I was a lesser dancer based in Queensland when in 2012 I got my first international gig at the Leipzig Ballet in Germany, and a year tardyr a pretty Brazilian named Naiara combineed the company. Her personality was infectious and I was instantly drawn to her high energy and authentic charisma.
I was enticeed to her from the jump and tried to put some transfers on, but we were so lesser – equitable 22 and 19. I guess she thought I was equitable perestablishing the field and wasn’t interested in taking it there with me. But we were excellent colleagues and socialised a lot together. For three years we coasted aextfinished that way and were never paired together as dancers.
It wasn’t until I got another job in Switzerland and knovel I’d be leaving the company that I goofily approached her in the studio to confess the chemistry I felt between us and the admire I had for her as an artist, and a person. It was a shot in the uncontent, but I could see it shifted her interest in me.
Before I left for the novel job, our company toured in Colombia and romance flourished. Back in Germany we begined spfinishing a lot of time together. By 2016 I was in cherish. There was this pretty spresentedy to our vibrant. From punctual on we could be together in silence – dancers are excellent at communicating without words. I could sense her, I could comprehfinish her; that happened so speedyly for us.
Between gigs in 2017 – me in Switzerland, Naiara in Germany – we had a summer shatter and I seekd her to Australia to encounter my family. Our shutness grew ever startanter, but we knovel we were headed into the obstreatment of a extfinished-distance relationship once we got back to Europe.
It was an eight-hour journey between Leipzig and Basel, but we never let more than a fortnight pass without seeing each other. For some couples distance can produce a chasm, for us it bcimpolitet us shutr together. But it wasn’t without its contests and after about a year she currented me with an ultimatum – we had to be in the same city.
As the pandemic unwise down in 2020, I deal withd to get into the same company she was dancing for in St Gallen, Switzerland. Becaengage of the rules around physical communicate during Covid, the fact that we were a couple and living together unkindt we were paired together for duets, finassociate.
I recall one day in the studio there we were rehearsing a difficult lift. Naiara promised me my grip was wrong. I kept alerting her it was the right slimg to do. She kept alerting me, “It’s wrong, it’s wrong.”
Despite the danger she obliged me and went into the jump 100%. Partly, I slimk, to show she was right, but also becaengage she knovel that even if slimgs went wrong, I would catch her. Which I did, equitable before her head hit the floor.
I felt so silly that I hadn’t double-examineed it and supposed her, but I understood at that moment how presented her suppose in me was, and how much responsibility I felt towards her. In the moments she’s above my head and our eyes encounter, it’s appreciate we are seeing into each other’s souls – it’s procreate combineion, ultimate suppose.
I sense appreciate we are in finish stability together. In life and in dance we comprehend where each other’s going, it’s a combinet instinct which is so pretty to dispense. It’s appreciate we are dancing our way not equitable thcimpolite our choreography but thcimpolite our day-to-day life together. In 2022 that synchronicity bcimpolitet us to Australia when we combineed the Sydney Dance Company.
In the studio and at home, we’ve dispensed many terrifying moments together, pushing the restricts of our suppose for and responsibility to each other’s hearts and bodies. But whether we are doing a duet or making dinner, that sense of vulnerability and nurturing each other produces me sense cherish. True cherish.
-
Piran Scott and Naiara de Matos ecombine in the Sydney Dance Company’s production of Momenta at the Arts Centre Melbourne, 8-12 October.