Victoria Hall, Fremantle, February 12 It would be so easy, one imagines, for Claire Cunningham’s Guide Gods to be bristling with anger and reproach as it considers how religion deals with disability. At best it is a fast path to heaven, no further heavy lifting required, at worst it’s a manifestation of the devil’s work,…
Category: Dance
Ballet at the Quarry
Five by Night, West Australian Ballet, Perth, February 10 The Quarry Amphitheatre is one of the loveliest performing arts venues in the world. The former limestone quarry is situated in bushland with views of the city beyond and on a balmy night – and that’s pretty much expected in February – there is nothing finer…
Double Blind
Stephanie Lake Company, Carriageworks, January 19. Melbourne, February 15-20; Brisbane, February 22. Stephanie Lake has danced with most of Australia’s best contemporary dance-makers and now, only five years or so into her choreographic career, she’s making a very strong bid to join them at the top table. At its first performance, during the Sydney Festival, Double…
Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid
Sydney Festival, January 8. The Hans Christian Andersen tale on which Meow Meow has based her new show is typically gruesome: an innocent young creature gladly endures unspeakable agonies in order to be close to Prince Right, only to see him promptly marry someone else. In an interview in November 2011, with Steve Dow, she…
Michelle’s Story, a film by Meryl Tankard
In 2011 the Brisbane Festival program included the celebrated Belgian company Les Ballets C de la B with Out of Context – for Pina, a tribute to the towering choreographer who died in 2009. Australian dancer Michelle Ryan was invited by artistic director Alain Platel to appear as a guest artist and although she had…
Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich
Sydney Opera House, January 9. In 1999 Jack Anderson reviewed Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich for The New York Times, reporting that Flemish choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker had “recently announced her wish to retire it from her repertory”. Fortunately she changed her mind. Fase has not only continued to be…
The festive season
THE last crumbs of Christmas cake have scarcely been brushed from the lips, the last Champagne bottles are not yet in the recycling bin and New Year’s resolutions are still full of shiny potential. ‘Tis the season for rest, recreation, family and friends. Or, for those of us whose calendars are ruled not by the…
Thrills and spills: the year in dance
We’ll get to the year’s most interesting work and dancers shortly but 2015 was also notable for offstage developments, particularly at Australia’s three leading classical companies, The Australian Ballet, Queensland Ballet and West Australian Ballet. So let’s begin there. OFFSTAGE The national company At The Australian Ballet, David McAllister became the company’s longest-serving artistic director, surpassing…
Beauty in the eye of the beholder
Revelations in New York, stars made at The Australian Ballet, Alina Cojocaru in Brisbane and more … The Australian Ballet dubbed its 2015 season A Year of Beauty. Giselle, Swan Lake, Cinderella and Frederick Ashton’s The Dream were on the program, lovely ballets all, but essentially teasers for the main event – the new Sleeping…
Taking the gift of music to Sri Lanka
Serendib, also spelled Serendip, Arabic Sarandīb, name for the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon). The name, Arabic in origin, was recorded in use at least as early as AD 361 and for a time gained considerable currency in the West. It is best known to speakers of English through the word serendipity, invented in the 18th century…
deborah jones: FollowSpot 