Eileen Kramer (1914–2024)

Dancer, visual artist, choreographer and writer Eileen Kramer has died in Sydney at the age of 110. Born in Sydney, Eileen spent her early years in the suburb of Mosman and then, after her parents’ divorce, in Coogee. After leaving school at the early age of 13, she eventually began studying singing, piano and theory at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music but did not take up dancing until she was in her twenties when she saw a performance of The Blue Danube and other works from the Bodenwieser Ballet. Of that experience she has said:

Well, Blue Danube is beautiful and flowing and expressive and not at all tight and rigid, so I just fell in love with it. Another dance they performed at that concert was the Slavonic, those great big skirts with big motifs on them, and that struck me because when they came onto the floor they took wonderful poses that looked as though they were accidental. But of course it was art, so I went immediately to become a student.

She was accepted as a student by Gertrud Bodenwieser and later became a company dancer touring with the troupe around Australia and overseas for the next decade. Of her time with Bodenwieser she recorded:

Well, to us [Bodenwieser] was exotic and wonderful and we felt she was teaching us not only dance but about European culture and sophistication as well. And she also recognised each one’s quality. So while we learned to work as a group, she also developed our qualities, which was quite wonderful. So then she’d give solo dances inspired by us, not something that she got from somewhere else. My dance that I loved most of all was Indian Love Song. I wasn’t doing a traditional Indian movement but it was inspired by Indian poetry and some Indian postures, but I had to sing the song with that.

Eileen Kramer in 'Indian Love Song', 1952. Photo: Noel Rubie — Eileen Kramer in *Indian Love Song*, 195Os. Photo: © Noel Rubie. Papers of Gertrud Bodenwieser, National Library of Australian, MS 9263

For Bodenwieser, and for the rest of her life, Eileen was a designer of costumes. Speaking of her interest in design she said:

I didn’t make so many drawings and that upset Madame a little bit, because she liked to see what she was getting, but I worked in a way of giving more freedom to the fabric so I would make it on the figure and not so much from drawings, although generally you had to have an idea of what you were doing and make a kind of a sketch, but not a detailed sketch. I have been doing this since I was about five years old, making dolls’ clothes and then eventually making my own clothes and making backyard concert clothes.

Eileen Kramer, design for a character in *O World*. Papers of Gertrud Bodenwieser, National Library of Australian, MS 9263

After leaving the Bodenwieser Ballet she lived and worked in India, France and the United States for the next 60 years. Those years included relationships of various kinds including with her husband Baruch Shadmi, whom she met in Paris. They collaborated on a number of activities but he suffered a stroke and she gave up her career to nurse him until his death.

On her departure from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where she had spent the last several years of her career the local newspaper wrote:

A crowd of costumed friends gave one of Lewisburg’s most colorful residents, Eileen Kramer, a wonderful send-off at the Greenbrier Valley Airport Wednesday afternoon upon her departure for Australia. Garbed in attire designed and sewn by Eileen from Trillium performances over the years, and bearing large masks she’d painted, the gathering lovingly gave tribute to say “Thank you” and “We love you” and “We will miss you.’ Fare thee well, Lovely Lady Mountain Messenger, Lewisberg, 9 September 2013 https://mountainmessenger.com/fare-thee-well-lovely-lady-2/

Eileen lived in Sydney from 2013 until her death. In those last 11 years she continued to create. Her activities are recalled on her website, Eileen Kramer. Of the many activities in which she was involved during those last years, perhaps my favourite is the beautiful film by Sue Healey made for the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, available at this link. See also my thoughts on the film here.

Vale Eileen. How lucky I was to meet you when and how I did. When we spoke last you recalled the oral history we did—now more than 20 years ago. You remembered that we lunched in between sessions. You said that no other interviewer had done that! Well I loved that I was able to do so.

Eileen Kramer: born Sydney, 8 November 1914; died Sydney, 15 November 2024

Michelle Potter, 17 November 2024

For other posts about Eileen on this website, follow this tag.

Unless otherwise identified, quotes from Eileen in this post are from an oral history I recorded with her in 2003 for the National Library of Australia, TRC 4923, available online at this link. Eileen’s autobiography, Walkabout Dancer was published in 2008 by Trafford Publishing.

Featured image: From Sue Healey’s film Eileen, 2017. See this link to view the film.

Update: When I first posted this obituary I added an image that was purported to be of Eileen as a baby along with her father and mother. Well, when I looked through Walkabout Dancer, the autobiography, it turned out that it wasn’t Eileen as a baby but Edward (her brother). I am assuming Eileen knew who it was and that the source I used got it wrong! So I have removed the image from the post proper but have included it below. The photographer has not been identified but the date would be 1913.

