Dance diary. November 2025

Liz Lea: the latest

Liz Lea , ever engaged in new projects, has been commissioned by the Sydney-based AMPA (Academy of Music and Performing Arts) to create a new work for the dance students of the Academy for their upcoming end of year show, Euphoria. Lea’s work is called Promenade and will premiere on 5 December 2025.

Dancers from AMPA rehearsing for *Promenade*. Still from a rehearsal video

Watch below for an insight into the work.

Creative Australia Awards

Two dance artists, choreographer and director Kate Champion and dancer-choreographer Rosalind Crisp, have been honoured at the 2025 Creative Australia Awards held in Brisbane in November. Kate Champion received the Theatre Award and Rosalind Crisp the Dance Award.

Kate Champion, currently artistic director of Black Swan State Theatre Company in Perth, Western Australia, was honoured for ‘three decades contributing to Australian Performance’. Those decades include the founding of the much admired contemporary dance-theatre company Force Majeure in 2002, which she directed until 2015. Her credits extend across a variety of theatrical genres in addition to dance including opera, film, theatre and circus.

Rosalind Crisp was the recipient of the Dance Award. She founded Omeo Dance Studio in Sydney in 1996 and was invited to Paris in 2002, where she became Associate Artist at Atelier de Paris (2004–2014). She was awarded a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2015, and her work has toured nationally and internationally. She is currently commissioned by the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company.

Brief videos focusing on the awards are available online: Kate Champion at this link, Rosalind Crisp here.

Honouring Ana Gallardo Lobaina

My colleagues in Wellington, New Zealand, have let me know that on 19 November, His Excellency Luis Ernesto Morejón Rodríguez, Ambassador of Cuba to New Zealand, Cook Islands and Niue, was welcomed into the Royal New Zealand Ballet studios to honour principal artist Ana Gallardo Lobaina. His Excellency presented Ana, born and trained in Cuba, with an artwork by Cuban visual artist Yosvany Martínez Pérez. It is, I understand, a tradition in Cuba to honour artists who have made a significant input into the company with which they work. In presenting the award the Ambassador said:

Today, we are delighted to see a dancer born and trained in Cuba take her place among the principal figures of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, bringing her talent, sensitivity, and energy to this company. The recognition we are presenting to Ana today is a testament to her tireless work, unwavering perseverance, and artistic excellence.

I have greatly admired the dancing of Ana Gallardo Lobaina, in particular in Loughlan Prior’s production of The Firebird (2021), and the award is well deserved. For posts that feature the work of Ana Gallardo Lobaina on this website see this tag.

The Firebird, Royal New Zealand Ballet, 2021. Photo: © Stephen A’Court — Ana Gallardo Lobaina in the title role of Loughlan Prior’s *The Firebird*. Royal New Zealand Ballet, 2021. Photo: © Stephen A’Court

… and then there’s Elizabeth Dalman

A similar honour will shortly be bestowed on Dr Elizabeth Dalman, AM. Elizabeth will be awarded the insignia of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ambassador of France to Australia, His Excellency M. Pierre-André Imbert on 2 December at the Embassy of France in Canberra.

The award was established in 1957 to recognise eminent artists who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world. More after 2 December.

MIchelle Potter, 30 November 2025

Featured image: Liz Lea speaking to the public in 2021 Source: CBR CityNews, 01 February 2021 Photo: © Helen Musa

Canberra Critics’ Circle Dance Awards, 2025

11 November 2025. Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra

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

Yolanda Lowatta in the Gordon Darling Hall, 2025. Photo: © Creswick Collective

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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

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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

Akira Byrne in ‘A Destination Should not be Expected’. QL2 Dance, 2024. Photo: © Olivia Wikner

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MIchelle Potter, 13 November 2025

Featured image: Receiving awards for dance at the Canberra Critics’ Circle presentation, 2025.
(l-r) Emma Dykes (Ausdance ACT), Isabelle Lee (Ausdance ACT), Michael Pettersson MLA (ACT Arts Minister), Akira Byrne (QL2 Dance), Sara Black (Australian Dance Party) and Alison Plevey (Australian Dance Party). Photo: © Brian Rope Photography

Dance diary. October 2025

News from LIz Lea

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.

