Dance diary. October 2026

Recent social media abuse: a supportive message (if unintentionally so)

‘Everyone thinks about quitting, even the strong. Breathe, then take one more step.’

So says a card in a packet of Kurrajong Kitchen Biscuits (believe it or not)! After an abusive and ignorant message on a Facebook page from Quantum Leap Australia about me and my reviewing, the message above from the packet of biscuits came at just the right time.

Buy Kurrajong Kitchen Biscuits!

‘Dance class 1’

In October I had the pleasure of visiting the Rusten House Art Gallery in Queabeyan where an exhibition by sculptor Martin Rowney was on display. Called Nexus. The Common Piano, it was created from Rowney’s dismantling of old pianos and using the pieces to create sculptural items.

What was especially interesting for me was the way Rowney had highlighted two outcomes that he noticed in his dealings with pianos. Most of the sculptural items he had created were, as he said in the talk he presented, geometric in nature since the piano, as an overall item, has a geometric look to it.

On the other hand, he noted that the sound that emerges when a piano is played is dynamic in nature. To show this inherent dynamism he had used the keys of a piano and manipulated them into structures that were not geometric. There were five items on this idea and Rowney called them ‘Dance class 1, 2, 3 …’ and so on. I loved the dynamic look of these items. They seemed to dance off the walls and I bought ‘Dance class 1’ . It is now attached to a wall in my house.

Sydney Dance Company in 2027

The year 2027 will be a momentous one for Sydney Dance Company. It will be Rafael Bonachela’s final year as artistic director of the company. Bonachela took on the directorship in 2009 and I had the pleasure of interviewing him just two years later, in 2011, for the National Library of Australia’s oral history program. The interview is not currently available online due to rights conditions re public use, but information about the interview is on the NLA catalogue at this link.

The 2027 program has a number of potentially interesting productions, including a new work, as yet unnamed, from Bonachela. It will be part of an October triple bill called Wild Order and, in addition to Bonachela’s new work, the program will include the return of Melanie Lane’s WOOF and New Zealand-born Ngaere Jenkins’ From the Horizon Thereafter.

Artists of Sydney Dance Company in 'WOOF', 2019. Photo: © Pedro Greig — A moment from *WOOF*. Sydney Dance Company, 2019. Photo: © Pedro Greig

For more news about what promises to be an exceptional year, read the media release at this link.

Who’s in the Frame?

London-based choreographer and dance artist Bim Malcomson has recently worked with Royal Ballet soloist, Téo Dubreuil, and architect, Mario Mattia (who lives with multiple sclerosis), to produce a short film, Who’s in the Frame. The film can, apparently, only be accessed on London’s Royal Opera House streaming platform, which requires a subscription. But it is a production with very little fuss accompanying it and is quite moving in the way it demonstrates how different bodies respond to movement and music and the space around them. See more at this link.

Press for October 2026

– ‘Chaos project turns to chaotic on stage.’ Review of We come together to dance, Quantum Leap Australia. CBR CityNews, 17 October 2026. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 31 October 2026

Featured image: The Kurrajong Kitchen Biscuit card in top of a small part of the 519 word Facebook spiel about/against me.

Final note on the social media abuse issue: I have never been a fan of social media. I don’t use the sites and never will.

Melanie Lane. A new move

News just in is that Melanie Lane will take on the leadership of the Melbourne-based contemporary dance company, Lucy Guerin Inc, beginning in 2027. Guerin recently announced that she is retiring from the artistic directorship of the company she has led for 25 years. The company will take on a new name once Lane takes on the role.

The appointment promises much if Lane’s work as an independent choreographer is anything to go by. The news is a particular thrill for the Canberra dance community given that Lane grew up in Canberra and received intensive dance training at the National Capital Ballet School under the direction of Janet Karin. Lane has brought her work to Canberra on several occasions, including for Canberra’s youth company Quantum Leap.

Scene from Melanie Lane’s *Metal Park*. Quantum Leap Australia, 2022. Photo: © Lorna Sim

I spoke to Lane for this website a few years ago when she recalled with pleasure her years as a student in Canberra, especially her training with Karin.‘Janet was so supportive of new choreography,’ Lane says. ‘I really got connected with contemporary movement as a result.’ Read the full post at this link.

