Works by Stephanie Lake and Ma Bo. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, NSW, November 7. New works by Australia’s Stephanie Lake and China’s Ma Bo make up a double bill where similarities are much more obvious than differences. It’s not that the pieces look particularly alike (apart from an aspect of their endings) or have a…
Sylvia, The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House, November 8 The dash for bathrooms and bars was substantially less frantic than usual after the close of Act I of Stanton Welch’s Sylvia. Heads everywhere bowed over their synopsis sheets. What in the name of all the gods in Ancient Greece was going on? How does one show via ballet that Artemis…
Bonachela/Obarzanek, Sydney Dance Company
Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney, November 2 What better way to mark a milestone birthday than by getting some of the old gang back together again? Gideon Obarzanek’s Us 50, choreographed for Sydney Dance Company’s 50th anniversary program, returned to the stage some of SDC’s most memorable artists, among them Bradley Chatfield, Wakako Asano, Sheree da…
Queensland and West Australian ballet companies of one mind in 2020
Queensland Ballet announced its 2020 season in mid-September; West Australian Ballet in this past week. The nation’s leading state ballet companies are different in scale and usually in repertoire but their seasons next year have some striking similarities. West Australian Ballet offers a repeat season of Krzysztof Pastor’s full-length Dracula in September 2020 after its…
The Australian Ballet announces its 2020 season and seeks a new artistic director
As David McAllister announced his last full season as artistic director of The Australian Ballet, the company formally launched its search for McAllister’s successor. McAllister retires in December of next year after 20 years at the helm but will have significant input into the 2021 program. The new director is not expected to start until…
Giselle, West Australian Ballet
His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth, September 13 and 14. Was there ever a man who said his life’s ambition was to dance Hilarion? Probably not. He is the spurned lover in Giselle, a gamekeeper who can’t match the allure of his rival, aristo-in-disguise Albrecht. Hilarion offers dead birds to Giselle’s mother to shore up his position;…
Romeo and Juliet, Queensland Ballet
Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane, August 28. When Queensland Ballet staged Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet in 2014 the then-small company took a huge risk, although one mitigated by bringing in superstars Carlos Acosta, Tamara Rojo and Steven McRae to partner QB principal artists. The gamble paid off. The season was a record-breaking success and, more importantly,…
Natalia Osipova’s Pure Dance, Sydney
Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, August 29. Natalia Osipova is the most arresting classical dancer of her generation. Others may have an inner fire that burns brightly but she has a furnace. Osipova is incandescent. For the past six years she has made The Royal Ballet her base and that company’s foundational commitment to story-telling…
Amy Hollingsworth at Expressions Dance Company: warrior for the human condition
Amy Hollingsworth can’t be too specific about the first season she is curating as artistic director of Brisbane-based Expressions Dance Company – details for 2020 will be announced later this year – but she can talk about the philosophy that secured her the job. EDC may have a core of only half a dozen dancers…
Muriel’s Wedding returns to Sydney
Based on the film by P.J. Hogan. Book by P.J. Hogan, music and lyrics by Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall. Sydney Theatre Company and Global Creatures. Lyric Theatre, Sydney, July 4 Muriel Heslop is a bogan, a ratbag, a complete dag. She’s cunning but not terribly bright. The hideous frock she lifts from Target to…
deborah jones: FollowSpot 