Michelle Potter, 31 October 2025

Featured image: Liz Lea in a promotional image for Diamond. Photo: © O&J Wikner, 2025.

Critical Path turns 20. ‘Such a creative force’

Critical Path, the Sydney-based centre for research into and development of dance, which Canberra-based dance artist Liz Lea has referred to as ‘such a creative force’, was set up in 2005. It will celebrate its 20th anniversary in mid-November with a three-day, free event, Every Wild Idea. The event will take place in the Drill Hall, headquarters of Critical Path in the inner-Sydney suburb of Rushcutters Bay.

The Drill Hall. Critical Path headquarters, Rushcutters Bay. Photo: © Liz Ham

Choreographer and performer, James Batchelor, whose recent work Resonance delved into the legacy of the late Tanja Liedtke, and who has had a long-standing connection with Critical Path, lauds the influence of the organisation:

Critical Path occupies a valuable place in the dance ecology in Sydney—a dedicated space for independent contemporary dance is a precious resource that we should not take for granted. From an early memory of doing a secondment with Sue Healey when I was younger, to leading a workshop there this year, it’s been a space I have kept coming back to throughout my career. It also featured prominently in the archive of Tanja Liedtke (which I have been researching over the past few years), a space that supported the development of her independent work in the mid 2000s.

Liz Lea also has praise to pass on regarding the influence of Critical Path:

Critical Path is legendary. It is hard to believe it is only 20 years as the impact this organisation has had on dance in and across Australia is profound.

Margie Medlin [an early director] is a visionary who brought an incisive and committed vision to supporting the generation of original and deeply varied work. She supported me in securing a Fellowship at the National Film and Sound Archive leading to my return to Australia after 20 years based in Europe. Claire [Hicks, another director] then brought a new infusion of energy and care – I was supported in the initial development of my one woman show RED which toured internationally for 5 years. The care, time, support and capacity of the works developed in the Drill Hall seep into the very fibres of Australian dance and will do for many years.

Current artistic director of Critical Path, Agnès Michelet, notes that Critical Path was established to fill a recognised gap in the independent dance sector in New South Wales. She remarks that it provided [and continues to provide] a pathway ‘through which professional dance-makers could innovate their choreographic practice’.

In part the media release for Every Wild Idea reads:

Every Wild Idea will kick off on Friday November 14, 7pm-9pm with live performance, artists in real-time ideation playfully curated by Azzam Mohamed who blends street, club and African dance forms. In the spirit of experimentation, research and risk-taking, seven artists will improvise and create in real-time while audiences are free to roam and witness the energy of process-in-action.

Breakthroughs, filmed and directed by award winning arts documentary and film maker Deborah May, will premiere across the weekend. May will unveil the essence of artistic breakthroughs through the eyes of five extraordinary Australian dance artists. What happens when we follow a flash of inspiration over time? The moment when memories, cultures and fragments of practice connect with renewed vitality.

‘Dance is often ephemeral and although documentation is vital in consolidating and propagating our shared history, the video and stills gathered often remain largely unseen or unused and the artists are seldom given a voice,’ says May.

‘Drawing from the rich archive collected by the artists and Critical Path with new video sequences and recordings, Breakthroughs proposes to present an aspect of this pivotal yet largely unseen work in a way that will engage and inspire audiences and lead to a greater understanding of the real work necessary to making exceptional art.’

On Sunday November 16, 11am-1pm, join dance and multimedia artist and writer Ira Ferris for the launch of the special edition of Critical Dialogues #16, celebrating 20 years of Critical Path alongside Vignettes flickers fades: a text, a sound montage and a map. A conversation between artist-archivists Ira Ferris and Tammi Gissell unveils new experimental approaches to archiving in a dance context. Plus a music performance by Alexandra Spence and a dance performance by Ryuichi Fujimura.

‘The aim of Vignettes flickers fades is to reflect not only the significant moments in Critical Path programs and activities, but to invoke sounds, smells, colours of Drill Hall,’ says Ira Ferris. ‘Its water-based location and porous features that imbue creative processes.’

