Talking to Kirby Selchow

A conversation between Kirby Selchow and Jennifer Shennan on the International Draft Works program held in April 2026, Linbury Theatre, London

The Royal New Zealand Ballet was one of the nine companies invited to take part in the Royal Ballet UK’s International Draft Works in an April 2026 season at Linbury Theatre, London. The initiative for this project—to assemble draft or new works from emerging choreographers within select companies, for shared performances and following workshops—was first proposed back in 2020 when Amanda Skoog was on the staff at Royal Ballet UK. The project back then had to be cancelled at the very last minute due to Covid lockdowns. Now these six years later, it has been revived by the Royal Ballet and is back on track. Dancers are nothing if not resilient.

The participating companies were Northern Ballet, Ballet d’Jérri (from Jersey Island), Royal Danish Ballet, the National Ballet of Japan, Paris Opera Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, the Royal Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, and Royal New Zealand Ballet. That’s quite a line-up, bringing together citizens of what I like to think of as the country called Ballet. It may not be geographically defined by national boundaries, but nonetheless shares so many connections between key players, teachers, choreographers, as to earn them passports to an international community. The world could do with more of those.

I spoke with Kirby Selchow, one of the four RNZB dancers involved (the others were Ana Gallardo Lobaina, Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson and Kihiro Kusukami).They performed Ultra Folly, choreographed by Sarah Foster-Sproull, to the music of La Folia, recorded by Jordi Savall with Hesperion XXI. (The same work will also form part of the triple bill to be performed mid-year in a New Zealand national tour).

Kirby was intrigued when I showed her the baroque dance notation of Folies d’Espagne, choreographed in 1704 by Louis Pécour, to music by Jean-Baptise Lully—which in turn had inspired the choreography of Ultra Folly. Kirby hopes some day to learn that original dance, and is game to take on playing the castanets that will also entail. Another item that caught her eye as we were sitting in the dance library at The Long Hall was the seminar booklet given to me by Charles Mudry, formerly guest ballet-master at RNZB back in Matz Skoog’s era. The impeccably prepared notes of his gradated series of classes from first to fifth year of ballet training was an eye-opener to Kirby as she began to devour it. ‘Of course you can borrow the book Kirby—that’s why Charles bothered to write it down in the first place’).

RNZB had performed at the Linbury Theatre back in 2015 when on tour with Francesco Ventriglia as director, with A Midsummer Night’s Dream as well as a triple bill, on a tour to Italy, and UK including Scotland… so it was something of déjà vu for Kirby to be performing there again. She was thrilled to be involved and enjoyed stimulating interactions with the dancers of other companies. On a tour of Royal Ballet studios she by happy chance sighted her close colleague New Zealander Loughlan Prior, formerly with RNZB, choreographing on fellow-Australian dancer Steven McRae (see A Resilient Man—a documentary worth watching).

Participating dancers in International Draft Works were also invited to watch Alchemies, a triple bill of works by Wayne McGregor—further resonance there, since Kirby had been cast in a leading role in McGregor’s Infra, which RNZB performed here in 2024. (I had reviewed that program for Dance Europe, so it proved another bonus that the Opera House bookshop had the current issue of Dance Europe on display, this one with my review of RNZB in Alice Topp’s Macbeth from earlier this year. Big world, small world, in that country called Ballet.

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Kirby was born in Perth in 1992. Ballet, jazz and tap classes in young childhood was followed by vocational training in a secondary school of the performing arts, then five years at Australian Ballet School in Melbourne. Upon graduation, Ethan Stiefel offered her a contract with RNZB which she joined in 2014. She has been here ever since and is now a leading soloist in the Company.

Kirby Selchow as Banquo in Alice Topp’s *Macbeth*. Royal New Zealand Ballet, 2026. Photo: © Stephen A’Court.

Kirby’s latest challenge was to be cast as Banquo in Alice Topp’s Macbeth. A female Banquo? Well, why not. Are there not some females in high places in politics, who have the ear if not the trust of the King, at least until things start to go horribly wrong? I did not see her perform in that role but Ian Lochhead of Christchurch was most impressed by her interpretation, saying he was convinced by a female Banquo from her first appearance, as though Shakespeare had written it so.

Kirby has long been a stand-out member of RNZB, and she remains one to watch for her technical strengths and dramatic mastery of character. The role of her dreams would be Manon, and you can believe that.