Oscar. The Australian Ballet

13 November 2024 (matinee). Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House

I have to admit that I have not always been a fan of works from Christopher Wheeldon who is choreographer of Oscar, the latest production from the Australian Ballet. But Oscar, which focuses on the life of Oscar Wilde, is an exceptional work from many points of view.

In a narrative sense, Oscar has two main acts preceded by a Prologue and closing with an Epilogue. It blends Wilde’s daily life and his art, with a particular focus on two of his written works, The Nightingale and the Rose and The Picture of Dorian Gray. It begins with Wilde’s trial and imprisonment for his sexual activities with men and then goes back to his early life including his meetings with male lovers. It moves on to scenes of his thoughts and recollections during his imprisonment, and finishes with the end of his time in prison and his eventual death. Wilde lived a very full and drama-filled life and a huge range of emotions colour the story.

I was impressed with Wheeldon’s choreography, which was diverse, demanding and danced strongly throughout. Curved, smooth and lyrical movements contrasted with sharp, geometrical and quite two-dimensional moments, and the relationships between characters was made clear choreographically, no matter what was the nature of those relationships. The Act II duet between Wilde and his long-standing sexual partner Bosie was a real highlight, although there were so many moments of exceptional and quite descriptive choreography.

I did not see the opening night cast (who feature in most of the images available) and so have no images of the dancers I saw performing at the matinee of 13 November. But of the cast I saw, in addition to a strong performance by Brodie James as Oscar, Jill Ogai stood out as the Nightingale and Bryce Latham and Thomas Gannon were thoroughly engaging as the sons (Cyril and Vyvyan) of Oscar and his wife Constance. The family picnic scene early on in the work, in which Cyril and Vyvyan sat with their father as he read to them, was especially entertaining.

Some very engaging moments occurred towards the end of Act I when Oscar’s close friend, Robbie, introduced Oscar to a gay bar. In addition to showing moments of sexual attraction between those in the bar, two characters named Harri (Yichuan Wang) and Zella (Jake Mangakahia) gave a brilliant show of acting and dancing as drag queens. The second act had, however, a very different feel to it. A degraded Oscar struggled to manage his life in confinement, and the remembered pleasures of his early life took on a kind of desperation. This difference in the emotional impact of the work was clear not just choreographically, but also in the score by Joby Talbot, which was more brash in its sound during Act I.

Set and costume design was by Jean-Marc Puissant and his set in particular was quite spectacular in the way the setting, while retaining the major structure of a building, was able to change to reflect different moments and aspects of the narrative, often assisted by exceptional input from lighting designer Mark Henderson.

My one less-than-positive comment is that perhaps too many of the characters that were part of Wilde’s flamboyant life were also part of this production. There were times when it was not at all easy to understand exactly what the situation was and who the characters were. Perhaps fewer events and characters would have made the work easier to follow while still being indicative of the varied range of people and events that characterised the life of Wilde. But having said that, Oscar was engaging pretty much from beginning to end. And just amazingly danced.

Michelle Potter, 15 November 2024

Featured image: Christopher Wheeldon rehearsing dancers of the Australian Ballet for Oscar. Photo: © Christopher Rodgers-Wilson

Waru— journey of the small turtle. Bangarra Dance Theatre

My review of Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Waru— journey of the small turtle was published online on 7 November 2024 by CBR CityNews. Read it at this link. Below is a slightly enlarged version of the review.

7 November 2024. The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre

Waru—journey of the small turtle is Bangarra Dance Theatre’s first work made for children, and specifically for children aged 3 to 7, although adults can certainly enjoy it too. Drawing inspiration from Torres Strait Islander culture, Waru tells the story of Migi, a turtle who, after birth on an island in the Torres Strait, navigates her way out to sea with others born at the same time, and who then returns to the island to give birth to her own baby turtle. The idea for, and the creation of the work, came from Bangarra’s former artistic director, Stephen Page, and his son, Hunter Page-Lochard who wrote the storyline. There is creative input from various Bangarra dancers and in particular from Torres Strait Islander woman, Elma Kris. Kris takes on the leading role of Aka Malu (loosely translated as grandmother) in Waru. She is the storyteller and works hard (and effectively) to engage the young audience, and to convince everyone to participate in her storytelling actions.

