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…
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