Jennifer Shennan, 16 June 2026

Featured image: Kirby Selchow and Luke Cooper. Promotional image for Royal New Zealand Ballet, 2025. Photo: © Ross Brown

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Kontakthof—Echoes of ’78.

7-11 April 2026. Sadler’s Wells Theatre London
reviewed by Sonia York-Pryce

Meryl Tankard—dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and former dancer with Tanztheater Wuppertal—has recently offered her version of Pina Bausch’s Kontakthof, originally performed in 1978, giving it another unexpected life. Conceived and directed by Tankard, this production is accompanied by the archival film footage, set design and costumes of Bausch’s collaborator Rolf Borzik (1944–1980). Tankard’s restaging follows on from previous successful iterations, but this unique production brings together nine of the 20 original 1978 cast members.

This version, titled Kontakthof – Images of ’78, includes Australians Josephine Ann Endicott and Tankard with fellow cast members Elisabeth Clarke, Lutz Förster, John Giffin, Ed Kortlandt, Beatrice Libonati, Anne Martin, Arthur Rosenfeld, all aged between 70 and 80 years of age, and reprising their roles 45 years later. We are indeed seeing ‘age on stage’—living archives with intimate embodied knowledge of Bausch’s Kontakthof and her unique movement language and theatricality. This remarkable happening was not lost on the audiences. Over four nights at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, the performances were the hottest ticket in town, with many disappointed that seats were sold out. During the run, it was poignant to have Pina’s son Salomon Bausch in attendance at Sadler’s Wells.

My full review is below..

Sonia York-Pryce, 15 June 2026

Featured image: A moment from Kantakthof—’Echoes of ’78. Photo: © Ursula Kaufmann

Kontakthof—Echoes of ’78

In dance academia, Bausch’s Kontakthof is a signature work portraying desire and loneliness as it has lived many iterations. Among them were amateur seniors aged over 65 from Wuppertal, who delivered their own distinctive and highly successful interpretation in 2000; school students from Wuppertal aged over 14 in 2008; young dance students from Tanztheater in 2021; ballet dancers of the Paris Opéra in 2022; and now the re-staging with the original cast of the 1978 production. The fact that Kontakthof “continues to move people decades later is proof of its timeless aesthetic”, states Bausch’s biographer Marion Meyer. Endicott has been principal repetiteur of Kontakthof and other Bausch works, but had never imagined she would be reprising her varied roles in this seminal work as a 75-year-old dancer. In an interview at Sadler’s Wells between performances, Endicott told me:

It is magical. It is a kind of transformation that when you go on stage, I am dropping hopefully about 30 years of ageing just from the moment I open the curtain, and I can do that dance.

The brilliance of Tankard to incorporate Rolf Borzik’s archive film documentation cannot be overstated. It accomplishes a perfect juxtaposition of ‘youth versus ageing’, plus the merging of the present-day with the bygone. Tankard’s documentary film experience compounded with the vast Borzik Kontakthof film archive meant that edited footage could be used to mirror and illuminate the youthful 1978 cast, while giving precedence to those cast members no longer present. Tankard’s Kontakthof–Echoes of ’78 opens with the nine remaining performers reprising their roles, accompanied by Borzik’s archival black-and-white film projections of the cast from 1978. The projections are screened onto a vast gauze curtain by the proscenium, which acts like a palimpsest, intersecting the past with the present. The missing monochrome dancers—Arnaldo Alvarez, Fernando Cortizo, Gary Austin Crocker, Mari Di Lena, Silvia Kesselheim, Luis P Layag, Jan Minarík, Vivienne Newport, Monika Sagon, Heinz Samm and Christian Trouillas—loom like mythical giants, the antithesis of the seemingly minute but lifesized older dancers of today. The setting is haunting, with the passage of time illuminated. The scene is set with the nine performers seated on some of the numerous chairs skirting the sides of the dance hall, ready as a refuge for the weary, uninterested or the missing, and a piano. One by one, the dancers walk downstage and go through a series of movements, gestures, baring their teeth, adjusting their bodies, each performer making the motifs more bizarre. This is mirrored by the projections. We feel the presence and acknowledge the absence of the performers who are no longer alive or able to reinterpret their roles. Strangely, these vanished dancers make for greater poignancy to the original work, as there is an extreme sense of melancholy and loss as we watch the nine remaining perform alongside their monochrome youthful selves. The imagery is beautiful, emotive, and at times amusing. Could this production be considered a memento mori for Bausch, Borzik and the absent dancers? There were moments where I found myself close to tears and I noted that the production had a profound effect on others in the audience too.