Azzam Mohamed, *Why is this Mine* Choreographic Lab 2021. Photo: © Anna Kucer

See more at this link
Dates and times:
FRIDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2025—7pm to 9pm
SATURDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2025—11am to 3pm
SUNDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2025—11am to 3pm

All events are free at The Drill, 1C New Beach Road, Darling Point. Book tickets here https://events.humanitix.com/every-wild-idea-open-weekend

Michelle Potter, 18 October 2025

Every Wild Idea is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW, the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and Woollahra Municipal Council’s Cultural Grants Program.

Featured image: Gok-Lim Finch and Sophie Dumaresque in a nightime moment from FORBIDDEN. Creative Development 2025. Photo: © Estelle Yoon

Queensland Ballet in 2026

It is always interesting to see the impact a change in artistic directorship has on the repertoire of a dance company. Newly appointed director of Queensland Ballet, Spanish-born Ivan Gil-Ortega, has announced a program for 2026 in which Queensland Ballet will perform works from a range of overseas-based choreographers, reflecting Gil-Ortega’s strong European background and dance heritage.

Christian Spuck from Germany, for example, will open the season with a staging of his Messa da Requiem, a collaboration on this occasion with Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Brisbane Chorale and Canticum Chamber Choir. Messa da Requiem will take place in the newly completed Glasshouse Theatre at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, which I saw just recently as it was nearing completion. It looks spectacular (from the outside anyway).

Scene from *Messa da Requiem*, Dutch National Opera and Ballet

Further on in the year, Serbian-born choreographer Leo Mujić, who is currently working with the Croation National Theatre and who has created works for companies across Europe, including Dutch National Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet, will stage the Australian premiere of his production of Hamlet. Then Derek Deane from England, whose production of Strictly Gershwin was a huge hit on the two occasions (in 2016 and 2023) when it was performed by Queensland Ballet, will present a new version of Nutcracker. The works of other choreographers from overseas are also being shown during the 2026 season.

A moment from Leo Mujić’s *Hamlet*. Artists of Croatian National Ballet, Zagreb. Photo: © Darja Stravs Tisu

But there will be work from Australian choreographers as well, notably from Garry Stewart who directed Australian Dance Theatre in Adelaide for more than 20 years. Stewart’s latest work, Elastic Hearts, will be part of the 2026 season. Set to music by Sia, Stewart describes Elastic Hearts as ‘a creative response to the music of Sia Furler, the celebrated Australian artist, originally from Adelaide and now based in LA.’ It will be a thrill to see Stewart’s highly physical choreography onstage once more.*

For more on the 2026 program, including work for the Academy of Queensland Ballet, follow this link.

Michelle Potter, 16 October 2025

*Elastic Hearts will have a very brief showing on the Gold Coast in November, its world premiere showing, before being part of the 2026 season.

Featured image: Study for Garry Stewart’s Elastic Hearts.

Ballet and books in Brisbane

Dangerous Liaisons. Queensland Ballet
4 October 2025 (evening). Talbot Theatre, Thomas Dixon Centre, Brisbane

I was not invited to review Liam Scarlett’s Dangerous Liaisons in its 2025 revival by Queensland Ballet so I felt no reason to stay when I disliked what I was watching. I left at interval. It was just the third time in about 35 years of reviewing dance performances across Australia and around the world that I have left a dance performance before it was over. Why on this occasion?

The work Dangerous Liaisons is based on the 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. But on the whole this 2025 presentation reminded me of a musical comedy item with an emphasis on sexual activities. The movements and gestures indicating sexual desire were obvious and a highly dominant feature throughout (the first act at least).

Fine re the sexual emphasis. That’s part of the story! But who were all those characters? With one or two exceptions it was not at all clear, as the complex narrative unfolded, who individual dancers were representing. Understanding the action and the multitude of characters taking the stand, as it were, was made more difficult by the lack of any form of easily available written material. We all know that explanations and descriptions of works these days are available online via a QR code, but in the olden days of Queensland Ballet a sheet of paper with brief but vital information of cast and storyline was always available. Even a full printed program was also there for those who wanted one. And how frustrating it is when the person sitting next to you turns on a mobile phone to check something out in the middle of the performance.

