner of the People’s Choice Award, decided by public vote, will receive $5,000.
Dance Informa will profile each nominee over the course of the next few weeks. Following Benedicte Bemet last week, we’ll now take a look at Jasmin Durham!
Jasmin Durham was originally born in Hong Kong but moved to Canberra three months later with her family. She started learning ballet at the age of three at the Lisa Clark Dance Centre, later studying jazz, tap and contemporary dance.
In 2009, Durham moved to Melbourne to study at The Australian Ballet School. She performed on The Dancers Company Tour in 2010 and 2011 before joining The Australian Ballet in 2012.
She’s perhaps most well known for her roles in Jiří Kylián’s Petit Mort (2014) and Richard House’s Control for the Bodytorque DNA program. This year, she also danced as the Lead Hungarian in Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake and the Stepmother in Alexei Ratmansky’s Cinderella.
For her TBDA collaboration, Durham worked with artist Anthony Lister. He watched her move and took inspiration first by sculpting and then via a graffiti installation. [See full video below.]
Speaking about performing, Durham said, “The moment when you first get out there, you trust yourself. There is no time to apologise. You’re hyper aware, from the tips of your fingers down to the tips of your toes. You feel quite vulnerable out there sometimes but all you can do is be honest…. I think the most impressive and inspiring artists are genuine.”
Her advice to other aspiring dancers: “It’s important for a dancer to experience as much as possible in life to fuel your movement.”
Photo (top): The TBDA 2015 nominees. Photo by Esteban La Tessa, courtesy of The Australian Ballet. Photo (left): Jasmin Durham. Photo by Daniel Boud. Photo (right): Still from YouTube video above.