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PEOPLE & PROPERTY OF MELBOURNE

FEBRUARY 23-MARCH 1, 2022

FASHION

A STELLAR PARTNERSHIP

WILLIAM BARTON HIS MUSIC & MYSTERY

NIC CESTER READING THE SIGNS

DAVID HALLBERG T HE BA L L ET GRE AT F I N DS HIS F EET I N MEL BOU R N E STONNINGTON & BOROONDARA

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The editor’s desk

ADCAST NXT

ALEX SQUADRITO

The artistic director of The Australian Ballet, David Hallberg, is one of the world’s greatest ever ballet dancers. He is a genuine celebrity of the dance world, and our cover feature this week. What a sublime talent – and interviewee – he is, answering questions with the grace and integrity that led him to become the first American dancer to be a principal with the Bolshoi Ballet. When South Dakota-born Hallberg, 39, was appointed to the artistic director role in 2021, Melbourne was in the thick of the pandemic. Now audiences finally have the chance to see his vision for the company soar. ●

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THE EDIT Things we love about Melbourne

OUR COVER \ David Hallberg, artistic director of The Australian Ballet. Photographed by Julian Kingma.

MORE TO LOVE ONLINE Go to domain.com.au/domain-review General inquiries \ 1300 799 109 \ editorial@domain.com.au

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REVIEW Domain Review is published by Domain Holdings Australia Limited and is printed by IVE, 25-33 Fourth Avenue, Sunshine VIC 3020. All material is copyright.

PARKER BLAIN

Editorial producer \ Hailey Coules

STONNINGTON & BOROONDARA

Acting editor \ Emily Power

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Meet the Melbourne fashion designer whose jackets hang in celeb wardrobes.

FASHION

From Albert Park to LA

ochelle Gregory makes one-of-a-kind jackets worn by celebrities including model Gigi Hadid and actor Ruby Rose. And now the Melburnian, who has an Albert Park store, has teamed with Hadid’s sister, LA fashion designer Alana Hadid, for her latest collection. The Rocky Rafaela X La Detresse collaboration includes biker jackets that are painted and embellished, and a nostalgia for tie-dyed materials plugs into hippy vibes. “Alana got right behind me,” Gregory says. “She brings an LA style to the Aussies. “She’s nice, fun and we’re both happy with the outcome of coming together for this project. Hopefully it’ll lead to more.” Rocky Rafaela launched in 2016, using sustainable leather and quality silk, bridging rebelliousness and class. The brand is stocked by Fred Siegel in LA and The Iconic in Australia. Gregory has also just opened her boutique in Albert Park, a stone’s throw

from where she grew up, and says her fashion sense is all thanks to family. “My Greek grandfather was a tailor; he kept an industrial machine at the front of his house and would sew on it every day,” she says of her earliest memories of fashion. When Gregory graduated from the Whitehouse School of Design in 2014, she applied for an internship at Alexander Wang, missing out to one other applicant. She took that loss in her stride and committed to starting her brand. She spent her early 20s on buying trips with her mother, who owns the Armadale boutique Balloon for Kids, and says a lot of inspiration comes from her family. “They are modern Greeks who always dress well and that definitely influenced my desire to study fashion design.” She doesn’t shy from talking about the substance abuse and eating disorders that plagued her teens, but says she’s in a better place now. While seeing a therapist the conversation turned

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to Australian Orange is the New Black star Ruby Rose, who had found her own way through trauma. “My therapist asked me what do I want to do with my life and I told her, ‘If Ruby Rose could face her traumatic past, so could I,’” Gregory says. That affirmation gave her the courage to deliver a custom-made jacket to Rose’s manager in 2016, in the hope it would make it to the actor. Rose was spotted wearing it at LAX airport a month later and reached out to Gregory to add a carved rose on it. She then wore it in a worldwide Maybelline campaign, which set social media in a frenzy to find out who the designer was. “That really was the icing on the cake. It was fantastic she embraced it. I wasn’t expecting it,” Gregory says. “I still go through personal struggles but have learnt how to cope with my past. Fashion has been the greatest healer; I throw myself into my work and love the creative space.” ● ● rockyrafaela.com

CA R M E N Z A M M IT

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‘They saved me as a dancer and a person’ 6

