Press Clippings 9

During the Melbourne season of Romeo & Juliet long time ballet subscriber, Mrs Delores Davis, returned a couple of subscription tickets which she was unable to use, and requested that they be donated to people who otherwise would not have the opportunity to attend the ballet.

We immediately referred to our participant database for First Impressions, a programme designed by The Australian Ballet to enable disadvantaged young people to attend the ballet free of charge and were pleased to pass the tickets onto Anna Grace and Matthew, energetic and dedicated co-ordinators of the Sudanese Australian Integrated Learning (SAIL) program. A volunteer, non-profit, secular organization, SAIL provides English as a second language tutors to the Sudanese refugee community in Melbourne.

Anna Grace (who incidentally performed in the production of Grahame Murphy’s Nutcracker as one of the children) and Matthew presented the tickets to Adut Atar and her tutor, Maureen Sherlock, giving them an opportunity to interact on a social level for the first time, and reported:

“Adut is a twice-widowed single mother of seven kids (including two sets of twins) who has been in Australia for about 3.5 years. She had never been to the ballet or to a professional arts performance in Australia before. The story of Romeo and Juliet struck a chord with her because in Sudan, society is strongly divided along both tribal and religious lines."
She said of the ballet:

In my country, when we are young people, this story, it really happens. Maybe your father says you can't marry someone, maybe someone in your family has killed and you are enemies. People don't want it. It's not good. You have to forget your family and say, “This is not my father. This is not my brother.” Maybe then you marry, but in the end, you miss your family and everyone is sad.

She also loved the ballet because:

It was quiet. There was no talking. I can't believe these are real people! I really think, maybe they are toys? Because how can they do those things, like jumping and picking up the girls?

Thank you very much. It was beautiful.

On behalf of The Australian Ballet, we thank Mrs Davis for her kind gesture, which opened a magical new world to Adut.

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