Lane has made some truly remarkable works over the past years including for some of Australia’s leading contemporary dance companies. They include the much celebrated WOOF for Sydney Dance Company in 2019. Read my thoughts on WOOF in this review (It’s at the end of the review of a triple bill program!).

Scene from Melanie Lane's 'WOOF'. Sydney Dance Company, 2019. Photo: © Pedro Greig — Scene from Melanie Lane’s *WOOF*. Sydney Dance Company, 2019. Photo: © Pedro Greig

Her recent production, MOUNTAIN, with an electronic soundscape from CLARK and design by Akira Isogawa, will have one performance on 17 October 2026 at the Canberra Theatre Centre.

Follow Lane’s work as reviewed on this website at this link.

Michelle Potter, 1 October 2026

Featured image: Melanie Lane (left) with Lucy Guerin, Melbourne 2026. Photo: © Gianna Rizzo

Dance diary. September 2026

My name is Maisey

Early in September I had the pleasure again of seeing a performance from the Bachelor of Creative Arts second and third year students in Dance from the Adelaide College of the Arts, working together with fellow students in Technical Production & Design.

I wondered, I have to andmit, about the name of the work. Who was Maisey? Well, it seems that one chair, amidst the various chairs that were used in the show, was especially significant. One of the students told me it represented ‘grandma’s chair’ and that the choreographer’s grandma was named Maisey. Later I discovered via the program that this was indeed the case.

Grandma’s chair from *My name is Maisey*, Adelaide College of the Arts, 2026. Photo: © travels by gabi

Choreographed by Rhiannon McLean, the ‘narrative’ of the work, according to program notes, is: ‘… a reference to time and memory of what we hold in our body as knowledge, what our minds read as fact and what one person might remember over another, in the same place, in the same room, at the same time.’

I’m not quite sure what the purpose of the chairs was but I suspect, since all the chairs were different, they represented individuals present and past? But I particularly enjoyed one section—an expressive fight over a chair, danced by the two male dancers in the group.

All things considered, the work was beautifully danced by all, whether they were performing singly, in a group, or with another dancer in a duet. It is always a thrill, too, to see the way in which the Adelaide College dancers and technical students work so well together. A terrific training experience for future professional careers.

BOLD 2026

Liz Lea established the BOLD Festival in Canberra in 2017 and went on to present further BOLD events in 2019, 2022 and 2024. BOLD celebrates the legacy of dance in all cultures, and from dancers of all abilities and generations. This year, 2026, BOLD is partnering with the Craft + Design Canberra Festival and, as a result, the focus is on dance and design with further emphasis on dissent and disability. BOLD 2026 will run from 6-15 November at various venues. It will include a two day symposium at the Canberra Museum and Gallery on 12-13 November and a great range of other events.

The full program is still being finalised but a selection of live performances and films has been publicised. Just as a taster, the Festival will close on 15 November with a triple bill, Being BOLD. Anca Frankenhaeuser, Patrick Harding-Irmer and Chrissie Koltai will present I Thought You Were Dead But Here You Are and Sue Healey will share two of her films, Angels, My Angels, My Glorious Angels, choreographed and performed by Frankenhaeuser, and The Cry of the Whistler, a film about Jane Mortiss—a dancer, artist, naturalist and farmer who battled mental illness through her art. This is the story of her last work.

Stay tuned for further information.

Screenshot showing Anca Frankenhaeuser in a moment from Sue Healey’s short film *Angels, My Angels, My Glorius Angels*

Press for September 2026

– ‘Choreographer Batchelor investigates Bodenwieser.’ Review of Reviewing a Pedagogy for the Bodenwieser Technique, James Batchelor and colleagues. CBR CityNews, 07 September 2026. Online at this link

– ‘Dancers and audience go ‘All In together.’ Review of All in, Dance Makers Collective and colleagues. CBR CityNews, 25 September 2026. Online at this link

– ‘Vivienne conquers her problems … with cake’. Review of The Whole Cake, Vivienne Rogis. CBR CityNews, 28 September 2026. Online at this link.

