#17: Edgeing (1992)

“I used to ice skate a bit. I loved the fact that on ice you can just push off and glide for so long, how effortless it was. When I found rollerblades and discovered you could do the same thing, I was pretty ecstatic.

I wanted to do a dance work on rollerblades, so I did. Graeme Murphy had put people on skateboards, so I thought I was breaking some ground. We had half the cast in rollerblades, and half not. You’ve got to make everything look easy on blades, but my god it was one of the most difficult things I’ve done. There was so little margin for error. On stage one night I went up ramp a bit higher than usual and ended up on my arse, and rather badly too. I think as dancers, we were pushing the envelope in terms of going to a place we had never gone. And I loved it.

I’m 55 now. I’ve still got my blades in the shed and keep finding these great skate parks – I really want to go out again. When I’d fall at Sydney Dance Company I’d bounce and be right back up, but it might hurt a bit more these days.”

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