ABSTRACT
Rebecca Hilton graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts Tertiary Dance Course in 1983. Following two years of intensive work and study with Russell Dumas' Dance Exchange, she performed and taught throughout Australia and New Zealand with Danceworks. She was awarded an Australia Council Travel Study Grant and travelled to New York in late 1987. Shortly after her arrival she was invited to join the Stephen Petronio Company with which she has danced ever since, assisting Petronio in resetting work and teaching extensively throughout Europe, South America and the United States. In 1992 she performed her own work at the Judson Memorial Church under the auspices of Movement Research and she continues to teach regularly in New York City through the Movement Research Program.
What is it like dancing in a company in New York? How do you organize your working life as a dancer there? Working in Stephen's company, even though we have a lot of work, is still really precarious because the amount of work we have changes drastically and dramatically from year to year. Last year we were on the road a lot. I was working with Michael [Clark] as well. I was away from New York for eight months out of twelve last year. When we're in New York we only work for sixteen hours a week. So we work four hours, four days a week, which leaves me with the option to work with other people I'm interested in. I've been getting more and more interested in improvisation, so whenever I'm in New York for a period of time, I've been concentrating on that. There's a real freedom for me, at this stage in my life, to have other options and not just be absolutely focused on the company. It changes though; as I say last year it wasn't possible to do many other things but this year it may be a little looser. That's why being in a city like New York is great, the options abound. In the spare time I have I can do whatever I want as far as dance goes. That is basically what New York is about, and why people gravitate there. There is this huge community. It is not like anyone there is better than anyone else, or more talented. It is that the community is so much bigger; the options are so much broader.