MIchelle Potter, 30 September 2026

Featured image: A moment from My name is Maisey, Adelaide College of the Arts, 2026. Photo: © travels by gabi

Recipients. Peggy van Praagh and Keith Bain Fellowships

Ausdance National, Australia’s peak body for dance, has just announced the 2026 recipients of the Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship and the Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship. Both Fellowships were made available as a result of bequests from Dame Peggy van Praagh and Keith Bain OAM, both of whom made substantial contributions to dance in Australia.

Currently working in Perth, Xin Ong has been awarded the Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship. From the media release we learn that Xin Ong is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice centres on presence, connection, and deep listening. She has been invited as Assistant to Farooq Chaudhry OBE, Artistic Director, in his upcoming development of The Bridge, in Shenzen, China. Within this project, which centres on intercultural and interdisciplinary collaboration, the Fellowship will support Xin’s choreographic practice and enquiry, through the opportunity to witness a multitude of complexities at close range, under expert mentorship.

Read a biography of Xin Ong on the Strut Dance website. Images of Xin Ong below are by © David Cooper.

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The Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship was awarded to Chung Nguyen. Currently based in Melbourne, Chung Nguyen has just recently staged a work with the name of Fluid Memories.

A moment from *Fluid Memories*, Melbourne 2026. Photo © Jeff Busby

A Vietnamese/Australian, he practises as a dance artist, somatic movement facilitator and Biodynamic Craniosacral therapist. His work sits, as media information explains, at the intersection of live performance, video installation, choreography, and community engagement. With his Fellowship Chung will build on investigations of the Australian migrant journey to develop Breathing is Remembering through a series of developments and residencies across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania. The work will consider communities and sites linked to Agent Orange, an agricultural chemical weaponised and used during the war in Vietnam (1962-1971). The Fellowships will directly impact Chung’s leadership, providing dedicated research and development time, while building skills in community-based, cross-cultural, and choreographic research.

The Fellowships were put into place several years ago but were closed down during the COVID-19 pandemic and through the following years. Ausdance National has managed the Fellowships on behalf of the donors from the beginning and the organisation has now reinstated them. It is great to see the Fellowships back up and working, and to reflect once more on the exceptional work carried out by van Praagh and Bain. I do hope this is not a one-off event and that the Fellowships will continue to be part of Australian dance activities.

Read more about the Fellowships on this website at this link.

Michelle Potter, 16 September 2026.

Featured image: Xin Ong. Photo: © David Cooper.

Dance diary. August 2026

Gertrud Bodenwieser

In August an email from James Batchelor arrived in my inbox. It concerned a talk he would be presenting in Canberra at the Street Theatre in conjunction with Ruth Osborne and academics from the Australian National University (ANU). The talk relates to Batchelor’s current work towards a Masters degree at the ANU and is part of a regular Street program with the overarching name ‘Wellspring: Inquiry and Exchange’. Batchelor’s contribution takes place in early September and is entitled: ‘Preserving Australian Modern Dance. Creating a Pedagogy for the Bodenwieser Technique’. Details here.

The beautiful photo that accompaniesthe notification of the event was a surprise, and a very pleasant one. The photo was taken in 1927 and shows a young Gertrud Bodenwieser captured mid-dance. It was a quite new image for me.

Listen at this link.to what Batchelor in his discussion of the forthcoming talk.

The Stellar Company

This year, 2026, marks the 20th anniversary of the Stellar Company, a Canberra-based multi-arts organisation for people of all abilities and backgrounds. It was formed in 2006 by Jolanta Gallagher and used the name Australian Talented Youth Project. Now led by Liz Lea and renamed the Stellar Company it has been invited by Sing Australia to present a series of dance programs at the Sydney Opera House in October as part of Sing Australia’s National Gathering. The event is described by Sing Australia as ‘a three-day celebration of singing, connection, and energy.’

The invitation seems like a wonderful way for the Stellar Company to celebrate 20 years. Read more about the Sing Australia National Gathering at this link.