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J U LIA N KI N G M A

COVER STORY The Australian Ballet guided new artistic director David Hallberg

back to his beloved stage after a career-defining setback.

tarting a new job always has its challenges. For David Hallberg, coming in as the new artistic director of the Australian Ballet – its first new director in two decades – would have been daunting at the best of times. These, of course, are not the best of times. Amid COVID, Hallberg’s carefully-curated debut season was disrupted. The pandemic forced the cancellation of a string of shows, which then had to be abandoned altogether, without a single step danced on a Melbourne stage. Lucky, then, that he’s the sort of person who thrives on disaster. “I feel that in crisis, like with past injury and with performance, I just hone in and my focus becomes laser,” says Hallberg, 39. “I haven’t been able to think twice about anything, which has been good.” When it comes to a crisis, Hallberg certainly knows what he’s talking about. Born in the American midwest, he spent 20 years building an extraordinary career as a dancer, performing lead roles with such celebrated companies as the American Ballet Theatre, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Royal Ballet in London, the Paris Opera Ballet and La Scala in Milan. At the peak of his fame, he was one of very few ballet stars with genuine international celebrity. And then a freak foot injury saw him cast aside, at the age of 33. After a string of cancelled performances, Hallberg shaved off his iconic blond locks and headed somewhere nobody expected – to Melbourne, where he sought refuge with the Southbank-based Australian Ballet, a company he had first performed with five years earlier. “They saved me, not only me as a dancer, but me as a person,” Hallberg says. “They took me under their wing and let me heal and guided me back on stage, but I also became a real person. I started going to the pub and having a beer and chilling out, which I wasn’t doing before.” Was there something about the Australian Ballet that made it an unusually nurturing place? “I think it has much to do with the Australian culture,” Hallberg says. “Aussies are warm and culturally open. And nice. I find that I’m actually a much nicer person in this country than I was when I was in Moscow or New York.” It’s fair to say that the high-pressure world of classical ballet doesn’t always encourage niceness.

Growing up in Arizona, Hallberg was comparatively late to discover dance. It was an old Fred Astaire film that first sparked his interest, but he didn’t heed the call until he was 13, which is practically ancient for a professional dancer. The ballet studio quickly became a safe space in which to retreat from the hardships of being different at school. “Dance was my escape. I was teased and made fun of, incessantly, because I was the effeminate kid who just didn’t fit in. But then I would go to my dance studio and I would fit in. That was my environment, my people, my community. It’s been my community my whole life.” But, as Hallberg discovered, getting serious about ballet brings its own hardships. After winning a scholarship at 17 to study at the Paris Opera Ballet school, the cutthroat nature of competitive dance left him feeling isolated and miserable. “I think maybe some of the guys there were a little jealous. But the overriding factor was I was so American. I was like a golden retriever from American suburbia. I was just like, ‘Like me, like me, like me!’ And they sniffed that out, immediately.” Now he sees that brutal year as being formative – a testing ground that showed him what was possible

Ballet. Unlike the Paris Opera Ballet, they don’t seem to have held his being American against him. In fact, he thinks outgoing director David McAllister asked him to apply for the job partly because of his outsider status. “He said he liked the balance between me knowing the culture of the Australian Ballet and me not knowing the culture. I’d had experience around the world, of course, with other companies, but I also knew this company intimately because of my time during the injury. It just seemed to fit.” When we speak before Christmas, Omicron is only just beginning its global tour, but Hallberg is hopeful that it will be second time lucky for what he is still calling his debut season. Highlights include lush productions of classics Anna Karenina and Romeo and Juliet, but it’s the innovative Kunstkammer that has him most excited. Originally created by four acclaimed choreographers for the Netherlands Dance Theatre, it will have its Australian premiere in Sydney in April before transferring to Melbourne for June. “It’s the most ambitious, contemporary program that the company has ever done. It really puts the mark on where I want to take the company.”

