Alexa Tuzil is used to dancing across a stage in front of hundreds of people so it was an unusual experience to perform pirouettes in her kitchen on a tiny square of sprung floor.
With COVID lockdowns in place, the West Australian Ballet soloist was sent home along with the rest of the company.
Performances were cancelled and theatres fell silent.
"It was a shock to be told 'this is cancelled, that is cancelled'," she said.
While the show couldn't go on, the dancers still had to train.
"Every day we had a class from our ballet masters on Zoom in the morning and then usually in the afternoon we'd have Pilates or yoga or some kind of extra training program.
"We'd have a schedule to keep us motivated."
Through donors, WA Ballet was able to get portable barres and small squares of ballet flooring for the dancers to take home.
"I don't have a big kitchen," Ms Tuzil laughed.
But with the barre and ballet floor, she could keep up her training.
"We could do our pirouettes on the floor, but we never actually jumped to prevent any injuries because we're used to a professional ballet floor. To then go to jumping on concrete is quite dangerous," she said.
It came with some frustrations.
"Sometimes it was difficult because it's hard to get motivated in the morning doing class in your kitchen," she said.
"Sometimes the piano would not be in tune with what we're trying to dance to so then they'd say: 'You're not in time with the music' but it's because our video is delayed – just little things like that – now it's funny."
The internet stage
Training over the internet was not the only change WA Ballet made.
As the first lockdown was announced, the company quickly filmed its cancelled production, Genesis.
Artistic director Aurelien Scannella said the show is usually performed to a limited audience in a small theatre, but filming allowed it to be shown to a much wider audience online.
"We were lucky to have enough time to record it just before the lockdown," Mr Scannella said.
"I mean, as soon as we finished the recording, the next day, that was it, everybody was at home.
"Then we've been able to put this on the web and to broadcast and I think we were probably the only ballet company in the world being present on the web, so it was something very special."
Many of the dancers are from interstate and overseas, including Ms Tuzil, so it also gave their families an opportunity to see them perform.
The dancers also used the time to create and choreograph their own works.
"When the lockdowns were starting to ease, they created this CoVid Lab where (Artistic Associate Sandy Delasalle) put us into groups of two and we each choreographed a different piece to music and it kept us busy and kept our minds creating," Ms Tuzil said.
"One of the best things to come out of that lockdown was to create that choreography and then be able to show it to a reduced audience when we got to perform, it was great."
Mr Scannella said getting back into the theatre last year was a huge relief.
"It was like being newborn, again," he said.
"Already going from the kitchen to the ballet studios and the fact when we could all be together again, that was just unbelievable and then when we go back to His Maj, of course, that was the cherry on the cake."
Securing the future
Despite the challenges and not producing many shows, WA Ballet was able to strengthen its financial bottom line and even grow the number of dancers it employs.
WA Ballet executive director Olivier David said when the first performances were cancelled, more than 400 people donated their tickets back to the ballet instead of asking for a refund.
"We're very grateful to these people and it shows how much people in Western Australia love arts and love West Australian ballet," he said.
One of those innovations was the creation of a $7 million endowment fund, made up of donations and pledges.
"The endowment fund is a pool of money that we keep to ensure the security and longevity of West Australian ballet," Mr David said.
"We are using the dividends of this endowment fund to help us make the WA ballet even stronger and better."
Room to grow
The funding has allowed the company to expand and employ six more dancers but getting them into WA has been a problem with the state's border closures.
"It's not sustainable, we cannot continue like this much longer," Mr Scannella said.
He is working with costume and set designers and choreographers from overseas for the 2022 season but so far, most of the collaboration is being done over the internet.
"It has been impossible for me to bring anyone from overseas for the last 18 months.
"I also have a waiting list for the dancers who wants to join WA ballet from overseas; it's impossible at the moment.
"I'm even trying to get young artists from Melbourne and they are supposed to start in January, I don't think they will be able to come."
A big year ahead
This year marks WA Ballet's 70th year – it's the longest running ballet company still operating in Australia.
To celebrate, Mr Scannella has planned more shows with more dancers.
"The way I wanted to celebrate [the] 70 years anniversary was to have creations the whole year through," he said.
They're busy preparing for an original production of Swan Lake, based on indigenous stories from the Swan River Colony.
It's a collaboration with indigenous artist Barry McGuire.
"In one of the meetings we had, Barry started to explain to me that his family owns a black swan dance that hasn't been performed publicly since 1901," Mr Scannella said.
After much discussion, he decided to create a Swan Lake story, based in the Swan River Colony, that tells the indigenous story of the black swan to be performed later in the year.
With the ballet season starting in early February, new dancers stuck in Melbourne, costume fabrics slowly making their way to WA in the mail and meetings with international creatives still being held online, Mr Scannella is hopeful the worst is behind them.
"When I think think about it, what we went through, oh my goodness, I hope we never have to do it again, it was really hard."
