Australia Dancing - Weir, Natalie (1967

Weir, Natalie (1967 - )

Darren Jew: Portrait of Natalie Weir, 1994

Born in Townsville, Far North Queensland, Natalie Weir began her dance training with Ann Roberts and performed with Roberts' North Queensland Ballet Company, the precursor to Dance North. Here she danced in commissioned works created by a range of Australian choreographers. Weir continued her studies at Kelvin Grove College (now Queensland University of Technology) and began her professional career with Maggi Sietsma's Expressions Dance Company. A founding member of Expressions, Weir danced briefly with the company where she received her first choreographic commission.

Weir draws on an eclectic rage of movement sources in her choreography and her vocabulary most commonly blends both modern dance and ballet. As an independent artist she has choreographed works for most major Australian dance companies including the Australian Ballet, the Dancers Company, Australian Dance Theatre, Dance North, Expressions Dance Company, the Queensland Ballet, Tasdance and West Australian Ballet, and for tertiary dance student ensembles across the country. In 1994 Weir was appointed resident choreographer for the Queensland Ballet where she created seven works. For the Australian Ballet she created Dark Lullaby (1998), Mirror, Mirror (2000) and Carmina Burana (2001), and was appointed resident choreographer in 2000. In 2002 she created the contemporary male and female solos for the Royal Academy of Dance's Genee competition.

For some time Weir has worked extensively outside Australia notably at American Ballet Theatre (ABT). Jabula, created on ABT’s Studio Company was performed by the main company. Other ABT commissions include a contribution to the Harrison Project Within You Without You and a solo for Ethan Stiefel, which he performed at the International Ballet Festival Mariinsky. In 2003 she created Heaven, danced to John Adams's Harmonium, as the first part of a two act work called HereAfter for ABT's Metropolitan Opera House season.

Weir has created three works for Houston Ballet: In a Whisper (2000), Steppenwolf (2001) and The Host (2004); two for Hong Kong Ballet: Turandot (2003) and Madama Butterfly; and a restaging of Dark Lullaby for Singapore Dance Theatre in 2003. In Germany she has created Icarus for Tanzcompagnie Giessen and in London set Jabula and Unwritten on the Royal Ballet School. She has also created versions of Wuthering Heights and Petroushka for the Queensland Ballet, In Her Footsteps for Tasdance, Lacrimosa for the West Australian Ballet and Orpheus for the Queensland Ballet.

In January 2009 Weir returned to Expressions Dance Company as artistic director. Her first full-length work for the company as artistic director, Where the Heart Is, drew on her 2009 shorter work The House Project and premiered in May 2010. In July 2011 Weir created a major work, R&J, interpreting Shakespeare's play through three couples, each located in a different historical period and place including the Fortitude Valley area of present day Brisbane. Also in 2011 Weir received the Australian Dance Award for outstanding performance by a company with her work Where the heart is. The same work won Weir the Helpmann Award for best choreography in a dance or physical theatre production and Expressions Dance Company the award for best ballet or dance work. Bibliography:

Extracts from Natalie Weir's oral history interview for the National Library of Australia, and a list of her choreography to 1996, have been published as 'Textures and Layers' in Michelle Potter, A Passion for Dance (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1997).

Research Materials

Ephemera | Moving picture | Oral history | Picture | All

Other resources

Find more about Weir, Natalie in:

Internet - Google
Collection - OzLife
Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia