WHO: AMBER SCOTT
WHAT: SENIOR ARTIST,
THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET
WHERE: SYDNEY
VISIT: www.australianballet.com.au
FFF WANTS… to be even half as graceful as Amber, wear a tutu and receive an invite to her Last Supper… just flawless.
Breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner?
Being the ultimate and final dining experience, all my family and friends from across the globe would be at the table. Some are travelling from afar and some, like me, love to sleep in so lunchtime would be the perfect start time. Being a long and luscious feast it will melt into sunset and stretch into dinner.
Where will you be dining?
We begin in Italy. It is summer. Everyone is in their bathers, swimming and eating at a beachside family restaurant in Positano. I remember one holiday here, I swam right out into the sapphire blue Mediterranean and looked back and saw the coastline of dramatic cliffs dotted with colourful piazzas amongst the bougainvillea. Absolute bliss. It is the place you want to be with the people you love. For the main course, it is a wintery evening in Paris in a crowded bistro. The waiters are in long aprons. Artists, painters, poets and dancers from past and present wander in to join our travelling feast. Dessert involves time travel back to the 1990s in Noosa Queensland (one of the places I grew up) before it became far north Melbourne!
What are you listening to?
In Italy, you probably won’t hear the music over the loudness of my loved ones talking and laughing, however a friendly piano accordion-playing local who is happy to let us sing along would be “molto” here! In France, Serge Gainsbourg (I’m taking liberties with reality here!) would serenade us in his très cool française way. Edith Piaf would pop in to perform my favourite ‘La Vie en Rose’ as the finale. Serge can do some duets with Jane Birkin orBrigitte Bardot if he likes! In Noosa, Elton John would fly in to do a concert on the beach under the rising stars. I’ve always wanted to have ‘Tiny Dancer’ sung to me!
What are you wearing?
In Italy, my bathers, salt and sand. In Paris, the one shouldered white sheath dress Audrey Hepburn wore as Holly Golightly in the party scene in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ complete with long cigarette holder (I don’t smoke, but it’s just too fabulous to pass up!). I will wear ballet flats, Audrey-style, I so can dance the night away and not stumble on Parisian cobblestones. By the time we get to Noosa, I have lost my shoes, rolled up my dress and put frangipanis from my grandmother’s garden in everyone’s hair.
What are you going to eat?
We would toast the happy gathering with Peach Bellinis in Italy and share a big platter of prosciutto with melon as well as oysters brought in by a local fisherman.
I love all French gastronomy, but steak and pommes frites always steal my heart. Simple and warming with some good Dijon mustard on the side and a cheeky bottle or two of Pommard wine from Burgundy.
Dessert needs to be from the past, so I would serve big helpings of the ice-cream my parents used to make in their shop on Hastings Street in Noosa. Mocha almond fudge with strawberry coulis dripping on to the sand from happy, sticky faces! Elton John would love the strawberry – it would colour coordinate with some of his outfits!
To finish… if life really is a bowl of cherries then I want to finish with a huge bowl shared by everyone!
About Amber…
Brisbane-born, Amber Scott joined The Australian Ballet School at age eleven. After graduating as dux, Amber joined The Australian Ballet in 2001. In 2003 she spent four months on a dancer exchange at The Royal Danish Ballet, giving her the opportunity to learn the Bournonville technique firsthand. A lyrical and musical dancer, Amber also relishes the virtuoso pieces with exacting technique, as well as contemporary ballets. Amber was promoted to senior artist in 2008. Career highlights so far are dancing with guest artist Robert Tewsley during the 2008 Manon season and performing Odette in Paris and Manchester in 2008.
“A definition of poise and steely confidence, every bit the prima ballerina” —Herald Sun