Elma Kris as Aka Malu. Photo: © Daniel Boud

The cast is tiny. Elma Kris is joined by one other performer who plays a range of roles throughout the production, including the two turtles (the mother and a grown-up Migi), and a lizard who likes to eat turtle eggs before they hatch. But the story mostly flows beautifully and, beyond the narrative relating to these particular turtles, there is a wider story of the cycle of life and the need to protect the planet. Set and costume design by Jacob Nash and lighting by Matt Cox add a strong visual element to the production, while the music comes from Steve Francis and the late David Page.

The one slight flaw for me was a loss of vibrancy in the middle of the work, in those moments while we were waiting for Migi to return to lay her egg on the island, the egg from which her own child-turtle will be born. At this point we are told of the need take care that we do not drop our rubbish into the ocean. Kris makes the point as she removes various items of plastic from the water surrounding the island, and from the body of a sea animal who has become entangled with discarded rubbish.

Elma Kris removing rubbish from a sea creature. Photo: © Daniel Boud

Kris stuffs the collected rubbish in a bag and puts it to one side in order to have it recycled. But after the early excitement of the birth of Migi and the aid the audience was asked to give in helping the new-born turtles make their way out to sea, these following moments seemed quite passive, despite their importance and their relationship to climate change

In what is quite a short work, there is just a small amount of dancing although it includes a beautiful traditionally-focused dance, Kasa Kab, choreographed by Peggy Misi and Stephen Page. In many respects Waru reminds me of an old-style pantomime with the children in the audience joining in the action. They become increasingly involved towards the end, when Kris the storyteller is looking for that evil lizard who has appeared onstage for a second time and is seeking to eat Migi’s newly laid egg. Of course, Kris pretends she can’t find where exactly the lizard is located and the audience shouts and shouts telling her where to look. Of course, she looks everywhere but where the shouting directs her. It takes me back to those wonderful pantomime days! There is much to enjoy in Waru, for both children and adults.

Michelle Potter 8 November 2024

Featured image: Elma Kris as the Storyteller with Migi the turtle in Waru. Photo: © Daniel Boud

Dance diary. October 2024

West Australian Ballet in 2025

I was interested to hear the latest from West Australian Ballet (WAB), perhaps in particular that David McAllister will continue to direct WAB for another year. The media information says that he will work with the Board on the search for a new artistic director, and that he will also help develop a new strategic plan for WAB for the next five years as well as programming the season for 2026. McAllister was brought up in Perth, home city of WAB, before moving to Melbourne to join the Australian Ballet School and then the Australian Ballet in 1983. It is hard not to wonder whether McAllister’s current role at WAB will become permanent?

But in addition, it was good to see that Alice Topp will present Butterfly Effect, a new commission from WAB and a new take on the opera Madame Butterfly. Topp’s Butterfly Effect will premiere in Perth in September and will recontextualise the well-known narrative as a ‘story for modern audiences, weaving together threads from the old and the new, through themes of love, loss, and shattering betrayal, and Puccini’s classical score.’ I will be especially interested to see where the work is set (if indeed it is set in a specific country?).

News from James Batchelor

James Batchelor, who works between Australia and Europe, has been in Australia recently teaching at the Victorian College of the Arts and Sydney Dance Company. In addition, he has been developing new works, in particular a piece he is calling Resonance, which grew out of an invitation by the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, and which examines how Liedtke’s work has impacted the course of contemporary dance in Australia. (Dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke died in Sydney in 2007 following a road accident. She was the incoming director of Sydney Dance Company but never had the chance to take on the role).

James Batchelor at Mulligan’s Flat, 2024. Photo: © Akali (Yao Yao) Guan. Mulligan’s Flat is a wildlife park in the north-east of Canberra.

Batchelor will be back in Europe for the last several weeks of 2024 where Shortcuts to Familiar Places will have a season in Italy, and where, in Berlin, he will continue to work on the development of Resonance. He will then head back to Australia for projects in January.

A Stellar Lineup—Olympic Edition

Liz Lea continues her development of community dance in Canberra with a presentation of A Stellar Lineup—Olympic Edition. She writes:

We are thrilled to bring you another stunning lineup of Canberra’s most engaging community dance companies, celebrating the power of inclusion and imperative for excellence. This year we return to Belco Arts to mark the Olympic Games and the sporting achievements of our many performers including Olympians and Paralympians. Our program features Project Dust, Dance4Me, Taylor Mingle, ZEST Dance for Wellbeing, the GOLD Company, Deaf Butterflies, Rachael Hilton, Fresh Funk and the Chamaeleon Collective.