“Aussies are warm and culturally open. And nice. I find that I’m actually a much nicer person in this country.” DAVID HALLBERG

with a bit of determination. He says it wasn’t ambition that kept him going so much as obsession with an art form that had come to feel like home. But did it ever seem odd to him that he had chosen such a harsh environment as his safe space? “What I really loved about ballet was the discipline, and the drive to be perfect. I didn’t find that in other forms of dance. With ballet you were just being told, ‘Wrong, wrong, wrong!’ And I loved that. I loved being told I was wrong and I had to fix it, to push for it.” He considers. Laughs. “OK, I guess it’s a bit masochistic.” That discipline – and possibly that masochism – has no doubt helped him cope with his baptism of fire as the new artistic director at the Australian

This time next year, he’s hoping to be celebrating his first season, content in the knowledge that he’s made that mark. He also hopes to have found a new musical director – replacing Nicolette Fraillon, who is departing after nearly 20 years with the company – who will prove an ideal collaborator for his vision. But what will success for his first season look like? “No cancellation of performances. The other thing will be sitting back and looking at how the company is performing. I’m seeing differences already, but I think next year I’ll be able to say, we have done so much good work.” ● ANNA KARENINA \ Arts Centre Melbourne from February 25 to March 9. ● australianballet.com.au

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MUSIC International didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton

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returns to the Melbourne stage with his unique sound.

‘Music is an open canvas’ I He’s performed as a soloist with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras including the Berlin and London philharmonic orchestras and many ensembles in Australia. “When people hear me play the instrument overseas, they know the sound represents thousands of years of culture, language and identity,” Barton says. He won the 2012 ARIA award for Best Classical Album with Kalkadungu: Music for Didjeridu and Orchestra and in 2018 he won Best Original Score for a Main Stage Production of The Long Forgotten Dream at the Sydney Theatre Awards. He spent a year in Melbourne as an artist in residence at Melbourne Recital Centre. Barton is quick to add that along with success comes plenty of tough times getting there. “I am hugely proud to win the Don Banks Award, but still feel I still have a long way to go with my career,” Barton says. “It’s a great acknowledgment to have at the halfway mark of my life. “In my case, I didn’t do it alone; my family has been part of my vision and aligned me with the greatest A team. I want other younger musicians to know that it’s OK to fail – it’s one of the processes to success.” ●

NEW BEGINNINGS – MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA WITH WILLIAM BARTON \ Performing at Hamer Hall on February 25 & 26. ● williambarton.com.au

KEITH SAUNDERS

nspired to play the didgeridoo aged seven after seeing his uncle, Arthur Peterson, an elder of the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga land, take to the instrument, William Barton has become one of Australia’s most recognised composers and didgeridoo virtuosos. The 40-year-old is last year’s recipient of the Don Banks Music Award, recognising him for his contribution to music. Previous winners include Archie Roach, David Bridie, Kev Carmody and Liz Lim. He is playing Hamer Hall this month with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Barton was raised on a cattle station just outside Mount Isa, north-west Queensland, and was instantly lured by the lullaby-like chant of the didgeridoo as a child. “I have always been curious of the mystery of the didgeridoo,” Barton says. “When you hear it for the first time you feel the magic and that’s what I felt when my uncle played it. I wanted to be part of that mystery.” He recalls venturing out on bushwalks with his parents as also inspiring him to play. “The energy those memories conjure connect me to country and to the didgeridoo. My way of paying respect and homage to the land is by keeping this instrument in the present day.” He grew up in a musical household – his mother Delmae Barton is a respected singer, songwriter and poet who loves classical music. He counts Elvis Presley, Beethoven and Vivaldi as musical heroes. “Classical music allows me to look at music like an open canvas. It’s my journey in life, and I get to paint my own version of it and carry it with me forever,” Barton says. It’s the way Barton merges his two greatest loves that’s allowed him to travel the world – premiering his composition Kalkadungu’s Journey at Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth II at the Commonwealth Service in 2019 and sharing a stage with jazz great Herbie Hancock.

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MUSIC Nic Cester’s new work is inspired by a famous Melbourne sign and a sweet metaphor.

CHIARA FOSSATTI

t’s been almost 20 years since Aussie rock group Jet put Melbourne on the music map with their hit single Are You Gonna Be My Girl. These days, figurehead Nic Cester has swapped his heady rock’n’roll schedule for a quieter life in Milan where he lives with his wife Pia and their 3½-year-old daughter Matilda. It took a three-month pandemic lockdown in Milan for Cester to face his past and begin writing a new album, which in turn inspired a children’s book of the same name. The Skipping Girl is a melange of Beatle-esque and nursery rhyme ditties. The album is inspired by the famous neon Skipping Girl Vinegar sign – dubbed Little Audrey – that has hung above Victoria Street since 1936 and holds a place in the hearts of Melburnians.