I have to mention that there was some excellent dancing being presented, including some group scenes even if it wasn’t clear what was being celebrated or criticised. In particular Georgia Swan was outstanding as the leading female character, the wealthy widow, the Marquise de Merteuil. There was also a male dancer who did not have a major role but whose performance attracted my attention. His technique was excellent but it was his onstage presence, including the manner in which he connected with the audience, that was thrilling to watch. But who was he? I can’t recall having seen him before but I had no way of knowing immediately who he is as there were no photographs of the dancers that were easily available. I should add here that, as I was waiting for a taxi to take me back to my hotel, several people came to the desk in the foyer—it was interval—asking for a printed item of information. They were advised to go and open the QR code!

Georgia Swan in Liam Scarlett’s *Dangerous Liaisons*. Queensland Ballet, 2025. Photo: © David Kelly

It was also, I believe, a really bad move by Queensland Ballet to use recorded music. Someone surely must realise that resident conductor Nigel Gaynor has always had a major input into performances he conducts. He works with what is happening onstage, including how the dancers are performing, in a way that no recording can do (even though the recording used in the 2025 presentation was a recording conducted by Gaynor, it’s just not the same). To make matters worse Gaynor is leaving his post as conductor at the end of 2025. Although I am not entirely clear about the reasons for the move, it apparently has something to do with the financial situation in which Queensland Ballet finds itself. (Happy to be corrected here if I am totally wrong re the reason).

I attended Dangerous Liaisons as a member of the general public. My ticket cost $127. Read my review of the 2019 production of Dangerous Liaisons, to which I was invited and which I thought was exceptional. Here is the link.

See below for a list of publications in which my dance writing and reviews have been published (in addition to the material I have posted on this website since I set it up in 2009).*

The books

But all was not lost. While in Brisbane I visited that amazing second hand book shop, Archives Fine Books in Charlotte Street in the city’s CBD. I have never really been in a second hand bookshop that has such a wealth of items on every imaginable subject. I ended up buying four dance books, three of which were previously unknown to me, and one of which was a book about an exhibition that had a major impact on our understanding of the activities of Serge Diaghilev. The books are:

Buckle, Richard. In Search of Diaghilev (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1955)
Collins, Richard. Behind the Bolshoi Curtain (London: William Kimber, 1974)
Dodd, Craig. The Performing World of the Dancer (London: Breslich & Foss, 1981)
La Fosse, Robert (with Andrew Mark Wentink). Nothing to Hide (New York: Donald I. Fine Inc., 1987)

I started my reading with Behind the Bolshoi Curtain and was instantly taken by the personal manner in which Englishman Richard Collins, who spent four years working in Moscow with various sections of the Bolshoi school and company, interacted with his Russian colleagues and vice-versa. There were some issues that were a little concerning (if interesting in a particular way) but it was a ‘can’t put down’ book in the way it showed a side of ballet and dancers that we don’t usually read about in other Bolshoi-focused publications. I am looking forward to moving on to Richard Buckle’s work on his 1950s exhibition on Diaghilev’s contribution to our understanding of the Ballets Russes.

Michelle Potter, 6 October 2025

Featured image: Cover of Richard Collins’ Behind the Bolshoi Curtain.

*Here is a list of the magazines, newspapers and journals in which my reviews have appeared:

The Australian, Australian Art Review, Australian Book Review, Ballet News, Brolga, The Bulletin, Canberra CityNews, The Canberra Times, Choreography and Dance, Current News from the Library for the Performing Arts, Dance Australia, Dance Chronicle, Dance Forum, Dance Research, DanceTabs (formerly ballet.co.uk), The Dancing Times, Jahresmitteilungen von Tanzplan Deutschland, Journal of the Australian Society of Archivists, Limelight, Muse, Museum National, The National Library of Australia Magazine, National Library of Australia News, The Sydney Morning Herald and Voices.

There are other lists of books I have written as well as lists of chapters in books and theatre programs in which my writing has appeared. In addition, there are hundreds of posts on this website, which this year has, according to Google Analytics, already received 105,000 visits from Australia and across the world. I’m just not sure why Queensland Ballet no longer regards me as a critic worthy of an invitation to review.

