Dance in Canberra in the twelve months from October 2024 and September 2025 was recognised with three awards by the Canberra Critics’ Circle. Awardees were Alison Plevey and Sara Black, Ausdance ACT, and Akira Byrne from QL2 Dance. The following citations give details:
For the exceptional production of a solo dance work, Essor (translation: Thank You) in response to photographic material by renowned photographer Tracey Moffatt on display at the National Portrait Gallery; and for their mentorship of dancer Yolanda Lowatta. ALISON PLEVEY and SARA BLACK
For providing young dancers with a professionally curated and technically sophisticated platform for dance and choreography as it celebrated its 40th Anniversary of the Youth Dance Festival at Canberra Theatre in November 2024 with the theme, What Do You Dream? AUSDANCE ACT
The graphic designed by Natsuko Yonezawa for the 2024 Youth Dance Festival
********************************
For her powerful solo ‘A Destination Should Not Be Expected’ created and performed as part of the QL2 Dance Emerging Choreographers Program, inspired by her own battle with chronic pain and endometriosis. AKIRA BYRNE
30 October 2025. St. James Theatre, Wellington with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra reviewed by Jennifer Shennan
Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Artistic Director, Ty King-Wall, has created a new production of The Nutcracker, a fun-filled frolicking entertainment set among images of New Zealand landscape, flora and fauna, childhood summer holidays in the bach, games on the beach, with sweets and treats for a major sugar rush and lashings of nostalgia.
The choreography is more than that though, and stitches in themes and sequences from the traditional story and productions as it traces the family context for the coming of age of Clara, the young girl growing to sense and glimpse the adult world. There are poignant undertones as the present is braided with an older family member’s memory of the past, the younger one’s glimpse of the future, and parents’ moment of danger when a child goes missing.
A key figure is Aunt Drosselmeyer, a famous dancer who returns from abroad with mysterious powers plus gifts for the family, including a Nutcracker doll for Clara, and a snow globe for brother Fritz. She also brings a film projector to show the children a cameo of a Commedia dell’Arte performance, which opens a door away from the everyday and into the faraway, wherever a child’s imagination will take us. The power and colour of Tchaikovsky’s large scale orchestral score, conducted by the invincible Hamish McKeich, feeds these forces and fills the theatre with atmosphere.
Inventive design by Tracy Grant-Lord and POW studios begins with the overture—a front curtain of a 1950s postcard (you possibly still have one in the attic?) a painting of native flowers and trees—kōwhai, mānuka, pōhutukawa, rātā, harakeke, tī and ponga. But wait, that kōwhai blossom moves in the gentlest of breezes, and then a mānuka flower shimmers. Now from behind a bush, a creature, part honey-bee part buzzy-bee, emerges in search of nectar. Better keep an eye on that as later in the ballet it will become a ski-plane to transport you to a mountainous kingdom of snow in our very own Southern Alps. It’s an inspired visual effect to show the country’s landscape from the plane’s windows as we travel.
There are numerous other design transformations—small tree grows into a giant forest, complete with red-eyed predators, possums, stoats and weasels to be exterminated. Smart soldiers from the Nutcracker army need additional help from Clara as she fires a weapon that exterminates the biggest bully Mouse King (I’d have called him a Rat as he falls into the foundations of the ballroom he was planning to build).
A ruru sounds a convincing call of warning, and gives me the shivers.
There are a number of standout performances on opening night, though it’s noteworthy that several alternative soloist casts are billed for the extended Wellington season and following national tour—testament to the company’s strengths. Caterina Estevez-Collins plays a charming and sensitive Clara. Laurynas Vejalis as the Nutcracker-turned-Prince dances with remarkable virtuosic technique but is able to overlay that with a lyricism that rides the music with meaning. Mayu Tanigaito as the Sugar Plum Fairy makes a most welcome return to the stage, and the pas de deux she and Vejalis dance is of rich quality and harmony, an act of love, and the highpoint of the evening.
Character roles include Kirby Selchow as Aunt Drosselmeyer, carrying that with great style. Shaun James Kelly as a drunken kereru makes an amusing mess of trying to fly. Kihiro Kusukami as the powerful Storm Master dances up an impressive wind in the Land of Snow.
I have recently read The Dreaming Land—a memoir by Martin Edmond of his childhood in Ohakune in the 1950s. He writes of ‘the existence of a world of Maoridom about which most Pakeha knew nothing … there was simply no awareness among the people I knew that we lived cheek by jowl with a strong, coherent and richly complex culture. It is a lack I profoundly regret.’ This new choreography poignantly encompasses that notion by including the small but noteworthy role of Koro, the Maori grandfather of Clara, with Moana Nepia and Taiaroa Royal alternating in the part. Koro gifts a blanket to his granddaughter, and comforts her when she needs that. He dances for a fleeting moment with the memory of his late wife, a kind of ghost of Christmases past.
