In the relentless search for freshness and novelty, the Canberra Mandolin Orchestra is embarking on an unusual new presentation called Mandolina Ballerina.

Featuring the full strength of the popular local orchestra and the talent of Canberra-raised ballerina Tessa Karle, a member of Royal New Zealand Ballet in Wellington, the performance will not be on a stage, but “down on the ground” at the Folk Dance Hall in Hackett.

She will perform to music by Tchaikovsky, freshly arranged for harp and orchestra by conductor Michael Hardy and choreographed by Karle.

Newish artistic director of the orchestra Eva Schroeder, best-known as an arts photographer, is behind the venture and tells me that she wanted to do something different.

Apart from trying out classical repertoire, she remembered her friend’s daughter Tessa, whom she’d known from age three. She said of her at the time: “I think your daughter is going to become a professional ballet dancer.”

She was right. A proud product of both the Canberra Festival Ballet School in Gungahlin and Jacki Hallahan‘s Canberra Dance Development Centre, where she was taught by Paul Knobloch, Karle’s career took off when she got a place in the Royal New Zealand School of Dance, from which she was seconded to the national ballet company’s corps de ballet in 2021. 

In between all this, she has completed a bachelor of communication online at NZ’s Massey University, majoring in digital marketing and has since been creating TikTok content for the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

When I catch up with Karle by WhatsApp to Wellington, she confirms her long connection with Schroeder and her daughter Charlotte, with whom she went to preschool and ballet school in Gungahlin.

“Eva told mum she thought I was going to make it,” she tells me, “and since that I’ve also been involved with photo shoots with her, so when she became artistic director of the Mandolin Orchestra the idea emerged that we could combine the two things.”

Karle was previously unfamiliar with the mandolin so had to listen very hard before picking some favourite ballet pieces from Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. She added a little classic Petipa choreography, adapted a bit because the surface won’t be a typical ballet turf, but is used for folk-dancing.

“I’ve made a few little adjustments and tweaked it a bit to make it my own,” she says. “When I was back in Canberra during summer, I had a bit of a look, but it would be nice if we could lay down a square of Tarkett flooring.”

That, according to Schroeder, is unlikely to happen, but she has been assured by Karle that if she “puts a bit of concrete dust on her ballet shoes” it will do almost as well. 

Unlike a traditional performance where the audience sits on one side and the orchestra and performers are on the other side, they’re creating a semi-circle with 60 adult seats and 10 cushions for children, allowing Karle to dance at the floor level, where everyone can see her feet. There’ll be two performances.

It will be a flying visit for Karle, fitted into a brief break. She’ll fly in on August 10 then fly back to Wellington for a new show there.

While in Canberra, she’ll stay with her family, who still live in the same house in Palmerston where she grew up.

“I love to come home to visit them… I come home two times a year at least to catch up with friends and old dance teachers, but I love the scene in Wellington, too,” she says.

Canberra Mandolin Orchestra, Mandolina Ballerina, Folk Dance Hall, 114 Maitland Street, Hackett, August 16.