Dancers from *A Stellar Lineup*, 2024. Photo: © O&J Wikner Photography

Performances of A Stellar Lineup—Olympic Edition will be presented at the Belconnen Arts Centre, 22-23 November 2024. Further information is at this link.

Forgotten Impresario. Discovering Daphne Deane

Back in 2022 I posted a note about a beautifully researched e-book, Forgotten Impresario. Discovering Daphne Deane, by John Anderson. The book followed the diverse theatrical career of Queensland-born Daphne Deane, a career that Anderson rightly believed had been largely ignored. Recently, Anderson updated aspects of his book to include more information about Deane’s experiences during World War II; her trial in France for a ‘contractual breach of trust’, which brought aspects of her career to an end; and her connections with Marie Rambert.

The revised edition is available to read, at no cost, at this link.

Farewell to Ruth Osborne

Ruth Osborne at Gorman Arts Centre, 2024. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

In October a large gathering of Canberra’s dance community said farewell to Ruth Osborne as director of QL2 Dance. The farewell event was held at Gorman Arts Centre, home of QL2 Dance (and a variety of other arts focused organisations), and featured speeches from some of those who had been associated with Osborne over the years. Speakers included Richard Refschauge, current Chair of the Board of Ql2 Dance, who gave an outline of Osborne’s career and input into the development and growth of QL2 Dance, and Daniel Riley, former student at QL2 Dance and current artistic director of the Adelaide-based Australian Dance Theatre, who spoke about his experiences as a young, emerging dancer at QL2 Dance and his resulting dance career.

The afternoon also included two performances from QL2 dancers, which were performed in one of the beautiful courtyards of Gorman Arts Centre. One was choreographed by Alice Lee Holland, and consisted of extracts from her work Earth, which we saw recently as part of the Elemental program. The other was one of Osborne’s works from the past repertoire of QL2 Dance.

QL2 dancers performing extracts from *Earth* in the courtyard, Gorman Arts Centre, 2024. Photos: © Michelle Potter

Press for October 2024

– ‘Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon (Queensland Ballet)’. Limelight, 6 October 2024 . Online at this link. (And in a slightly enlarged form here.)
– ‘Chaos, a dance project of highs and lows.’ Review of Elemental. QL2 Dance, Chaos Project. CBR City News, 19 October 2024. Online at this link. (And in a slightly enlarged form here.)

And it’s Halloween again …

Michelle Potter, 31 October 2024

Featured image: Publicity image from WAB for Alice Topp’s Butterfly Effect. Photographer not identified.

Youth Dance Festival turns 40

Canberra’s Youth Dance Festival has been a significant part of the city’s dance scene for an impressive four decades. It will shortly celebrate its 40th birthday with a program featuring a total of 45 short works danced over three nights by an incredible 800 students from 28 Canberra and district schools. Put together by Cathy Adamek, current director of Ausdance ACT, the 2024 program is called ‘What do you dream?’ and focuses on personal choices as life slowly returns to a stage where COVID no longer rules our lifestyle. As Adamek tells me, ‘This is the first time that the current generation can think about their future in terms of stability, in a way that is not inhibited.’

The 2024 theme follows on from those of 2021–2023 with the 2021 Festival, the first directed by Adamek, needing to be created as a digital production as a result of the COVID pandemic. The Festivals of 2022 and 2023 were live events but, nevertheless, their themes reflected the difficulties that had arisen as a result of the pandemic.

Dancers from Gungahlin College in their work from the 2021 Festival. Photo: © Andrew Sikorski, Art Atelier Photography

The process of getting the works onstage is a complex one, identified by Adamek as a matter of ‘co-creativity’. She suggests that it is this structured process that has made the project a durable one over the years. The choreography is largely student-led but the Festival has a group of mentors who visit schools to assist and advise, and who provide support and guidance to the students as they prepare their works for the performance. In addition, and as the result of a specific donation, the Festival will have (for the first time since 2021) a special opening work choreographed jointly by KG from Passion & Purpose Academy, Caroline Wall from Fresh Funk and Francis Owusu from Kulture Break.

I am fascinated too by the importance during the development process of a graphic item, in 2024 designed by Japanese-Australian artist Natsuko Yonezawa. ‘The graphic is part of the creative impetus,’ Adamek says. ‘I always suggest that creators use it if they want an inspiration for things like colours, tones, costumes. It’s part of giving the participants an awareness that creating a piece of dance theatre is not just about choreography.’