There is much energy in the band of children, and the ensembles of snowflakes, flowers and somewhat over-dressed confectionery, to make this a production that will draw enthusiastic crowds as it tours the country. Haere rā to them all.
Liz Lea has just announced news of an upcoming production, Diamond, on which she is currently working. Diamond is the next in a trilogy of works she is developing and follows on from the first work in that trilogy—RED. RED was an exceptional production first seen in 2018 (read the review at this link). After its Australian presentation, it toured in various countries for five years.
Diamond will premiere on 6 August 2026 at the Q Theatre in Queanbeyan as part of ‘Q The Locals’, an initiative with a focus on local productions. There are still nine or so months to go but worth the wait I’m sure.
Larry Ruffell (1941-2025)
Very belatedly I discovered that dancer, writer and arts administrator, Larry Ruffell, had died early in 2025. The news was relayed to me by a colleague who unexpectedly came into contact with Larry’s wife, Priscilla, at a show they were both attending in Canberra. New Zealand born, Larry had a career as a dancer in the United Kingdom before moving to Australia where he pursued a career as a writer and arts administrator. He had a noteworthy career in Canberra and wrote and reviewed extensively for The Canberra Times back in the days, several years ago now, when that newspaper included material about dance and most other arts activities. Larry also had a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Australian National University with majors in philosophy and psychology.
My connections with Larry include publishing an article he wrote for Brolga, the now defunct journal I founded in 1994 and edited until 2006. It appeared in Brolga 17, December 2002, and was titled ‘Perceiving dance: bowing to the ineffable’. The article examined the impact of differing perceptions relating to music and to dance. He was also administrator of the Canberra Opera Society (also now defunct) when I choreographed sections of that society’s production of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice in 1977.
A brief biography, dating back around two decades from the website of Ausdance National, is at this link. A longer article, an obituary, was published in New Zealand by The Post and can be read at this link. The New Zealand obituary contains some photos of Larry, including one referencing the days of his British dance career. It is noteworthy too that in the obituary he is referred to as Laurie Ruffell. He was never called Laurie in Australia, although that name seems to be common elsewhere.
Ausdance ACT’s Youth Dance Festival 2025
Promotional image for Life on Mars, Ausdance ACT Youth Dance Festival, 2025
Unforrunately I missed (again) the Youth Dance Festival this year, a program called Life on Mars, although I continue to admire the process that lies behind the Fesitval. As Ausdance ACT notes: ‘The Youth Dance Festival creative process involves professional dance mentors visiting participating schools to provide support and guidance to students in the development of their own work.’ The range of schools involved from across the region is remarkable. Next year I hope I will manage to attend.
Press for October 2025
– ‘Batchelor focuses on the legacy of lost dancer.’ Review of Resonance. James Batchelor+Collaborators. CBR City News, 11 October 2025. Online at this link.
– ‘Celebrating Dalman’s decades of dance creation.’ Review of ECDysis. Mirramu Dance Company and guests from Taiwan. CBR City News, 26 October 2025. Online at this link.
It is interesting to watch QL2 Dance as it evolves under a new director. Productions take place in different spaces now. There seem, too, to be fewer dancers than previously, although I could be imagining that. Costumes seem to be more complex and differ more from work to work, although there is less visual background design. But the structure of the Chaos Projects, a long-standing aspect of annual programming by Ql2 Dance, has remained pretty much the same with several short works by professional choreographers making up an hour-long program. The situation is moving along.
For Chaos 2025 the focus was on what to me is a concept, or at least a word (set of words), that is not all that well known—‘main character energy’. The artistic director’s editorial message (yes, there was a printed program) tells us that ‘main character energy’ is a phrase that emerged in 2020 from social media trends (which is probably why it isn’t well known to me!). It means ‘dramatic self-confidence, obtrusive self-importance.’ Mmm … I know one young dancer who was not impressed with using ‘main character energy’ as a topic and decided not to continue with performing in this year’s project.
The evening opened with a march across the stage area by the younger dancers. They were full of energy and that energy continued as the opening work unfolded.
The opening and closing scenes, and one other section called Like Water, were choreographed by the director. Other sections were choreographed by Ruby Ballantyne, Jack Ziesing and Olivia Wikner. The full program consisted of seven separate sections.
