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| Elizabeth Dalman is returning to the Australian Dance Theatre. (ABC News: Guido Salazar) |
It's hot and sticky in the middle of a baking Adelaide summer's day and 90-year-old Elizabeth Dalman is pushing dancers in the Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) through another punishing session.
"She often refers to herself as a hard taskmaster, she has I think a rigorous energy and an eye for detail," ADT choreographer Brianna Kell said.
Dalman launched the company in 1965 and now she's back, helping put together next year's Adelaide Festival show A Quiet Language.
The production is part of celebrations for the company's 60th anniversary.
ADT is known throughout the world for being at the cutting edge of modern dance.
That's in stark contrast to when a young Dalman brought modern dance back from the Netherlands to Adelaide, where she was born and raised.
"[It] started off as a rebellion against the classical ballet, which was a very unnatural way of training the body and the early pioneers wanted to find a more natural way for the body to move," she explained.
But it didn't go down well with many.
"A lot of the audiences loved it, but the reviewers we got said 'this dance is ugly, they've got bare feet, this is shocking or they're rolling on the floor, oh dear' you know," she chuckled.
She often turned to an unlikely source for support, art lovers in the country.
"The people in the regions didn't get a lot of theatre at all, so whatever they could see was an amazing experience, people would travel for hundreds of miles to the performance," she said.
Australia's oldest contemporary dance company was set up against a backdrop of national social and political upheaval and Elizabeth Dalman was often at the forefront of the push for change.
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| Elizabeth Dalman was often front and centre pushing for change during times of political and social upheaval. (Supplied: Australian Dance Theatre) |
"I was called an angry woman because in 1967 I created a work called Sundown and it was my expression about what was happening with the war in Vietnam, it was an anti-war piece," she said.
"We were breaking lots of rules you might say, but for the better."
She remembers a time of meeting in underground cellars in Adelaide, the protest movement's leader being jailed, even a Buddhist monk setting himself on fire during the tumultuous times.
Dalman parted ways with ADT in 1975 and spent time dancing and teaching in Italy and the Netherlands.
Now she lives and works at the Mirramu Creative Arts Centre and Dance Company just outside Canberra.
Someone hitting the 90-year mark could be forgiven for taking things easy.
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| Brianna Kell says Elizabeth is still a storyteller. (ABC News: Guido Salazar) |
Not for Elizabeth Dalman, who has been front and centre of rehearsals for ADT's Adelaide Festival show.
"She has an amazing presence about her, she is a storyteller, she's like a creative goddess, she comes into the room and you can't help but lean forward and listen," Brianna Kell said.
"One of the strongest memories as well that I have is Liz sliding down effortlessly into the splits, so this 90-year-old woman ... sliding into the splits and then gracefully getting up again."
"It's joyous, it's massive, it's fun, there's a lot of kind of homage to movement, Australian movement from the past till now," dancer Zachary Lopez said about the rehearsals.
The veteran choreographer has a strong connection to nature and rehearsals have included spending time in the much-loved Adelaide parklands, lying on the ground among some irritated bull ants.
"Even if slightly uncomfortable, little bit of ants on the feet, couple of bites here and there, that's okay," Kell laughed.
"You kind of move away from the pain and think about the inspiration, not caring about being bitten by a bull ant or a mosquito, but thinking more about the microcosms of that space," Lopez continued.
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| Elizabeth Dalman isn't slowing down. (ABC News: Guido Salazar) |
Elizabeth Dalman has no plans on retiring any time soon.
"The dance is part of who I am," she said.
A Quiet Language premieres at the Adelaide Festival in late February.
First published at ABC News, January 18, 2025
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