The Stellar Company in performance, Canberra ca. 2023. Photo (detail): © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

And then there’s Sydney Dance Company

Sydney Dance Company is celebrating 40 years in its current home: The Wharf at Sydney’s Walsh Bay. Check out the company’s website at this link. Read too the article in the Financial Review.

Coming in September …

As I scanned quickly through the dance events that were coming up next month, two productions immediately grabbed my attention. The first was Alice Topp’s exceptional take on Macbeth, a joint production between Royal New Zealand Ballet and West Australian Ballet (WAB), which I saw in Wellington earlier this year. It opens in Perth with WAB on 4 September. Read my review from New Zealand at this link. Don’t miss it if you happen to be in Perth. Dates at this link.

Alice Topp in Perth during rehearsals for *Macbeth*, 2026. Photo: © Andrew Ritchie/*The West Australian*

The second was All in, which will have a Canberra showing at the Belconnen Arts Centre. It comes from Dance Makers Collective (DMC), a ‘community unifier’ (according to current advertising) led by Miranda Wheen. Its Canberra showing features, as well as artists from DMC, input from local groups including Project Dust, Apsaras Arts Canberra, and Quantum Leap Australia. I thoroughly enjoyed All in in Sydney last year. Read my Sydney review at this link and for more information about the Canberra performances read here.

Press for August 2026

– ‘Diamond confronts ageing with unflinching candour.’ Review of Diamond, Liz Lea and colleagues. CBR CityNews, 7 August 2026. Online at this link

Michelle Potter, 31 August 2026

UPDATE 19 September 2026: Comments on this post have been closed due to a large number of attempts to comment from spam outlets.

Featured image: Gertrud Bodenwieser, 1927. Photo: d’Ora-Benda © Bildarchiv Austria/Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.

Dance diary. July 2026

Patricio Revé

As the Royal Ballet moves into its 2026-2027 season, I can’t help reflecting on how lucky we were to be able to watch Patricio Revé, now a principal dancer with the Royal, grow as an artist during his time with Queensland Ballet. But nor can I help feeling how much we will now miss him (unless of course we can pop over to London every so often!). Revé was dancing as a guest artist with the Royal Ballet for several months after leaving Queensland Ballet in mid 2025. It is hard not to wonder why this move happened. It was of course a critical time for Queensland Ballet and the question of why Revé and others moved on remains something of a closely guarded secret at the moment. But Revé was offered an appointment as a principal with the Royal Ballet in January 2026 with the appointment to begin officially with the 2026-2027 season.

Revé was a stalwart member of Queensland Ballet from 2018. How smart was Li Cunxin to bring him from Cuba to dance in Australia? His performances were always memorable, and the Royal Ballet’s appointment is Australia’s loss. For more about Patricio Revé on this website, follow this link.

Watch below, too, to see Revé dancing in Cuba in March 2026 with Marianela Nuñez in the Act III pas de deux from Don Quixote. If you can take your eyes off Revé and Nuñez, the corps de ballet dancers working upstage are worth watching. Their actions and poses are often somewhat rustic, especially those of the men seated upstage centre. Cuba has a different take on Don Quixote from what we have frequently seen in Australia.

Beth Dean

Following on from my recent, brief item on Beth Dean in last month’s Dance diary, I received a comment from my colleague, Jennifer Shennan, about the role Dean had played in her life and as part of our dance history in general. The comment can be seen at the end of the Dance diary for June 2026.

Jennifer’s comment made me continue to think about what I had uncovered from the collection of items I discovered in the National Library of Australia’s manuscript collection. It was particularly interesting to read more of the background to Dean’s 1954 creation of Corroboree. She wrote of the role she, as a woman, needed to play during her participation in various Aboriginal ceremonies that led into her creation of her work:

Women do stay for certain periods of time, and when the bullroarers roar forth with the sound of thunder, we all ran out to a far distant stream bed which was dry, and we waited there while certain ceremonies were done, which showed blood or sacred red-ochre colourings or patterns that the women are not supposed to see because it would make then ill. It’s too strong a magic.