The standout section for me was Jack Ziesing’s Goblin Market made for the older students. It set out to show the darkness that might be part of the personality of a human being. But what I especially admired was Ziesing’s choreographic approach. He knew how to establish a choreographic order that made the most of the available space. That allowed the emerging young artists to work within their capabilities, but with an exceptional understanding of the structure that he was aiming to set up. The dancers looked quite professional and I suspect that Ziesing had also been firm with his coaching of the dancers as well as structuring Goblin Market so well. The work was a pleasure to watch and appreciate
QL2 dancers in Jack Ziesing’s Goblin Market. The Chaos Project, QL2 Dance, 2025. Photographer not identified.
While it is always good to see the annual Chaos Project, especially watching young people in a dance environment, I am hoping that future projects will focus on topics that do not rely on audiences (and perhaps some of the dancers) being social media addicts. Dance is more than that.
Michelle Potter, 28 October 2025
Featured image: Cover for Main Character Energy program. QL2 Dance Chaos Project, 2025.
My review of ECDysis was published online by Canberra CityNews on 26 October 2025. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the CityNews post.Here is a link to the CityNews review.
***********************************
25 October 2025. Courtyard Studio. Canberra Theatre Centre
ECDysis celebrates Elizabeth Cameron Dalman’s decades of dance creation and performance. Dalman founded Adelaide-based Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) 60 years ago. She directed the company for 10 years before moving elsewhere. She is now based at Weereewa (Lake George) near Bungendore in New South Wales, where she established Mirramu Creative Arts Centre and Mirramu Dance Company (MDC).
The works on the ECDysis program were performed by members of Dalman’s current company along with colleagues from Taiwan. The program was diverse and comprised not only choreographed works but also film clips from across Dalman’s career including some recent discussion of her current interests. There were also words of introduction and explanation spoken before each dance work, given sometimes by Dalman herself, sometimes by Vivienne Rogis currently assistant director of MDC. Especially interesting was one section in which Dalman discussed her connections with Taiwan, whose dance culture has become an intrinsic part of her career.
The dance aspect of the program began with Welcome Dance, created in 2025 by Dalman. It was relatively simple choreographically but was a charming introduction to what followed and quite moving given that, despite having been dancing for decades, Dalman has lost little of her stage presence.
The first half of the program focused on early works made for ADT in the 1960s and 1970s. Especially engrossing were excerpts from This Train, created in 1965 and danced to songs by Peter, Paul and Mary. It demonstrated the basic elements of Dalman’s choreography, which have stayed with her but which she has developed over the years: beautifully shaped and placed arms, movement that is carried through the whole body, and the exceptional projection of an emotional response to movement. The dancer that stood out for me in demonstrating those elements was Miranda Wheen, although everyone involved in This Train gave a moving demonstration of Dalman’s early approach.
After interval the program focused largely on the years Dalman has spent at Weereewa, and the development of her connections with Taiwanese dancers. This second section included not only works created by Dalman but also some by her colleagues including Vivienne Rogis, Miranda Wheen and Peng Hsiao-yin (Grace).
A standout item on the second half was Broken Umbrella from a longer work, Tango Lament, and was made in 2008 by Miranda Wheen. Danced in large part by Wheen with what was indeed a very broken umbrella, it was created in response to the closure of a university dance program. Wheen’s choreography had moments of fast-paced movement juxtaposed with slower sections and her dancing was technically outstanding and conveyed an engrossing involvement with the topic.
In addition, the second half contained some exceptional visual elements in the 2005 work ‘Mountain Skirts’ from Bride in the Desert choreographed and performed by Wheen, Rogis and Amanda Tutalo. The costumes (designer not given) lent themselves to visions of billowing cloth.
Throughout the program it was particularly interesting to see some of the aspects of life and culture that have inspired Dalman’s work. Homage to Botticelli from 1969 was inspired by a visit to Florence and Dalman made a surprising link between the Renaissance era of Botticelli and aspects of life in the 1960s.
Silk from 2002, danced to music by Andreas Dalman, was inspired by the creation of silken fabric from its beginnings to its use as a fashion item. It had an outstanding performance from Christopher Chu (as a silkworm?). Refugee (Flight for Life—Destroyed) from 2018 was commissioned by the Taiwanese Youth Foundation and was performed by Amanda Tutalo and Fu-rong Chen. It examined difficulties, including death, faced by those fleeing certain cultures.
ECDysis closed with a new work, Family Tree, newly choreographed by the members of the ECDysis creative team to music by Sigur Ros. The evening, danced against a simple drop cloth lit in different colours for each work, was an exceptional example of creativity and cross-cultural connections.
