The SHOW MUST will GO ON…

“I feel lucky we’re both dancers, we’ve been able to lift each other up on the low days”
– Amy Harris

AMY HARRIS & JARRYD MADDEN

AUSTRALIAN BALLET DANCERS

“It’s a real thrill; a magical moment of pure escapism,” says Amy Harris, describing the rush of pirouetting across the stage in front of a live audience as a principal ballerina in The Australian Ballet. The last time Harris felt that buzz was in March, when she performed the company’s new contemporary piece, Volt, at the State Theatre in Melbourne. It was her first show back after giving birth to son Phoenix last June, and she got to perform it a grand total of three times before the lockdown restrictions closed stages across the country. “I felt like I’d just got my wheels turning again, only to have the brakes slammed on,” she says.

With the rest of the year’s shows postponed indefinitely – including and – Harris and her husband, fellow dancer Jarryd Madden, are trying to find normalcy in the crushing tsunami of uncertainty. Their new routine starts with breakfast at home, followed by a morning of online schooling for daughter Willow, five, an online ballet class in the lounge room