a love of DANCe

“Once I was a dancer and that was great whilst it lasted. But then that stopped and I questioned “what” I was, and what it was that made me dancer. It was so important it me... that cliché of needing to dance more that needing to eat or breathe and how much it hurt… the actual pain of needing to do it and be it.”

October 30, 2016

Johanna Puglisi was born at Sydney’s Royal Women’s Hospital in Paddington on 25 March 1973 to Giuliana and Giuseppe, the oldest of four kids. Her childhood was immersed in an Italian way of life - her Sicilian father and Roman mother indoctrinated their first born with their bold approaches to food, relationships, conversation, music, religion, superstition, artistic interests and the usefulness (or otherwise) of creative talent.

She grew up without the social freedoms her friends enjoyed and with three young siblings, had even lesser opportunities to enjoy the outside world. The local dance studio was her outlet and her love of dancing would forever define how she saw herself and gained satisfaction in life. Other than dance, she kept her passions private and journalled her feelings through her teenage school years. She received a Catholic education on Bland Street, Ashfield - after St Vincent’s Primary School she walked over the road and into Bethlehem Ladies College for high school, where she excelled in Art subjects.

After many years training at Ann McDonald Ballet School, her dreams of becoming a dancer faded when denied being able to attend enough classes, so she toyed with the idea of acting or modelling. Dance became a vocation thanks to the encouragement of David Spurgeon at the University of NSW, where she went to train as an actor but graduated as a dancer.

Another dance degree followed at the University of Western Sydney, becoming the first family member to gain university-level qualifications. Emboldened by love she left home, following a boy to Brisbane only to be left broken-hearted. But she stayed north and made new friends and enjoyed dance opportunities with Opera Queensland, World Dance, Darc Swan and cabaret at Abigails Club.

It’s hard to fathom she was bullied in her youth, because as an adult she gathered friends where ever she went. The briefest encounter with Johanna felt like an embrace - she was warmhearted, supportive, and her smile - unforgettable. She was not inclined to judge others or proffer criticism; her nature was to accept people as they were.

In 1998 I went to Brisbane to audition dancers for Opera Queensland’s season of Handel’s Julius Caesar. Johanna picked herself; she was the best dancer in the studio and our lives were thereafter entwined in love and creativity, work and travel, crisis and survival.

She returned to Sydney in 1999 to audition for Cats, The Musical and pursue our relationship - that prevented her from dance contracts at Opera Australia because of my concern that I’d be accused of favoritism. So Johanna doubly-earned her stage credits - Julius Caesar, Rinaldo, The Pearl Fishers, Die Meistersingers von Nüremburg, Lulu, Lucia di Lammermoor, Iolanthe, Faust, Tales of Hoffmann, Il trittico, Don Giovanni and Falstaff.

It wasn’t long before Johanna was teaching for Opera Australia’s Young Artist’s Program and setting classes for the dance ensemble. She assisted Meryl Tankard on Death in Venice and taught and choreographed two opera productions at Sydney Conservatorium, developing into a naturally gifted movement instructor for singers.

Doing movement revival on Don Carlos, director Elijah Moshinsky’s simple words “you are really good at this, you must keep at it” encouraged her enormously. In 2007 she added to her dance/drama degrees by studying movement direction at NIDA and was thereafter a sought-after collaborator for theatre directors needing her expertise. She worked on productions at Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir Street, NIDA, Griffin Theatre, Bakehouse Theatre Company, Kookaburra Musical Theatre Company, Sydney Chamber Opera, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, City of Sydney and Ozopera. Johanna was a skilled facilitator of devised theatre - using improvisation and movement ideas with artists to invent fresh and original work - with directors Darren Yap, Imara Savage, Shannon Murphy, Susanna Dowling, Cristabel Sved, Antoinette Sampson and Peter Cousens.

She returned to the opera company regularly as a Director, Assistant Director, Movement Director or Choreographer on Love for three Oranges, The Magic Flute, Aida, Don Giovanni, La bohème, Madama Butterfly, The Barber of Seville, Christmas at the House.  Director Stuart Maunder shared his love of showbiz and she giggled her way through seasons of The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado as his assistant.

All her talents came together in China, where she taught, choreographed and directed gifted Chinese and Western singers using her fluent Italian - the language shared by opera singers around the world.  She returned three consecutive years and was a driving creative force for the iSING! International Young Artists Festival.

Johanna gave unbiased support to performers, and mentored emerging artists. Over many seasons she helped young artists at Opera Australia find their feet when directing Great Opera Hits concerts, Sunday Concerts, NYE galas and classes. She was respected for her insight, perspective, absolute honesty and approach to artists as performers and people.

She had an keen eye for truth in performance. She valued effort over laziness, but didn’t call out the latter when she saw it, instead she concentrated her attention on artists she knew shared her interest in working creatively. She was playful and saw comedy in everything. She loved to be entertained and her laughter was like a rumbling Italian gypsy motorbike, that could propel you through life grateful for the power of its presence.

In the first month of 2017 she was diagnosed leiomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer already at an advanced stage. In the midst of chemotherapy, surgery and very little positive news she remained focused on life, living, relationships, food and William, her ginger, feline, faithful best friend. Johanna wouldn’t give up her mindset as a living person, and refused to live as a dying person, so she won over her illness time and time again.

She remained true to herself - the most authentic person I have ever known.

If dance was Johanna’s passion, then a life goal was to be a mother and nurture a loving family. The innately learned skills of motherhood (and tending to her three younger siblings as a child) made her a natural around the children; they related-to Johanna, and vice-versa.

She wasn’t blessed with children and it hurt when the kids that were inevitably drawn to her, were other people’s. She directed and choreographed two musicals for Kincoppal Rose Bay - Annie and The Wizard of Oz - supporting and showcasing literally hundreds of adrenaline-fueled children. It can’t have been easy for her.

Not long before her diagnosis, Johanna discovered her grandfather was a Sicilian musician and conductor and suddenly her love of music and the arts made sense to her.  It was as if she had found her patron saint - that would watch over her when she worked onstage at the Sydney Opera House - along with her beloved Sicilian & Roman Nonnas.

When Johanna died on 6 November 2019 she left many, many friends.  Her work took her around Australia and the world.  It didn’t matter that projects were often a month or less, and the prospect of reuniting with a new acquaintance was slim - she would commit to lifelong friendships, reaching out, staying connected.

I could not achieve what I hoped to without her creativity and generosity. She shared her gifts freely and I’m not alone as a creative artist worker indebted to her. At the end of their work with Johanna, singers went away with the tools or encouragement they needed to succeed in their careers. And this is her legacy: the performances of all those artists who had the good fortune to encounter Johanna, and be inspired.