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“The Skipping Girl idea resonated because it’s like she’s caught in a loop

eyes,” Cester beams, as she asks for a cappuccino while he is doing this interview via Zoom. His name is forever linked to the rise and fall of Jet, a band he started with his brother Chris and two friends. They navigated a journey from the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne to the big city lights of Los Angeles and beyond. Cester says he never felt comfortable in the rock star world – he craved stability and a loving relationship, which he found when he met Pia in Western Australia while on tour in the early 2000s. “Pia and I are quite different, but I think that’s why our relationship works,” he says. “We fill in each other’s blanks. She is more pragmatic than me, whereas I fly by the seat of my pants and take more risks, but together that works. “I am not without my vices, but it took meeting Pia for me to be most comfortable with myself and in a relationship.” ●

and can’t escape. That’s how I felt many years ago.”

THE SKIPPING GIRL \ Book and vinyl soundtrack

“Working on this album got me thinking about my own childhood and life experiences,” Cester says. “I guess that’s all come into play since I’ve become a father myself, but the Skipping Girl idea resonated because it’s like she’s caught in a loop and can’t escape. That’s how I felt many years ago, and I wanted to bring that idea to music and a book.” He recently returned to Melbourne to visit family after the pandemic kept him away for two years. “Living in Italy is such a different experience than living in Australia,” Cester says. “When I moved overseas, I wanted to get away and start anew after the band. Pia and I spent some time in Berlin and then came to Milan. “Italy is beautiful. It’s different to back home and now that we have Matilda, we feel guilty to keep her

away from our families, so the plan is to keep coming back more regularly. She’s already visited five times in her life.” Cester says writing the children’s book has been a cathartic process. It is a metaphor for his struggles with identity and fame, told through a central character who is trying to escape herself and become something more. “I was stuck in traffic 10 years ago [in Melbourne] and felt at a crossroads,” he says. “It’s then I saw the sign from a different angle. It’s a rich metaphor and I liked that.” Matilda believes she is the central character in the book – a secret she is convinced she shares with only her father. “It’s very cute to see how innocent it all is in her

by Nic Cester, out now. ● musicglue.com/niccester

NIC CESTER

She

who dares

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FEATURE HOUSE CAMBERWELL \ 16 SUNNYSIDE AVENUE 4

It might be the northerly aspect, it might be the adorable address, but this house is bound to bring on the earworms. Cue Ella Fitzgerald singing “Life can be so sweet, oh, babe-bo-ba-bay, on the sunny side of the street” – a song written just three years after this Californian bungalow arose in Camberwell’s Sunnyside Estate in 1927. Originally a single storey, the house was renovated in 2008 to add a contemporary open plan, basement garage and first-floor bedrooms. The new areas are so in harmony with the arts and crafts heritage, the house seems conceived as one. There are leadlight sash windows, polished timber panels; even the staircase looks vintage. Yet, this 95-year-old belle is perfectly poised for 21st-century life. Enter via a deep porch and cobbled-glass doors. The timber-lined hall leads to the original living room and its glazed-brick fireplace and Tasmanian oak floorboards. Adjoining is the dining room, also with a fireplace. The natural palette continues in the enormous open plan, where taupe tiles flow to sliders and a covered deck with a full barbecue kitchen. There’s a dining area with a cocktail bar. The spacious family zone has an open fireplace below a conservatory-style ceiling with clerestories. Full-length windows frame a beautiful view of the solar-heated pool (outdoor shower) and hedged garden. Convivial chefs will love the marble kitchen, which has Miele, Qasair and Gaggenau appliances, a Zip tap, a walk-in pantry, an office nook and room for several people to cook at once. There’s even a dumb waiter to the garage.