The graphic designed by Natsuko Yonezawa for the 2024 Youth Dance Festival

Canberra’s Youth Dance Festival began back in 1984 as the High Schools Dance Competition, an initiative of Melba High School teacher Marie de Blasio. It was supported by Audsance (then known as the Australian Association for Dance Education) and by the city’s two dance companies, Canberra Dance Theatre and Human Veins Dance Theatre. What followed in 1985 was a slightly changed format. As a result of an Ausdance survey of Australian dance, and spurred on by having seen a youth dance festival in Perth, run by the West Australian Department of Education for regional schools, Julie Dyson and Hilary Trotter worked with the then president of Ausdance, Annette Douglas (also a dance teacher at Dickson College), to set up a non-competitive, student-led event that would focus on dance but embrace other art forms such as poetry, music and design. Teachers were offered mentoring and the event would be held in a professional venue with professional lighting and an experienced producer. Further changes were made in 1987 when a time limit was set for each work.

(left) Finale from Youth Dance Festival, 1986. Theme: Peace in what was the International Year of Peace; (right) Dancers from Canberra High School, Youth Dance Festival 1987. Theme: Discovery. Photographers not identified.

Since those early years the concept of a non-competitive, student-led arts/dance festival remains. The 2024 Youth Dance Festival takes place over three nights, 6-8 November, with each night having different schools performing. See this link for booking information and for a list of schools performing on specific nights.

To support the Youth Dance Festival so it might continue its work see this link to an Australian Cultural Fund project.

Michelle Potter, 22 October 2024
with thanks to Cathy Adamek, Emma Dykes and Julie Dyson for their input into this post.

Featured image: Scene from Debora di Centa’s opening work at the Youth Dance Festival 2021. Theme: Digital Dystopia Utopia. Photo: © Andrew Sikorski, Art Atelier Photography

Elemental. The Chaos Project 2024, QL2 Dance

My review of the latest Chaos Project from QL2 Dance was published online on 19 October by CBR CityNews. Read it at this link. Below is a slightly enlarged version of the review.

The Chaos Project from QL2 Dance has become an annual event on Canberra’s youth and community dance scene: an event that gives young, aspiring dancers an opportunity to experience dance in a theatrical environment and to celebrate dancing on stage with colleagues.

Elemental, the 2024 project, was, however, a little different from previous productions. It was the first Chaos Project directed by Alice Lee Holland, who just recently has taken over the reins of QL2 Dance from Ruth Osborne. Elemental consisted of five separate works. They explored the elements of fire, space, air, earth and water, with each created by a different choreographer, or choreographers in the case of the final work.

The standout work by far was Earth choreographed by Alice Lee Holland. Although, as is the case with all five sections, the cast (of ten dancers in the case of Earth) was acknowledged as contributing to the choreography, it was Holland’s compositional input that really made the work the standout. Her extensive and varied use of the performing space, and the way she used groupings of dancers and had them interact with each other, meant that the work was always interesting to watch. In addition, her clear and dedicated development of the choreography gave the dancers a strong structure in which to work. Every one of them used their emerging performance skills with admirable courage and power.

The other four works, Fire from Jahna Lugnan, Space from Max Burgess, Air from Jason Pearce, and Water from Lugnan, Burgess and Pearce working together, did not to my mind have the same choreographic strength. All seemed to focus on movement of the arms and hands to the detriment of use of the whole body, and in some cases groupings of dancers seemed somewhat muddled. This was especially noticeable in the final work, Water, which had the largest cast and seemed not to have a strongly focused structure (as a result of having three choreographers working together perhaps?).

Pearce’s Air was something of an exception given that his aim was to explore the role of air on the body and how that aspect of the element can be expressed as a cohesive whole. Arm movements thus, rightly, played a major role, as did the gathering of the dancers in a single group for much of the work. Costumes for Air were quite exceptional. All the performers wore white to reflect an Arctic landscape and, while the colour was unvaried, the actual designs were all different and quite beautiful to look at. Their strength and beauty was, however, best seen without the blue-ish lighting that occasionally flooded over them.

Dancers from QL2 in a moment from *Air*. Photo: Olivia Wikner, O&J Photography

Lighting for Elemental was designed by the individual choreographers. Costume coordination was by Natalie Wade, although it is not clear who actually designed the costumes.

The major difference from previous Chaos Projects was the ending. Gone was a fully choreographed finale as we have become used to seeing—one of Ruth Osborne’s signature additions over the years of her directorship. The production finished, as most dance performances do, with the cast simply taking a curtain call. But, being used to a choreographed finale, I guess a simple curtain call was more of a shock than anything.