Dean’s husband, Victor Carell, was able to stay throughout the entire ceremony that Dean writes about and he was able to assist in the final outcome of the work. Dean herself danced the role of the boy initiate.

Study of Beth Dean as the boy initiate in *Corroboree*, 1954. Image: © Enid T Dickson. Collection of the National Library of Australia

As I noted in my earlier discussion, it is totally fascinating material, provided we look at it as coming from the 1950s.

Simone Forti (1935-2026)

Simone Forti, American dance innovator who worked with particular strength during the period that is now called postmodern, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 91 years. Forti briefly entered my academic life when I began research for my PhD, which focused on the visual artists, in particular Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, who collaborated with Merce Cunningham. Forti, an Italian by birth, took classes at the Cunningham studio and there was introduced to the work of John Cage. Her background is documented in some detail on Wikipedia.
Vale!
.

Simone Forti speaking ay Beyond Baroque Library Arts Centre, Los Angeles 2007. Wikimedia Commons

Press for July 2026

– ‘Determined dancing on a knife’s edge.’ Review of Mettle, Quantum Leap Australia. CBR CityNews, 25 July 2026. Online at this link

Michelle Potter, 31 July 2026

Featured image: Patricio Revé in Rhapsody in Blue. Queensland Ballet, 2023. Photo: © David Kelly

Return of the Peggy van Praagh and Keith Bain Fellowships

Ausdance has announced the return of two fellowships, the Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship and the Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship. Ausdance initiated the fellowships some years ago but closure was necessary during the COVID outbreak. They have just now been reinstated and, as before, are worth $10,000 each.

(Left) Peggy van Praagh teaching at the Australian Ballet, 1965. Photo: © Keith Byron, Australian News and Information Bureau; (Right) Keith Bain as the Pied Piper in a Bodenwieser Studio recital, 1954. Photo: © Eric Cuckson

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Peggy van Praagh (1910-1990) and Keith Bain (1926-2012) were major figures in many aspects of dance in Australia and their input spanned several decades. It was especially strong in the mid-20th century but continued until their respective deaths.

Van Praagh’s major contribution to dance in Australia was as founding artistic director of the Australian Ballet, a position she held from 1962 to 1974 and again in 1978. She shared the position of artistic director with Robert Helpmann from 1965 until 1974. But she was prominent in many other ways including as, briefly, artistic director of the Borovansky Ballet and as a teacher with various organisations.

Keith Bain had a distinguished career in a variety of dance areas including performance, choreography and teaching. He danced with the Bodenwieser Ballet for example, and choreographed for Ballet Australia and taught and lectured at NIDA. In his book, The Principles of Movement (2013), his approach to movement is explained in detail

The Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship
A Choreographic Fellowship of $10,000 awarded to a mid-career choreographer.

Peggy van Praagh working with Kathy Hourigan at the National Capital Ballet School, ca. 1980s. Photo: © Don Gallagher

After van Praagh’s death in 1990, the Trustees of her Estate made a donation to Ausdance National for the establishment of the Peggy van Praagh Fellowship, an initiative to support choreographers.

See the details of the award at this link.

The Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship
The Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship supports travel and experiences by emerging choreographers across any dance genre.

Keith Bain and Coralie Hinkley in a section from Gertrud Bodenwieser’s *Central Australian Suite*, 1957. Photo: © Max Dupain

See details of the award at this link.

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Guidelines and application details at these links:
Peggy van Praagh Fellwship
Keith Bain Fellowship

Applications close at 5 pm on 31 July. Don’t miss out!

Michelle Potter, 15 July 2026

Dance diary. June 2026

Lucy Guerin moves on

Lucy Guerin, director and founder of the Melbourne-based contemporary dance company Lucy Guerin Inc, will step down from her position at the end of 2026. Guerin established her company 25 years ago and, while 25 years is a more than commendable time to have been at the helm of a dance company, the news came as something of a shock. Guerin said of her decision:

After 25 years, I have decided to step down as Artistic Director of LGI to explore new directions in dance. I founded the company in 2002 to support the making and touring of my productions, but over the years it has become so much more than that. It is now a centre for choreography, discussion, learning, connection and ideas and there are so many who have worked incredibly hard to support this organization. I am deeply grateful to all of them

Guerin will continue to lead the company until the end of 2026 and will perform a solo work in October before relinquishing her role as director. The LGI Board will begin a search for a new director in the coming weeks. It will be interesting to see who will be selected to take on the position vacated by Guerin, and what new role Guerin will take on in the future.