These nine remaining performers are the last bodies of knowledge to breathe and regenerate life into Bausch’s Kontakthof, as they have lived and embodied the life experience of the roles. The evocative German songs of the 1920s/30s that accompanied by the performers swathed in elegant silk dresses and sharp suits give us an insight into a dance hall of the period, a place to make contacts, for couples to confront, and others to reach out.

Through the dancers in the ‘contact hall’, we experience the human condition, relationships that exhibit frustration, love, hate, sadness, loneliness, coyness, irritation, humour, despair, disruptions and curiosities that Bausch observed in her works. It’s a gathering for couples in a community space to dance, talk, observe, or fight. We view strained relationships, emotional expectations, and awkward situations. All reactions are present. The audience is placed as the voyeur, experiences that some can identify with, yet cannot look away. Bausch continues to confront us in death. The mere stamina of the cast is incredible and appears at odds with their current ages. Before the interval, the performers assemble centre stage, sit on chairs and introduce themselves one by one to the audience. It is an endearing and intimate moment, where the audience is invited to learn something about these wonderful performers.

The second half takes on more emotional tangents. Borzik’s archival footage is now projected more boldly onto the syce behind the performers; the imagery appears more prominent, almost like a portal into the past. Endicott embodies many roles, one that requires literal crying for about five minutes, then groaning ‘Aua’ into a microphone, comical but unsettling as it seems endless. Why? No one knows. Then Tankard and Endicott reappear as beguiling little girls—‘all frills and bows’—moving totally in synch with each other, mirrored against the archival footage of themselves behind them. They are intriguing to watch as both their youthful and mature bodies merge with hardly a hairs whisper in either duplication of movements. How is this possible? There is a section where the archival footage displays members of the original cast as slow dancing couples enveloped in tight embraces. We see one couple and Endicott alone holding an invisible/absent partner; it is a tender tragic moment and reminds us that we are all mere mortals. Ironically for those absent, the footage gives them an immortality, never to grow old. And so it goes on, more tragi-comic moments interspersed with men poking, groping and aggravating an expressionless Tankard. It is hard to watch. At times, the cast intersperse with wry knowing smiles, a juxtaposition to the emotional detritus scattered about the stage and screen.

These performers bring a whole new precedence and meaning to Kontakthof. To return to such an iconic work as older dancers enhanced with wisdom and longevity brings to reality a concept Bausch had once expressed to Tankard decades ago.

Sadly, Kontakthof – Echoes of ’78 will not be touring Australia.

Dancing through Time: Returning to Pina Bausch’s Kontakthof https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtFEAAIydWM

World Premiere
26.11.2024 Opernhaus Wuppertal Kontakthof Echoes of ‘78 is co-produced with Amare (The Hague), LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, Festspielhaus St. Pölten, and China Shanghai International Arts Festival and supported as a contribution to the preparation of the Pina Bausch Centre with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the City of Wuppertal.

Voyages. Royal New Zealand Ballet

29 May 2026. Hannah Playhouse, Wellington
reviewed by Jennifer Shennan

Voyages was a stimulating new venture by RNZB—a program of seven short works, five of which were choreographed by Company dancers. In recent years these have been studio showings of similar programs of new or draft works, but here the chance to dance on a stage, albeit an intimate size in the Hannah Playhouse, with the added benefit of lighting, provided another welcome sign that the Company with every season is returning to its former strength and confident identity under the artistic directorship of Ty King-Wall. The happiness that engenders on both sides of the footlights is palpable. The return to a modest printed program including a cast list is more welcome to a reviewer than mere thanks can convey, and also honours those who make and deliver the dance. The record will thus stay in the archive forever, whereas digital files are not nearly so easily accessed after curtain down, let alone in years to come.

Each of the seven dance-makers offered fresh ideas and styles, and we can look forward to seeing more from each of them. Katherine Minor’s Marga’s Dance had a delightfully fresh quality as two couples ‘stopped their work, meeting a dance to fill the air’ … youthful friendship, in a fine choice to open the program.