It will be interesting to see how the Chaos Project develops in future years under the direction of Alice Lee Holland. Personally, I hope the future may bring stronger choreographic input across the entire production.

On a closing note, I loved the image on the back of the printed program, which I think was created by Millie Eaton. She is acknowledged in the program’s list of the ‘creative & production team’ as doing ‘Program illustrations’. She also appeared in Fire, the work for the youngest members (aged about 8) of Elemental. The image indicated a complete involvement in the production, which is a feature, or certainly the aim, of every Chaos Project.

Michelle Potter, 20 October 2024

Featured image: Dancers from QL2 in a moment from Earth. Photo: Olivia Wikner, O&J Photography

Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon. Queensland Ballet

4 October 2024. Playhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane

My review of the Queensland Ballet presentation of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon was published in Limelight on 6 October. Read the Limelight review at this link. Below is a slightly enlarged version of that review.

*************************************

Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon, from Belgian-Columbian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, was originally sought for Queensland Ballet by the company’s former artistic director, Li Cunxin. He began working to add it to the repertoire, he told me, some five or six years ago. It finally premiered in Brisbane as a joint production with Hong Kong Ballet and Atlanta Ballet.

As Queensland Ballet’s program notes tell us, Coco Chanel was a ‘creative, controversial and wildly ambitious’ woman. In addition to her initiatives with clothing design and the creation of a range of perfumes, she had a number of lovers and she interacted with many of the world’s best-known artists across theatrical genres, including many who worked with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. And her connection with the Nazi movement during World War II has been hotly debated. How then to create a ballet about her life, filled as it was with so many complex activities?

We first see Chanel (Neneka Yoshida) as a poverty-stricken nineteen-year-old seamstress working in a factory on clothes to be worn by the rich and famous. Already we have a view of the juxtaposition of poverty and wealth that characterised her early life. We also meet Shadow-Chanel (Kaho Kato), an encouraging figure, who is often quietly present onstage and who guides Chanel through her work and into the future.

From there we move on to a series of episodes reflecting aspects of Chanel’s life including her early work with her sister Julia (Alisa Pukkinen) as a singer and dancer in a Parisian bistro; and various aspects of her design career, including holiday activities in the French seaside resort of Deauville that inspired the addition to her designs of striped and other sailor-style items.

Neneka Yoshida as Coco Chanel enjoying activities at Deauville. Queensland Ballet, 2024. Photo: © David Kelly

Other episodes look at the demands she insisted upon from those who worked for her; her logo consisting of an entwined version of the letter C; her various lovers, including Arthur Edward ‘Boy’ Capel (Patricio Revé), who is killed in a car accident; the choice of Chanel No. 5 as her signature perfume; and her activities during the war years.

Neneka Yoshida as Coco Chanel grieving over the death of ‘Boy’ Capel. Queensland Ballet, 2024. Photo: © David Kelly

In the final episodes we see her work being rejected, but also the comeback that she eventually achieves.

Theatrically, Lopez Ochoa handles the episodic nature of the story with absolute skill. There is never any doubt about what is happening despite the shortness but complexity of each episode. Choreographically her use of the space of the stage is carefully considered as are the groupings she makes between dancers as the episodes unfold. I especially enjoyed the episode in which Chanel chooses her signature perfume from five possibilities. It was a smart presentation preceded by a beautifully choreographed group dance of flower people (scents of perfume).

But the Nazi episode was also a highlight with Chanel’s lover at the time, a Gestapo spy named Hans Günther von Dincklage, dramatically danced by Vito Bernasconi. Also of particular interest was the episode in which Chanel engaged with Igor Stravinsky (Joshua Ostermann). Stravinsky benefitted from Chanel’s philanthropic generosity in relationship to his score for the Ballets Russes production of The Rite of Spring but, in a moving moment in the episode, Stravinsky left the relationship in favour of his wife and family.

Neneka Yoshida as Coco Chanel and Joshua Ostermann as Igor Stravinsky. Queensland Ballet, 2024. Photo: © David Kelly

But every dancer rose to the occasion in every episode and performed with exceptional skill and commitment.

Set and costumes were created by Jérôme Kaplan and he pursued a minimalist approach, reflecting the unadorned nature of Chanel’s clothing designs. No frills, no fussy additions. An ongoing aspect of his design was the circular staircase that was moved on and off stage as the moment demanded and that looked back to a mirrored, circular staircase that was part the ground level of Chanel’s studio in Paris.