For posts about Lucy Guerin on this website follow this link.

Adelaide College of the Arts

I had the pleasure of being in Adelaide recently where I saw a performance by dance and design students from Years 2 and 3 at the Adelaide College of the Arts. The evening consisted of two original dance works, Made to_ by Singaporean guest choreographer Ru Ma, along with there & gone by Peter Sheedy, lecturer and course co-ordinator for the dance program at the College.

The students performed exceptionally well in both works although I especially admired the Sheedy work. It was a thoroughly abstract work making great use of onstage objects that were moved around the stage at various times. It also had the dancers constantly regrouping in various ways and was in fact an exceptional way of introducing students to the various possibilities of choreography. A great training piece although the dancers performed like professionals rather than students in training.

News from Loughlan Prior

Loughlan Prior’s production of Hansel Gretel, made originally for Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2019, has just recently been performed in Las Vegas by Nevada Ballet Theatre. It was really well received there and was described in one review as a ‘spectacular, surreal imagining’ of the well-known story with ‘stunning visual design’ and ‘high energy choreography’.

Read Jennifer Shennan’s review of the work as seen in Wellington in 2019 at this link, and also her review of the 2023 return season at this link.

Prior is currently working in London on a new show, The McRae/Vassiliev Project, in collaboration with director Natalie Abrahami, dancer and choreographer Steven McRae, musician Vasko Vassilev, and dancer Sarah Lamb. Inspired by the work of violinist Niccolo Paganinit, it will premiere in September in the Linbury Theatre at London’s Royal Opera House.

See more about The McRae/Vassiiev Project at this link.

Loughlan Prior and Laura Saxon-Jones performing with artists from the New Zealand School of Music, 2019. Photo: © Stephen Gibbs

Beth Dean

I quite accidentally came across a small manuscript collection of material about Beth Dean held in the National Library in Canberra (MS 10011, received 2004). I was always under the impression that her collection was held in Sydney at the State Library of New South Wales, and indeed there is a substantial collection there. But somehow a small number of items found their way to Canberra. It was a thrill to find some early photographs of Dean, which I had never seen before.

Beth Dean in Cleveland, Ohio, 1935. Photo: © Harry A Cole

But especially interesting, given that several years ago now (and without being aware of the NLA material), I had given a paper on dance in Australia in the 1950s. My talk focused on Australian themes and my mention of Dean included a brief discussion of her choreography for an Australia focused work called G’day Digger danced to a score by John Antill. So, I was especially interested in Dean’s writings in the NLA collection regarding her extensive research for her production of Corroboree, also danced to an Antill score and created especially for presentation during a visit to Australia in 1954 by Queen Elizabeth II. Of her approach to the story of her Corroboree Dean wrote:

The story of my “Corroboree” was about a young boy and his initiation, and his facing of himself and of the chimeras of our fears and our imagination. The Dreamtime stories of his ancestors are shown to him, as they were when we sat in the red dust with those people during all their ceremonies.

And of her background research she wrote:

For my version of the ballet I had spent those months [on which she elaborates at length elsewhere in the papers] living with the Aboriginal people studying their mythology, but even more finding the beauty and the depth of their discipline.

It is totally fascinating material, provided we look at it as coming from the 1950s.

Press for June 2026

– ‘Opera Gala (Snow Concert Hall ).’ Review of Opera Gala. Limelight Magazine, 1 June 2026. Online at this link.

– ‘Physicality fuels Sydney Dance Company’s engine.’ Review of Engine, Sydney Dance Company. CBR CityNews, 25 June 2026. Online at this link

Michelle Potter, 30 June 2026

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.