Soloist Dane Head and Scholar Charlotte Willis In a moment from Katherine Minor’s *Marga’s Dance* from *Voyages*. Royal New Zealand Ballet, 2026. Photo: © Stagebox Photography

Somewhere, by Branden Reiners, a duo of two men—’a memory of brotherhood and love’ was a charged yearning for intimacy impressively performed by Timothy Ching and Jake Gisby.

Who Came to Be, by Gretchen Steimle, had a large cast of ten dancers whose many entrances and exits, solos, duos and groups, very effectively served her theme—’Some of us grow into the spaces others leave behind’.

A scene from Gretchen Steimle’s *Who came to be* from *Voyages*. Royal New Zealand Ballet, 2026. Photo: © Stagebox Photography

Phase II, by Breyah Takitimu, had another large cast of eight dancers who ‘explore the tension between the desire for control and the inevitability of change’, another very well-shaped work which included jokes about ballet technique given a sassy twist.

Weathered, by Joshua Douglas had six female dancers dressed in airy and soft grey, supporting his theme of emotional endurance ‘finding strength not through resistance but through continuation’. This was a thoughtfully shaped work.

Jeremy Beck as guest choreographer provided welcome humour in Soft Reset, a clever satire that showed the dancers might take their work but not necessarily themselves seriously. Comedy is harder to play than tragedy and this proved a hoot of a closing piece to a gem of a program.

The dancers all delivered impeccable performances, the more impressive as the audience were at very close range and any slip would have been apparent. There were no slips.

Mayu Tanigaito and Laurynas Véjalis in two moments from Shaun James Kelly’s *Swan Song*. Royal New Zealand Ballet, 2026. Photo: © Stagebox Photography

A duet, Swan Song by Shaun James Kelly, inspired by Swan Lake, used Tchaikovsky’s music to explore the personal emotion within the roles. It was exquisitely danced by Mayu Tanigaito and Laurynas Véjalis and you could have heard a feather drop. This was all the more poignant as it marked Shaun’s retirement from performing after twelve years with the Company, though it’s not entirely farewell and thank you as he will continue as resident choreographer with the Company. Lucky us.

Jennifer Shennan, 5 June 2026

Featured image: Timothy Ching and Jake Gisby in Branden Reiner’s Somewhere from Voyages. Royal New Zealand Ballet, 2026. Photo: © Stagebox Photography

Opera Gala. Snow Concert Hall

My review of Opera Gala was published online by Limelight Magazine on 1 June 2026, following its opening performance in Canberra on 29 May. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the Limelight post. Follow this link to the Limelight review.

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For many, a gala is a large-scale event. Opera Gala, however, was a performance by just three artists, soprano Cathy-Di Zhang, mezzo-soprano Helen Sherman, and pianist Thomas Victor Johnson. It was curated and presented by Ana de la Vega, artistic director of Canberra’s relatively new, exceptionally designed Snow Concert Hall.

The program consisted of arias and duets from a range of operas including Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville, Rossini), Cosi fan tutte (Women are like that, Mozart), Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly, Puccini), Carmen (Bizet), Rusalka (Dvorak), and La clemenza di Tito (The clemency of Titus, Mozart). In addition, the aria fromMadama Butterfly was preceded by a short solo from the pianist. He played the Prelude to Act III of Madama Butterfly.

While Sherman and Zhang both sang beautifully throughout the evening, two items stood out for me. Zhang gave a moving rendition of ‘One Fine Day’ from Madame Butterfly. There was no extravagant acting as she sang, just a feeling of hope for the return of the man she loved, US Naval Officer Lieutenant Pinkerton, which we in the audience knew would not happen. It was an extremely poignant performance.

Secondly, I enjoyed the duet from Norma in which two female characters, Norma and Adalgisa, interact with each other when Norma learns she has been betrayed by her lover. But Norma and Adalgisa pledge solidarity with each other and there was strong interaction between the two women, which drew me into the story very easily.

I was also especially impressed with the work of pianist Thomas Victor Johnson. From his approach to the music of the first aria, Una voce poco fa from The Barber of Seville, to the final moments of the gala, an encore, his expressive playing filled the auditorium and added beautifully to the unfolding of the singing. He wasn’t simply an accompanist but a thrilling part of every aria and duet.