The circular staircase with Georgie Swan and Edison Manuel as the Chanel logo and Kaho Kato as Shadow-Chanel. Photo: © David Kelly

Jon Buswell’s atmospheric lighting added to the overall effect, and the new and often surprising score by Peter Salem was played by Camerata: Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra conducted by Nigel Gaynor.

When I received my ticket to Coco Chanel my heart sank. My seat was in the Gallery rather than the Stalls. I suspected that I’d never be able to see the production well enough to review it. But I couldn’t have asked for anything better. The seat in the Gallery gave me a perfect view of Lopez Ochoa’s choreographic vision, in particular the way in which she patterns bodies in the performing space, and the manner in which the show was brought together as a collaborative endeavour. Coco Chanel is an absolutely brilliant production made by a choreographer with an approach that is distinctively individualistic, and from which shines an understanding of, and belief in ballet as a medium to be pursued. It deserves to be seen across Australia.

Michelle Potter. 7 October 2024

Dance diary. September 2024

The Australian Ballet and Canberra

In September the Australian Ballet announced its 2025 season and, amazingly, the season includes a visit to Canberra. The company has largely avoided the national capital for years now with various reasons given, none of which ever mentions a major, contentious situation that developed relating to orchestral involvement. That aside, it is also amazing that the company is bringing to Canberra Johan Inger’s magnificent Carmen rather than an ‘old favourite’ like The Merry Widow. See this link for my review of Inger’s production of Carmen from the Australian Ballet’s 2024 Sydney season.

The Canberra Symphony Orchestra will accompany the performances, which pushes the contentious issue alluded to above into the background, thankfully. Here’s hoping we are back on track and that the national company will continue to include, frequently, the national capital in its annual seasons. See the company’s website for details of the complete 2025 season.

Akira Isogawa

It was a thrill to see designer Akira Isogawa collaborating again with Melanie Lane on Love Lock, Lane’s recent work for Sydney Dance Company. Isogawa’s previous collaborations with Lane have included Slow Haunt for West Australian Ballet in 2021, and MOUNTAIN, an independent work from 2023.

Isogawa has also worked often with Graeme Murphy, both for works Murphy made for Sydney Dance Company while that company’s artistic director, and for Murphy’s production of Romeo and Juliet for the Australian Ballet. Some of Isogawa’s distinctive and intricate costumes, including items for Romeo and Juliet, were seen close-up in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria back in 2013. See this link.

L’histoire de Manon. La Scala Ballet on film

22 September 2024. Palace Electric Cinema, Canberra

Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, which premiered in 1974, has never been my favourite ballet. It has always seemed to be too long and to have a surplus of main characters that have often been hard to distinguish from each other. But I nevertheless went to see the film called L’Histoire de Manon as danced by La Scala Ballet in Milan to music by Jules Massenet. I was intrigued initially by the title and when reading about the ballet before seeing the film I discovered the following on the MacMillan website.

When the Paris Opera Ballet took Manon into its repertoire in 1991, a legal wrangle resulted in MacMillan’s ballet being re-titled L’Histoire de Manon. The heir to Massenet’s estate had objected to possible confusion between the opera and the ballet. Henceforth, the ballet has been known in Europe (with the exception of the United Kingdom) as L’Histoire de Manon and in the rest of the world simply as Manon.

To put it mildly, the film shows the ballet as a tour de force, completely understandable in all its facets and danced with remarkable technique from every performer. Standouts were Nicoletta Manni as Manon and Reece Clarke as the young student, Des Grieux, who falls in love with Manon and follows her to Louisiana, to where, as one of several prostitutes, she has been deported. Technically their performance of MacMillan’s choreography, especially the several pas de deux for them, with their flowing lifts, turns, slides and all manner of movements, was just spectacular. And as for their acting, the relationship between them was clearly evident. The audience could not have asked for more.

The same might be said for Nicola del Freo as Lescaut, Manon’s brother, and Gabrielle Corrado as Monsieur G. M., with whom Lescaut interacts to develop the connection with this rich old man who showers Manon with expensive items of clothing and jewellery. They are seen in the image below.

Even the ending in the swamp in Louisiana was so beautifully performed that its length seemed not to matter any more.

I admired Nicholas Georgiadis’ sets and costumes, as I have previously when seeing them used by London’s Royal Ballet in their production of Manon. They set up so well the difference between the rich and the poor in the story. (Manon will feature in the Australian Ballet’s 2025 season, when it will be performed with sets and costumes by Peter Farmer.)

More than anything, when looking back at my reactions while watching this film, I am very surprised by my emotional involvement in the production. I felt totally involved! It doesn’t happen all that often.