Dance diary. April 2026

Dance week opening event—Ausdance ACT

The opening of 2026 Dance Week from Ausdance ACT took place on top of Canberra’s Mount Ainslie on 29 April, international Dance Day. Founded in 1982 by the International Theatre Institute, International Dance Day takes place annually on the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810). Noverre is generally regarded as the founder of modern ballet.

The Canberra event began with a Welcome to Country delivered by Ngunnawal elder Aunty Serena Williams, who also prepared and administered the smoking ceremony. The International Dance Day message for 2026 was written by Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite. It was read to the assembled audience on Mount Ainslie by Elizabeth Dalman. Follow this link to read the message.

(left) Aunty Serena begins the smoking ceremony; (right) Elizabeth Dalman reads the International Dance Day message. Photos: © Michelle Potter

The official introductory messages, which also included a welcome from ACT MLA Caitlin Tough, were followed by a solo dance by Liz Lea from her forthcoming production Diamond, and then a group dance by a range of Canberra-based performers, also a sneak peek at what the Diamond presentation might look like. All dancers were spectacularly dressed and Diamond, due to take the stage in August, promises much!

A few changes …

April was filled with news of changes to the careers of several leading figures in the Australian dance world. A move by Callum Linnane, exceptional principal artist with the Australian Ballet, was the first to be brought to my attention. Linnane will leave the Australian Ballet in June to take up a role as principal artist with Hamburg Ballet.

Callum Linnane in rehearsal for Alice Topp’s *Aurum*. Photo: © Jeff Busby

I have admired Linnane’s dancing for some time. For more about him, and my thoughts on his dancing on this website, see this link.

Raewyn Hill is moving on from her position as artistic director of Perth’s Co3 Contemporary Dance, a company she has led since its inception in 2014. She will remain with the company, which is presently searching for a new director, until the end of 2026. It is not yet clear how Hill’s future will unfold.

Then Kyle Page and Amber Haines, co-directors of Townsville-based Dancenorth, will also leave the company at the end of 2026. Their futures are also not clear at this stage.

Vale

It was sad to hear that Ben Stevenson had died in Fort Worth late in March.

In Australia Stevenson’s choreography has been brought to our attention by Li Cunxin, who worked with Stevenson after arriving in America from China when Stevenson was directing Houston Ballet (1976-2003). Li brought Stevenson to Australia on occasions to stage several of his works for Queensland Ballet. Stevenson’s productions of Nutcracker and Cinderella were especially popular.

Ben Stevenson in the Queensland Ballet studio with Li Cunxin. Photo: © David Kelly

From a personal point of view I continue to recall walking down a street in Dallas, Texas, one Sunday afternoon in 2011 and seeing two tutu-clad dancers walking along the same street. They were on a mission to advertise Stevenson’s then forthcoming presentation of Nutcracker for Texas Ballet Theater, which he directed after leaving Houston Ballet.

Texas Ballet Theater dancers, 2011. Photo: © Michelle Potter

Another book from Brisbane

After my visit to Archives Fine Books in Charlotte Street, Brisbane, in October last year (2025), when I discovered their range of second hand dance books, I had another opportunity to visit the shop after seeing Queensland Ballet’s presentation of Messa da Requiem in March this year (2026). I headed, of course, straight to the dance section and was pleased to find another book that was not part of my collection: Diaghilev. Creator of the Ballets Russes, edited by Ann Rodicek with an extensive prologue by Rodicek and contributions from six authors. It was a book published to accompany an exhibition held at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in 1996.

Page of costume designs by Nikolai Roerich for *The Rite of Spring*. 1913

Without wanting to diminish in any way the strength of the prologue and written articles, what especially attracted me were the many images of the items that had been on display in the exhibition. In particular there were a number of costume designs that I had not seen before (see above). It was also fascinating to see portraits of those associated with the company (not necessarily dancers although they were there of course). A fascinating new look at Diaghilev and the work of his collaborators! And such a great second hand bookshop.

Press for April 2026

– ‘Aladdin retold through a ‘minimalistic’. Review of Aladdin. Victorian State Ballet. CBR City News, 24 April 2026. Online at this link.

– ‘Elegant dancing that was hard to see’. Salut! Baroque. CBR City News, 25 April 2026. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 30 April 2026