For those who were not familiar with the specific narratives that surrounded the arias and duets, Zhang and Sherman took turns in outlining the role played in each opera before performing each musical number. There was also a lovely moment following one of the arias from Cosi fan tutte when Zhang mentioned the reason why Mozart had given the aria such a wide pitch range. It had to do with Mozart’s interest in the way the singer, for whom the aria was originally created, moved her head in relation to varying sound. The audience loved the story! It was also interesting to see a different side of the singers as they explained what each song was about.

Over the four or so years of its existence the Snow Concert Hall, with its excellent acoustic properties, has become an exceptional Canberra performing venue. I can only say congratulations to Ana de la Vega for her magnificent ongoing curatorship, for which Opera Gala was a more than worthy item.

Michelle Potter, 1 June 2026

Featured image: Helen Sherman (left) and Cathy-Di Zhang with Thomas Johnson at the piano. Opera Gala, Snow Concert Hall, 2026. Photo: © Dalice Trost

Dance diary. May 2026

Alice Topp goes to Houston

In January 2026 Alice Topp lost pretty much everything in a devastating bushfire in Harcourt, the small town in regional Victoria where she lived. The rebirth of the town led to her latest work, Sisu, a Finnish word meaning, as Topp explained in an article in Houston Chronicle, ‘finding hope when you can’t see the light’. Sisu was premiered by Houston Ballet on 28 May 2026 and a reviewer for Houston Chronicle, Adam Castaneda, wrote:

Houston Ballet’s triple bill An Evening with the Stars opened Thursday night [28 May 2026] with a powerful and introspective world premiere of Australian choreographer Alice Topp. Sisu proved to be an evocative exploration of human responses to adversity, and how people survive through community, connection, and confluence.

In the circumstances that led to the development of Sisu, I am simply staggered that, in just under two months after the fire, Topp managed to produce her amazing production of Macbeth for Royal New Zealand Ballet. And now Sisu!

Beau Dean Riley Smith: a fellowship

Recently announced was the establishment of the Shaun Parker & Company Choreographic Fellowship funded by the New York-based Denise and Michael Kellen Foundation. The fellowship, which grew out of the development of a relationship with the Foundation by Shaun Parker, offers the astonishing amount of $100,000 per year to support the development of significant dance works by leading choreographic artists.

It is an absolute delight to hear that the inaugural recipient of the award is Beau Dean Riley Smith, who will receive the fellowship over two to three years and will, in due course, present the world premiere of a work created on the dancers of Shaun Parker & Company.

Beau Dean Riley Smith at the Bennelong Photoshoot, Photography Tiffany Parker, 2017 — Beau Dean Riley Smith. Photo: © Tiffany Parker, 2017. Photo taken at a photo shoot for Bangarra Dance Theatre’s work *Bennelong*

Beau Dean Riley Smith is a Wiradjuri and Gamillaraay man from Dubbo NSW, raised on Yuin Country in Culburra Beach, Nowra, now living on Gadigal land. For more about Beau Dean Riley Smith on this website see this link.

Back in 2017 Shaun Parker was interviewed for the National Library of Australia’s oral history project. Listen at this link.

The Denise and Michael Kellen Foundation is a private foundation based in New York. It supports education, philanthropy, voluntarism, and Human Services, primarily in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Reading in May

Some years ago now I was given a book that a colleague had found in a book sale, which I have only now got around to reading. The book is Twin Journey and is an autobiography by Beth Dean and Victor Carell.

I am somewhat shocked I have to say at the appalling way in which the book was edited. There are just so many typographical errors, including one in which Beth is spelled Bth! Not only that there must have been something wrong with the printer as at times the printing is quite black whereas at other times it is much lighter. Nor is there any evidence that a designer was employed as the pages are without any form of pleasing spacing. And I could go on ….

It’s just as well the subject matter is quite interesting and certainly gives a different take on what Dean and Carell accomplished.

Press for May 2026

– ‘Sphere turns industrial Vault into living stage.’ Review of Sphere. Australian Dance Party. CBR City News, 15 May 2026. Online at this link.

– ‘Sheltering (Bangarra Dance Theatre).’ Review of Sheltering. Bangarra Dance Theatre. Limelight Magazine. 25 May 2026. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 31 May 2026

Featured image: Alice Topp and Artists of Houston Ballet rehearsing Sisu. Photo: © Alana Campbell, 2026. Courtesy of Houston Ballet.