Meet the Coryphées: Lilla Harvey

I think I always knew I was a dancer. It clicked with me from the very beginning. It made sense for my body to move to music and gave me challenges to work towards.

It first hit home that dancing could be a career when I visited The Australian Ballet School when I was eleven. Being in the same space as the company dancers, working towards something amazing, I could see myself there. I fell in love with the collective energy of everyone in the building. Everyone at The Australian Ballet and The Australian Ballet School cares so much about ballet and the beauty it brings to people. I knew this was what I wanted to commit my life to.

I have so many, and they keep evolving. Classically speaking I’d love to dance Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Gamzatti (La Bayadère) or Kitri (Don Quixote), basically any role with drama. I’d love to one day dance works by Pina Bausch, Jiří Kylián, Crystal Pite and more of Sol León and Paul Lightfoot to name a small few.

Again, there are so many. A short list includes Meng-Ke Wu, Chloe Albaret, Tess Voelker, Nikisha Fogo, Evgenia Obraztsova, Marianela Núñez, Ako Kondo, Benedicte Bemet, Robyn Hendricks... It’s never-ending; everyone has something unique to offer.

That the dancers in this company are incredibly supportive of one another. I’m often asked if it’s really competitive, but the environment is the complete opposite. We’re competitive with ourselves to take on challenges and achieve our artistic goals, of course, but our work lives are too intense not to be there to lift one another up when we need it.

I’d say I have high quality taste in books, art, film and music but my biggest guilty pleasure is the reality tv show Love Island. I have a Love Island branded drink bottle with me at work every day.