JAMES STRECKER: If you were asked for 50 words for an encyclopedia to summarize what you do, or have done, in the arts, what would you say?
MARGARET ILLMANN: Initially dance was the athletic desire for optimal movement quality and completeness of shape. Then, with time and coaching, I developed cognition and submersion through acting of storyline or emotive concept. Dance of my performance life was a medium of expression unifying the physical with the emotive. Now I pass on that passion and knowledge.
JS: What important beliefs do you express in your work?
MI: Truth as the choreographer required with personal vulnerability, allowing the physical to express the unspoken. Dance has the wonderful ability to be like a wondrous book, taking the viewer on a personal journey that can discuss anything within the confines of the imagination.
JS: Name two people, living or dead, whom you admire a great deal and tell us why for each one.
MI: Barack Obama for his effortless calm, intelligence, values and dignity in a political environment of racism, class struggle, global financial collapse and unprecedented global political confusion.
Violette Verdy for her vivacious attack on life, passion for dance and positive coaching style: A positively addictive, admirable woman.
JS: How have you changed since you began to do creative work?
MI: I have always been rational and optimistic, but being creative allowed my mind to be expansive and I believe that all things are possible with the right combination of people and situation. Some may call this naïve, but I choose not to.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
MI: I returned to Australia slightly singed from certain experiences in my career, but I wished to share the positive and teach how to avoid the negative: to aid those coming from the same background as myself. The arts are not highly prized in Australia and especially not in Western Australia. Having only performed in Australia a little during my career, it has been difficult to find the environment to offer this information.
It doesn’t matter what you have if you cannot find a home to support your offering: it took time but now I do and it is very rewarding.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life.
MI: Making the decision to go to Canada. It changed everything. A very positive, learning, environment that felt so right from the decision to try. I was told there was no contract but flew across and auditioned that same day. I took a “tall male” contract and didn’t look back. Ballet changed from a job that I enjoyed to a passion and career that I hadn’t imagined I could achieve.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about what you do?
MI: Previously it was the hours of physical repetition and now it is the hours of preparation and rehearsal given to others.
JS: How and why did you begin to do creative work in the first place?
MI: Most of us all begin our lives being very creative. Some find their time and thoughts focussed elsewhere and some of us never leave that bright creative place: Seeing the non-visualised and attempting to make it happen. I began dance as I couldn’t catch a ball and my mother thought I would gain co-ordination- I still can’t catch a ball but I have seen many bright places.
JS What haven’t you attempted as yet that you would like to do and please tell us why?
MI: I don’t know- when I do know what else I would like to do I would probably give it a go!
JS: What are your most meaningful achievements?
MI: Starting life on a farm, learning dance in a small suburban church hall, finishing year 12 and being Head Girl at the same college my mother went to and then having a wondrous career that took me around the world from Broadway to international Ballet stage. I still don’t quite believe I did that. From where I sit now it is almost a dream.
JS: What advice would you give a young person who would like to do what you do?
MI: Go for it. Work hard with a mentor that inspires you and commit, then aim to place yourself in the environment where you can develop and opportunity can occur.
JS: Of what value are critics?
MI: Educated critics are truly valuable, to discuss the performance, history and artistic environment: Especially to future audiences and for the archival history of the art form. Today we are beginning to see a greater use of the blog. Though personal opinion is always important, social media can become a powerful tool for misinformation if in the wrong hands. Artists are vulnerable and audiences can be fickle or easily swayed so it is necessary to always consider the individual behind a name on the cast list and write in a positive manner whether in criticism or praise.
JS: What do you ask of your audience?
MI: Audiences are something in which to be in awe. Like a huge beast that can be tamed if willing and it is a great feeling when you can sense an audience moving though the journey with you. I would ask that they come ready to open their minds and give their time and concentration to what is in front of them. To aim to allow themselves the time to be transported, if the performance is good enough!
JS: What specifically would you change about what goes on in the world?
MI: In Arts? Politics- it has no place. There are wondrous creative people and there are those that are self-serving, petty and cruel. It is a shame when art or anything can be censured and history re-written by these people.
In Life? Greed- when is enough enough.
JS: If you could relive one experience from your creative life, what would it be and why would you do so?
MI: Hard question… so many experiences in ballet such as dancing with New York City Ballet… but perhaps I would say the time dancing and acting Victoria Page on Broadway in “The Red Shoes”. It was all such an incredibly intense period of time working with Jules Styne, Susan Schulmann, Stanley Donan and two different storyline scripts. It would be good to re-live and appreciate more of this experience. Sixty-four previews with different scene orders was a difficult but exhilarating time. I was always told “it is not always like this…”.
JS: Tell us what it feels like to be a figure who is presented somehow in the media. What effect does this presence have on you?
MI: When you are at the centre of the attention, it is quite surreal. I have read articles and found it hard to believe that this was my life or what someone experienced from my performance. Strange to believe that others found my life interesting, different or exemplary- I was just like the local shop keeper, but I wore great costumes and had a job that kept me fit! I always surrounded myself by friends that kept me real.
JS: Name two places you would like to visit, one you haven’t been to and one to experience again and briefly tell us why.
MI: I have never been to Cuba but love their artistic culture where dance is a necessity of life and ballet is an athletic aspiration.
I would like to return to Canada where I felt so at home and had such great friendships.
JS: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on, are preparing, or have recently completed. Why do they matter to you and why should they matter to us.
MI: My greatest project is mentoring the youth of today. It is such a different generation to my own. Their lives are so instantaneous, everything seems so fast and everyone is clamouring for attention. They aspire for an artistic career in a world with financial cut-backs, a nation with only scientific aspirations and global migrations from adversity or war. Yet their passion for one of the oldest forms of communication, dance, is strong enough to cut through all this and begin again. There will always be a few creative souls and this passion needs to be nurtured.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
MI: Art is the underdog of today’s society. Our culture forgets “culture” and hones in on the scientific, mathematical aspect for invention. Everything needs to be objectively proven.
Having completed a Bachelor of Physiotherapy after my performance career, this was an interesting road to travel but I missed the unknown boundaries of the subjective, music and artistic creation. We definitely have two sides to our brain and to omit the artistic aspect of our selves is to squash the bright and unspoken possibility of the arts. The humanities require resurgence for the sake of humanity.
I understand that the Arts need to be managed as a business, but there also needs to be room for failure to enable success to surprise and enchant. We need to allow our minds to be transported from the mundane and aspire towards the thought that all things are still possible. For this to occur there needs to be equal importance given to culture as a value and a fiscal investment.
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising thing about you?
MI: That I can survive without being Margaret Illmann the dancer. When I returned to Australia I had to leave my career behind.
We build our lives and become who we are based upon our previous work, work ethic, friendships and connections. This becomes our identity and it was difficult to lose that.
Yet here I am with a very rewarding job, married, a dog and a cat and I am still Margaret Illmann- just not the one I used to read about.