Ballet star at Brendale, by Miranda Forster, 11 Aug 2008

RENOWNED international ballerina Maina Gielgud was in Brendale last week rehearsing for her starring role in a major production playing in Sydney this week.
While choreographer Maurice Bejart’s much-anticipated production The Exquisite Hour opened in Sydney last night, Gielgud was rehearsing at the Queensland National Ballet Studio in Brendale last week.
Studio director Martyn Fleming, who is a long-time friend of Gielgud’s, said it was an honour to have the former director of the Australian Ballet at his school.
``It was amazing just to have her here...it’s good for the kids to see and just to have someone of that calibre in the studio is a great honour.’’
In The Exquisite Hour, Gielgud plays an ageing ballerina determined to see the positive in everything.
It is showing exclusively in Australia at Sydney’s Theatre Royal this week.

Meanwhile, Fleming said the Queensland National Ballet Studio’s next major production would be at October’s Greenfest in Brisbane.
``We’re doing an open-air performance at Greenfest in the city and Aboriginal didgeridoo player David Hudson will be playing the live music.’’
(Credit: Pine Rivers Press)