FINAL WORD

Bedrooms are zoned to ensure privacy. The ground-floor main suite has original leadlight windows overlooking the

“THIS ARCHITECT’S OWN HOME CREATES A UNIQUE BALANCE OF

front garden. A timber walk-in wardrobe leads to the twin

CHARACTER-FILLED RICHNESS AND BRILLIANT LIGHT WHILE BEING

en suite, sleek in marble with a shower and free-stranding

ENERGY-EFFICIENT AND SUPREMELY SPACIOUS.” CAMPBELL WARD – AGENT

bath. The first floor has three carpeted double bedrooms, two with wardrobes, plus a family bathroom. The north-facing retreat opens to a covered balcony. In the basement are the four to five-car garage, gym and a bathroom handy to the pool. The property has a laundry, powder room, security, hydronic heating and gated off-street parking. ● ALISON BARCLAY property@domainreview.com.au Agent: Jellis Craig, Campbell Ward 0402 124 939 Price: $5 million-$5.4 million Auction: 11am, February 26

Hover your camera over the code to see Domain listings in Camberwell

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DEEPDENE \ 1 LYDIA COURT 5

fireplace and Hogwarts-style chandelier, is

CAMBERWELL \

pointed brick Edwardian facade. Inside

a highlight. The European oak kitchen has

11 STANHOPE GROVE

this renovated c1900 home, elegant

Gaggenau appliances, a huge marble island and a butler’s pantry with gas cooktop.

period details have been retained, while

an informal living zone, including kitchen

An imposing presence in its cosy court,

Two main bedrooms with marble en suites

this new house has a city view from its

and private lounges allow for guests and

Above the dining table is an extended

adds to the already generous floor plan

top terrace and French chateaus as its

grandparents. ● ALISON BARCLAY

arbour covered in climbing vines, matching

which includes formal sitting room, main

inspiration. Architect Christopher Doyle

those that have turned the perimeter

bedroom with marble en suite and walk-in

and builder Steve Just’s baronial vision

fences by the solar heated pool into

wardrobe, family bathroom and laundry. ●

rises through four levels, including a

vertical walls of lush greenery. Overlooked

dine-in wine cellar, a pool terrace and

by a covered terrace, complete with

a spectacular Tundra marble foyer and

with island bench and butler’s pantry,

JOANNE BROOKFIELD

barbecue, overhead fan and heating,

staircase. With living, dining, family and

Agent: Noel Jones,

year-round al fresco entertaining is both

Agent: Marshall White,

games rooms, a study, a gym and a fully

John Bradbury 0413 772 778

possible and entirely private, as from

James Tostevin 0417 003 333

equipped cinema, there’s a place for all

Price: $9.5 million-$10.45 million

the street there is no hint this secluded

Price: $4.9million-$5.35 million

to play. The family room, with its stone

Expression of interest: close February 26

backyard oasis lies beyond the tuck-

Auction: 2.30pm, February 26

KEW \ 22 ROWLAND STREET

bedrooms, each with wardrobe, en suite

EAST MELBOURNE \

the entrance hall and formal living room

and balcony, share the top floor with the

54 HOTHAM STREET

retain period elegance, while the open-

main bedroom’s wing, which comprises an en suite, bespoke dressing room, study

plan family zone (with chef’s kitchen

featuring integrated appliances) benefits

with fitted desk and private roof terrace. A

Bochsler, of Bochsler International, and

ground floor boardroom-style office and

Built in 1909 by the master builder of the

light. There’s also a laundry and powder

located in Kew’s prestigious Sackville Ward,

lower-level room with bathroom provide

day for the widow of a Bridge Road flour

room, and the remote-controlled double

these blue-chip credentials are matched

further lifestyle options. ●

miller, the Argus newspaper described this

garage has courtyard access. The upstairs

historic Queen Anne home as “particularly

bedroom features an en suite and separate

level residence. Adding to the wow factor is

well appointed”. More than a century

study. ● JOANNE BROOKFIELD

the double-storey void over the living room,

later it remains “the most outstanding

JOANNE BROOKFIELD

by the luxury living on offer in this three-

from the north-facing garden courtyard’s

expansive glazed walls throughout, with

Agent: Kay & Burton,

single-level lifestyle home available in

most having verdant vistas of the extensive

Scott Patterson 0417 581 074

East Melbourne”, says agent Paul Caine,

Agent: Caine Real Estate,

landscaping, and frameless stacker doors

Price: $5.8million-$6.2million

referring to the fact that two of the three

Paul Caine 0407 393 900

that lead to the entertaining terrace by

Expressions of interest: close 5pm,

bedrooms, both with en suites, are on

Price: $5.75 million-$6.25 million

the self-cleaning, heated lap pool. Three

March 11

the ground floor. Recently refurbished,

Auction: 11.30am, March 5

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kayburton.com.au 14

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