This interview with Lisa Bolte by Sarah Rose was published on August 14th 2021 on the Artistic and Holistic Website. Artistic and Holistic is a blog committed to gathering insights on a holistic approach to dance and the art of life.
I was lucky to have been blessed with a happy childhood, time to learn, play, help with a few jobs about the family business, and joyous times dancing. Mum and Dad were grounded, hard-working family people, both, supportive of my dream to become a ‘Ballerina’. My family was the foundation for everything, their love and support enabled resilience, adaptability, there was time for life’s joys and laughter.
If you dance, you might relate to the hundreds of hours spent in the car, Mum was the driver in our family. Almost daily she would get us to dancing, we bundled in after school and at weekends, often dressing in the car on the way, off with school uniforms, on with our tights, leotards and ballet shoes, trying for perfect ballet buns with pretty bows. My brother danced for a short while too, until football took over his free time.
Mum was always listening, sharing stories and keeping us balanced. At concert time she would spend weeks, staying up well into the night creating beautiful costumes for our annual Caprice Dancing School Concert. Along with local eisteddfods, and in my teen years, Australian Youth Ballet performances, the concert was the dance highlight of the year.
I’m so grateful my childhood teachers Margaret, Janice and Sandra all instilled important lessons of striving for perfection through our work towards annual RAD & CSTD exams. For me learning dance in the 70’s & early 80’s was exciting and fun; Expression, imagination, musicality & quality of movement were all equally as important as technical finesse.
Lisa xx