After a significant career as a principal dancer with the Australian Ballet and the Dutch National Ballet and performing in other media such as sculpture, painting and jewellery, Australian Remi Wörtmeyer now BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio serves as artistic director. “It was a whirlwind, mostly meeting with department heads and arts leaders in Columbus,” he told Dance Informa. “Today I had my first financial audit meeting and it was a wonderful learning curve.”
Wertmeyer grew up in South Australia and trained at the Australian Ballet School before joining the Australian Ballet Professional Company and subsequently working in Europe and the United States. He acknowledges the impact of technology on the dance industry. “When I first went to the US, I didn’t even have a computer. Coming from Australia, you really feel separated. I think that has changed because Europeans are more exposed to the world now. When I first moved When we go to Europe, we’re not watching other companies on YouTube, at every level, we’re looking around the world to see what’s going on.
The Metropolitan Ballet of Ohio is known for championing new works, traditional repertory and dance schools. “I knew it was a company that was constantly creating a lot of new work. It was a company that had a choreographic director,” Wörtmeyer said. With such a reputation, it’s no surprise that Wertmeyer, who has his own choreographic practice, has found a new home.
Wörtmeyer has been working with BalletMet 2 since joining. “They have gained performance experience with major companies. It is vital that they have time to develop their performances and I am looking for them to develop this. I have put in more performances so that they can lead the trainee program. I This piece was created for them to showcase their exceptional abilities, they are great young dancers and I used music by Colin Benders which is a fusion of classical and electronic music.
Wertmeyer has always had an instinct for interdisciplinary practice, but the timing wasn’t always right.
“When I was young, I had a passion for creation,” he said, “and building things with my hands. I was addicted to plasticine. When you try to become a dancer, get into an elite company and build a career in a company career, it means you have less time to do anything else and there’s a lot of pressure on your shoulders, and I deal with that. The approach was to meditate through art. So starting with painting and then sculpture, it was a way for me to stop thinking about ballet, which I was passionate about. Then a friend of mine said I should contact artists and galleries.
Watermeyer admits that life experiences led him to pursue a creative career. “Growing up with a sick mother,” he shares, “I realized how precious life is and I wanted to learn from different cultures. And bring those experiences into my artistic expression and bring them to the world. I hope that’s what I bring to Columbus, which is a very welcoming, very talented, very dedicated community.
Look out for the premiere of Wortmeyer and BalletMet 2, and for more information visit balletmet.org.
By Tamara Searle of Dance Informa.
