Études/Circle Electric. The Australian Ballet
…ductions, including the Danish classic, August Bournonville’s La Sylphide. Circle Electric, on the other hand, is a newly commissioned work from recently appointed resident choreographer for the Australian Ballet, Stephanie Lake. The official synopsis says that the work ‘starts as a microscopic investigation of the intricate and the intimate, ultimately expanding to encompass a telescopic view of humanity.’ Circle Electric opened the program and f…
Celebrate Dance. Paris Opera Ballet
The Paris Opera Ballet once again demonstrated its incredible technical and artistic strengths in Celebrate Dance, a film introduced by the company’s retiring director Brigitte Lefèvre and recently released in Australian cinemas. Opening the program was the Paris Opera Ballet’s traditional parade of dancers from the company and its school—the défilé—seen for the first time on film. This spectacular presentation begins in a chandeliered ante-room,…
Dance diary. December 2023
…, Circle Electric, in Sydney in May 2024 and in Melbourne in October 2024. Circle Electric will share the program with Harald Lander’s Études, which explores the intricacies of the classical ballet technique. The potential is certainly there for audiences to experience two vastly different approaches to dance. Two of Lake’s recent works (for companies other than her own Stephanie Lake Company), are reviewed on this website at these links: Auto Can…
Canberra Critics’ Circle Awards (Dance) 2022
…t and growing strength in the annual awards given by the Canberra Critics’ Circle. Five recipients were honoured with a dance award, the most for a single year (at least as far as I can recall) in the 32 year history of the CCC awards, which celebrate originality, excellence, energy and creativity across the arts. Here are the dance recipients, with citations. ALI MAYES For a performance that was both technically and theatrically strong, and in wh…
Dance diary. May 2024
…h Osborne.’ City News (Canberra), 17 May 2024. Online at this link Michelle Potter, 31 May 2024 Featured image: Cameron Holmes and Maxim Zenin in Circle Electric. The Australian Ballet, 2024. Photo: © Daniel Boud…
Dance diary. December 2024
…was Joy Womack: The White Swan; the top Australian-related post was Etudes/Circle Electric. The Australian Ballet; and the top New Zealand post was Swan Lake. Royal New Zealand Ballet. ************************* A very happy 2025 to all. May the year be filled with dancing. Michelle Potter, 31 December 2024 Featured image: A young Canberra dance student performing as Triton in a ballet school production of The Little Mermaid, 2023. Photographer not…
New Zealand School of Dance 50th anniversary celebration—with Royal New Zealand Ballet
…Sue Nicholls, this was a beguiling cameo that evoked the celebrated ballet Etudes, by Harald Lander, 1948. It is poignant to think that Poul Gnatt would have danced in that work in Royal Danish Ballet, and Anne Rowse, director emeritus of NZSD, sitting to my left, danced it many times in Festival Ballet, as also did Russell Kerr. Martin James, single most illustrious graduate in NZSD’s history, no contest, is sitting to my right. He trained at the…
Canberra dance 2013
…eorges Antoni, 2012 The Canberra program will also include Harald Lander’s Etudes, a showcase of classical ballet first made for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1948. It has been in the Australian Ballet’s repertoire since 1986 and its inclusion on the program is an interesting one as it too is somewhat architectural in nature. The American critic Arlene Croce one wrote that Etudes shows ‘that classical forms [in ballet] have a structural coherence’. T…
Dance diary. November 2014
…chelor for his performance installation Island. James Batchelor During the Circle’s plenary session, at which nominations in individual categories are put forward to the whole group for discussion, a member of the circle questioned me about whether James should or should not be considered a Canberra artist given his strong links with the Melbourne dance scene. It was a good question and one I had discussed with Batchelor earlier in 2014. His reply…
International Women’s Day with Somebody’s Aunt
…at ‘older people can scoot to many and varied locations for different activities and all the while having fun and scooting safely’. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9z4x5uILUE The scooters being used are Neuron electric scooters powered in the ACT by electricity from renewable energy. There are some lovely scenes of Canberra in there too! Michelle Potter, 8 March 2022 Featured Image: Dancers from Somebody’s Aunt. Photo: © Natsuko…