Five places that made me: Choreographer Kelley Abbey

SOUTH AFRICA

In 2002 I choreographed Fame the musical in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Working with South African dancers, I truly felt the roots of all dance and music in their spirits. It was inspiring to be around them. They also taught me South African gumboot dancing. I will never forget my spiritual experience of the universality of dance and the dance conversation we developed together.

INDIA

I was only 19 when I went to Mumbai for a one-off New Year's Eve dance gig with Australian singers and musicians. It was such a culture shock. I stumbled into a women's only ashram. The women had been continuously chanting there for centuries. The energy hit me and I completely passed out. It could have had something to do with my Bombay belly but the energy was overwhelmingly intense. I woke up with an Indian woman patting my face and staring down at me with big brown eyes.

SPAIN

In 2008 I took a summer holiday in Madrid. I felt completely at home. I fell in love with the architecture, the art, the earthiness of the people, the paella, the sangria, and most of all the flamenco. I was inspired by this incredible percussive, passionate and improvisational art form that is shared by all. Walking in a piazza. I felt the cobblestones under my feet and I could hear a string quartet playing in the distance. A group of Spanish women walking towards me with their fans stretched up high to shelter their faces from the sun. The vision was one of architectural beauty. It inspired me in choreographing Carmen for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, for Opera Australia.

CHINA

In 1987 I was invited to China to assist the late, great choreographer Ross Coleman, on a government cultural exchange, to teach Western dance to the East. I learnt how to teach a tap and jazz class in Mandarin to 200 dancers. We created a show together with them and toured it to Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing. This was another spiritual experience in my career, where I was communicating with dance without being able to communicate with language. I felt incredibly blessed.

ITALY