There is a great deal of joy in Liam Scarlett’s deliciously funny, sensual A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And – always – a great deal of sadness that his life was so short. Yesterday, April 16, was the third anniversary of his death. He was just 35 and the maker of many one-act works for major companies…
Carmen. The Australian Ballet, Sydney Opera House, April 10, 2024
Johan Inger sees Carmen as a nightmare, which it is. In his darker-than-dark version of a story that just won’t go away, the Swedish choreographer gets inside the head of the woman’s murderer, Don Jose, and chillingly finds nothing there. Well, there’s a writhing, stuttering collection of destructive impulses but otherwise Inger’s Don Jose is…
La Bayadère. West Australian Ballet, His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. April 12, 2024
In 2018 Greg Horsman choreographed a version of La Bayadère for a trio of commissioners, Queensland Ballet, West Australian Ballet and Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet. His setting was mid-19th century India at the time of the British East India Company, set up as a trading entity but in effect a coloniser. The idea had merit. Petipa’s oriental fantasy…
West Side Story. Opera Australia. Fleet Steps, Mrs Macquaries Point, Sydney, March 22, 2024.
Speaking in 1985 at a symposium about the creation of West Side Story, Jerome Robbins said he had wanted to see how far he, Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents could go in bringing their “crafts and talents”, as he put it, to a musical. “Why did we have to do it separately and elsewhere? Why did…
THREE, Australasian Dance Collective. Brisbane Powerhouse, March 20, 2024
Amber McCartney’s solo dance work Tiny Infinite Deaths was a big success when it premiered in 2022 in an artist development program called Pieces, presented by Melbourne’s Lucy Guerin Inc and The Substation. It was the kind of leg-up independent artists need if they are to be seen and Tiny Infinite Deaths was indeed seen by many influential…
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The Australian Ballet, Sydney, February 20, 2024
Christopher Wheeldon is a ballet choreographer who doesn’t stay in his lane. Neither did George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille or Jerome Robbins. Ditto Twyla Tharp, still making new work at the age of 82. In the younger generation, New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck has been tapped to make dance for Broadway and film (Carousel,…
Jungle Book Reimagined. Akram Khan Company, Perth Festival, February 10, 2024
In Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (1894) the law of the jungle is the furthest thing from anarchy. Social structures built by the animals are adhered to without fail. They give an often violent world some kind of order. Akram Khan’s reimagining and updating is rooted in chaos. We are in a future – 2029…
Metamorphosis: Ballet at the Quarry. West Australian Ballet, February 9, 2024
By start time of 8pm Perth’s temperature had dropped a little from its high of 41°C to something, well, not much below that. But the sky was clear and humidity low – a perfect night, then, for West Australian Ballet’s annual open-air season at Quarry Amphitheatre. The program was mostly chosen by former WAB artistic…
Wayfinder, Dancenorth; Mutiara, Marrugeku. Sydney Festival, January 19 and 20, 2024
Most of Australia’s well-established contemporary dance companies are based in the country’s capital cities for obvious reasons. That’s where audiences and resources are closest to hand. Adelaide is home to Australian Dance Theatre and Restless Dance Theatre, Brisbane is where you find Australasian Dance Collective, Co3 caters to the Perth audience and so on. Dancenorth…
The Australian Ballet ends 2023 with Swan Lake and 16 promotions
The Australian Ballet’s 60th anniversary celebrations came to a close in Sydney with Swan Lake and with promotions for 16 dancers – about 20 per cent of the company. TAB ended 2023 with 67 dancers although that number will increase to 77 when three new soloists and seven new corps de ballet members join next year. Swan Lake was…
Leanne Benjamin named Queensland Ballet’s new artistic director
Leanne Benjamin has been named Li Cunxin’s successor as artistic director of Brisbane-based Queensland Ballet. She is the sixth AD in the company’s 63-year history and the first woman to be appointed to the position. She will start at QB mid next month. It’s a home-coming for Rockhampton-born Benjamin, who spent most of her career…
PPY23 Revealed. Sydney Dance Company, Carriageworks, December 12, 2023
At the end of PPY23 Revealed there were huge shouts of joy from the young dancers who had just performed. For about half of them – and there were more than 50 in total – it was a graduation performance, their two years as participants in Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year program now done and dusted. They…
Up Close: Somos. Sydney Dance Company, Neilson Studio, November 1, 2023
Up close is right. It’s likely you’ll never get nearer the spectacular Sydney Dance Company bodies than this. SDC is usually seen in the conventional 900-seat Roslyn Packer Theatre just across the road from the company’s home in Sydney’s Walsh Bay. Up Close: Somos is staged in SDC’s Neilson Studio for a maximum of 150…
The Australian Ballet names Stephanie Lake its new Resident Choreographer
The Australian Ballet’s announcement today that Stephanie Lake is to be its new Resident Choreographer from the beginning of next year is very good news indeed. Lake is one of the country’s most sophisticated makers of dance and one of the most wedded to the joys and trials of being human. In everything she does,…
Swan Lake. The Australian Ballet, State Theatre, Melbourne, September 19-20, 2023
Tradition reigns in The Australian Ballet’s new Swan Lake, based on a fondly remembered 1977 production by former artistic director Anne Woolliams. Nearly 50 years on it’s still recognisable as her work, albeit with lashings of 21st-century glamour. Swan Lake is the main event in artistic director David Hallberg’s celebration of the company’s 60th anniversary and in what…
Salamander, Brisbane Festival, September 2, 2023
In 2019 Brisbane Festival artistic director Louise Bezzina, then new in her role, travelled the substantial width of Australia to attend the Perth Festival, as you do. There she met British chorographer and director Maxine Doyle, who was in Perth to work on a dance piece called Sunset with local choreographic centre STRUT Dance. And, as you…
Ty King-Wall is Royal New Zealand Ballet’s new artistic director
There should be much rejoicing in New Zealand dance circles today with the announcement that Ty King-Wall is to be Royal New Zealand Ballet’s next artistic director. It’s a homecoming for King-Wall, who made his dance career with The Australian Ballet but was born in New Zealand and started his dance studies there. His appointment…
The Australian Ballet in 2024
A new ballet by Christopher Wheeldon, Oscar, is the centrepiece of David Hallberg’s 2024 program for The Australian Ballet. It is being made on the company in what is Hallberg’s first full-length commission since taking over as TAB artistic director in 2021. The ballet will interweave aspects of the tumultuous life of legendary wit, playwright, novelist…
echoes of VAN GOGH, West Australian Ballet, Perth, September 8, 2023
Wubkje Kuindersma’s new echoes of VAN GOGH for West Australian Ballet looks wonderful. The artist’s work is everywhere in Tatyana van Walsum’s designs, almost overwhelmingly so. Intense colours flood the eye as sweeping brush strokes are projected on a wide curved wall, some of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous paintings are reproduced on a grand scale and…
The Australian Ballet On Tour. Glasshouse Port Macquarie, August 19, 2023
The Australian Ballet’s recent appearances at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden got plenty of attention here and in the UK. Travelling somewhat under the radar was another touring venture, a triple bill taken to eight cities in Victoria and NSW. Think Geelong, Albury, Griffith, Dubbo and so on. (Other states are visited in alternate…
precipice and Cry Baby, INDance, Neilson Studio, Sydney Dance Company, August 17, 2023
Sydney Dance Company’s generous outreach to contemporary choreographers, INDance, opened its second season last night with works from two West Australian choreographers. Founded last year, the venture offers SDC audiences the chance to see a curated program of already existing works by independent Australian dancer-makers. It’s a brilliant idea, although there’s an element of blink…
deborah jones: FollowSpot 