Kiwi ballerina Hannah O’Neill is on the floor at the New Zealand Dance Company’s Wellesley St studio in Auckland. She sits with the poise that only a dancer can, fluidly limbed with her shoulders back.
She’s gracious as the interview is interrupted by two breathless young students wanting her to autograph their pointe shoes, “Because,” says one, “if I didn’t ask, I know I’d regret it for ever.”
Hannah is considered to be ballet royalty to the youngsters she’s just given a master class to – at just 24, she’s a principal dancer with the world-renowned Paris Opera Ballet and the 2016 winner of the Benois de la Danse, ballet’s equivalent of the Oscar.
She’s back home for a brief holiday to catch up with family and friends before another whirlwind year of classes, rehearsals and performances under the direction of some of the biggest names in ballet.
Names like Benjamin Millepied – he of Black Swan fame and husband of Natalie Portman – and Pierre Lacotte, dancer-turned-choreographer who was with Rudolph Nureyev when he defected from Russia in 1961.
Hannah credits Benjamin for helping her on her way to the top.
“I did my first principal role under him. He really pushed me,” she says.
Benjamin cast her as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, no less.
And Pierre was so captivated by Hannah’s performance, he asked her to dance the title character in his production of Paquita, the role that won her the Benois.
But while dancing in Europe might be a dream come true for Hannah – “I always aspired to go to the Royal Ballet or the Paris Opera school” – it didn’t happen overnight; it’s taken
dedication and hard work.
Born in Japan to a Kiwi father – former professional rugby player Chris O’Neill and Japanese mother Sumie – Hannah started ballet classes when she was just three. She was, she says, a very energetic child, who also enjoyed swimming, as well as playing tennis with her younger brothers Shimon and Ben.
“Mum and Dad did a lot of taxi-ing around when we were younger. I’d swim after school, then go to ballet with my hair still wet. There would be water spurting out of my bun as I was doing pirouettes.”
The family moved back to New Zealand when Hannah was eight. She took ballet lessons at Mt Eden Dance Academy, and became a regular on the American and Australasian competition and scholarship circuit.
She laughs when asked if it’s comparable to a pageant queen’s tour of beauty contests.
“As a student, you don’t get many opportunities to dance on stage but that’s why I’m here. I don’t do ballet because I love working hard in the studio – it’s the result of that, the performance you give on stage that’s so fulfilling. And because New Zealand is so isolated, it was also a way to get some exposure, as well as gaining scholarships and experience.”
Which she did – picking up a scholarship to study at the Australian Ballet School while in the US. She packed her bags at 15 and moved to Melbourne.
But she stuck at it, putting in 15-hour days filled with Pilates, lessons, rehearsals, warm-ups and shows. The hard work paid off when she was awarded a lifetime contract with the Paris Opera. That’s no mean feat given the company only takes a handful of foreigners.
“I think one of the most hated questions for any dancer would be ‘But what do you do for a job?’. It is a lot of hard work. I have been lucky, but – and I don’t mean this in a pretentious way at all – it has also been extremely difficult to get to where I am now.”
The accolades and awards kept coming. Hannah won the Prix de Lausanne – the “Olympics of ballet” in 2009 and the next year won the senior women’s section at the Youth America Grand Prix in New York.
In 2011, she auditioned for the Paris Opera, along with more than 100 other aspiring dancers whose careers and advancement hinge on the “concours”. She was offered an eight-month seasonal contract as a “stagiaire”, or apprentice.
“In the beginning, it was tough,” she recalls. “I didn’t speak French, I missed my friends and the life I had. I was very, very close to giving up.”
Hannah is regularly invited to perform in some of the world’s most famous theatres and has just bought a tiny apartment close to the Paris Opera. As the studio empties out, Hannah muses on the similarities between rugby and ballet.
“Dad reckons there’s quite a few. Before every show, I get a message from my parents. Dad’s will be really long, like a coach would give to a rugby team before a game.”
Dad Chris adds, “I remind her of the things she needs to focus on and to forget about things she can’t control. She especially likes rugby and the All Blacks, so I use them for inspiration.”
But as Hannah will soon be returning to France to play fairy queen Titania in George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it will be Puck rather than a ruck she will be thinking about!
Words: Julie Jacobsen
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