I have seen the La Scala company twice before, once in Brisbane in 2018 when they performed the Nureyev production of Don Quixote and once in Milan in 2019 when I saw their rendition of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works. On both those occasions I was blown away by the performances and after Don Quixote wrote ‘This was a spectacularly good production from an outstanding company of artists.’ The film L’histoire de Manon simply confirmed my opinion that this company is just amazing.

Michelle Potter, 24 September 2024

Featured image: Nicoletta Manni as Manon

The photos used in this post come from publicity material for the film.

Twofold. Sydney Dance Company

Below is an enlarged version of my review of Twofold published online by Canberra’s CityNews on 19 September 2024. The CityNews review is at this link.

18 September 2024. Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney

Sydney Dance Company’s Twofold began by giving the audience a second look at Rafael Bonachela’s work, Impermanence. Bonachela, artistic director of Sydney Dance Company for more than 15 years, created this work, in conjunction with American composer Bryce Dessner, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was first seen onstage in 2021 when I masked up and braved the situation and went to see it. My review of that occasion is at this link.

Then followed the thrill of a brand-new work, Love Lock, from Melanie Lane who works across the world as an independent choreographer. Love Lock is Lane’s second major work for Sydney Dance Company, following on from the much-admired WOOF, which premiered in its mainstage iteration in 2019. See this link for my review of that work.

Lane spent her early life in Canberra and received her dance training at the National Capital Ballet School under the direction of Janet Karin. She has maintained her Canberra connections and has worked closely in recent years with QL2 Dance, Canberra’s youth dance organisation, and has also created works in Canberra in a number of independent situations.

The titles of the two works in Twofold, Impermanence and Love Lock, both raise interesting questions in the mind of those watching, but neither really explains unquestionably the nature of the works as we see them. But then it has always been Bonachela’s belief that it is the members of the audience, not the choreographer, who decide on the meaning of any dance work.

Impermanence was extremely engaging and was performed to Dessner’s score played live onstage by the Australian String Quartet. Its choreography showed Bonachela at his most intense and relentless giving rise to the dancers being able to display their outstanding ability to bend and twist the body into remarkable positions while maintaining a lyricism and a strong connection with others onstage. They worked with each other in duets, trios, quartets and often as a whole group in unison. But I was surprised by the number of times five dancers formed a group, which made me think back to Bonachela’s Cinco, a work that referred to the five decades of dance from Sydney Dance Company.

The work was lit by Damien Cooper and often the dancers and musicians were shadowy. At other times they were dark figures in brighter surroundings. Always the lighting influenced how we perceived the dancing, which came to an end with a striking solo danced to a song from singer and songwriter Anohni.

Scene from *Impermanence*. Sydney Dance Company, 2021. Photo: © Pedro Greig

As for Love Lock, given Lane’s Canberra connections it was more than tempting to think back to the strange role love locks have had in Canberra. In 2015 a growing collection of love locks, that is padlocks that represent everlasting love that are sometimes attached to a bridge before having their keys thrown into the water never to be retrieved, were forcibly removed by the National Capital Authority from the bridge leading to Queen Elizabeth II Island on which is housed Canberra’s carillon.

But Love Lock was a reflection on folk or community dancing, which Lane said she sees as celebrating what it means ‘to connect with each other through our bodies and essentially what it means to be human.’ In the early moments of the work the choreography was characterised by lines of dancers, dressed in shiny black, largely unadorned outfits, filling the performance space and working in a somewhat geometric fashion. Slowly, however, this structured format gave way to movement that was more eccentric, thus losing to a certain extent its folkloric appearance. As the work progressed dancers began appearing in remarkable and individualistic costumes from designer Akira Isogawa. The costumes were of various colours, often made with softly draped material, and often quite sharply and unexpectedly protruding beyond the line of the body.

Sydney Dance Company in a moment from *Love Lock*, 2024. Photo: © Pedro Greig

Love Lock was also lit by Damien Cooper and was performed to a driving score commissioned from [Chris] Clark. The movement continued to appear intense and individualistic with changing physical connections between dancers until the closing moments when a calm descended over the group.

Love Lock is a work for this century. It is brash at times but always demanding of our thoughts about humanity and how connections may change over time. A triumph for its choreographer and her collaborators.

Michelle Potter, 20 September 2024

Featured image: (l-r) Dean Elliott, Emily Seymour, Sophie Jones and Mia Thompson in Melanie Lane’s Love Lock. Sydney Dance Company, 2024. Photo: © Pedro Greig