Dance diary. September 2025

Nutcracker … again

I was a little taken aback on receiving information about the 2026 Australian Ballet season to see that Peter Wright’s Nutcracker will again feature in that season. As usual it will be part of the end of year activities and will be performed in Sydney from 28 November until 16 December.

I fully understand that Nutcracker, in its traditional format, is a much-loved Christmas show—as a young person I used to look forward to it at Christmas time—and it is a great money-maker for ballet companies across the world. But subscribers to the Sydney season saw it last in December 2024. In December 2026 it will be just a two year break between showings and in my opinion it shouldn’t become (as seems to be happening) a regular feature of the subscription season.

As an added complaint, why does it always have to be the Peter Wright version—as strong and entertaining as that production is?* The Australian Ballet has in its repertoire a great version of Nutcracker, a very different, very Australian production from Graeme Murphy. While the Murphy production is not as uniquely Christmas-oriented as the traditional versions, it does have links to Christmas. Why can’t we have it occasionally? And there are other productions of Nutcracker that could also take the place of the Peter Wright version, as much as anything else for some variety.

Perhaps the Australian Ballet might reconsider the timing of its performances of Nutcracker—not put them just two years apart for example, or even alternate the Peter Wright version with another, or others? Perhaps they might even consider removing Nutcracker from subscription packages and making it a stand-alone Christmas event?

And just as an aside, my ticket for the 2026 Nutcracker cost me $245 as part of my subscription package. That seems like a lot to see something that was shown just two years ago.

Isabelle Stoughton

I heard from a reliable source just recently that Isabelle Stoughton had died in August 2025. She was the author of a truly charming book, At the Sign of the Harlequin’s Bat, in which she wrote about her career as an assistant to London-based dance historian and book seller Cyril Beaumont. The news sent me back to the book, which I reviewed in 2012, shortly after it was first published in 2011. The reread was a worthwhile activity and gave me much pleasure.

My review is at this link.

Contact form

I am very pleased to be able to inform users of this website that the contact form, which has been out of action for months and months, is now back in operation. I can vouch for its positive renewal as a number of contact comments have arrived since its reinstatement and have been successfully addressed.

Press for September 2025

– ‘Untouching dancers bring Superposition to life.’ Review of Superposition. Gabriel Sinclair and Jazmyn Carter. CBR City News, 14 September 2025. Online at this link.

MIchelle Potter, 30 September 2025

*A review of the 2019 Wright production is at this link. It indicates quite clearly that I am not intrinsically opposed to the Wright version.

From Philippe Charluet of Stella Motion Pictures

I have admired, for many years now, the activities of Philippe Charluet and his company Stella Motion Pictures. His activities with dancers and dance companies, in particular the companies and work of Graeme Murphy and Meryl Tankard, have been extraordinary and of major historical significance. Of particular importance is his Heritage Collection, which documents the career of Murphy and Janet Vernon and the artists they worked with over the years.

But just yesterday he contacted me to let me know that he had made three short videos as tributes to three dancers who had just recently died: Garth Welch, Colin Peasley and Louise Deleur. I have his generous permission to use them.

Below is a link to the tribute to Garth Welch. Included are some exceptional sections showing him in the role of Aschenbach in Graeme Murphy’s After Venice and a delightful final image of Welch as a very young dancer.

Garth Welch tribute

The Colin Peasley tribute has some wonderful footage from Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker for the Australian Ballet showing Peasley as one of Clara the Elder’s friends, as well as some great material from the Nureyev production of Don Quixote in which Peasley played the role of Gamache, also with the Australian Ballet.

Colin Peasley tribute

I have not written about Louise Deleur on this site, largely because I didn’t know of her death. Here is a link to her biography.

Louise Deleur tribute

With thanks to Philippe Charluet. Other references to Charluet on this site are at this link.

Michelle Potter. 12 September 2025

Featured image: Equipment in the Outback. Iconic image from Stella Motion site.

Garth Welch, AM (1936–2025)

Garth Welch, extraordinary dancer with a range of companies in Australia and elsewhere, has died at the age of 89. I clearly recall a brilliant performance he gave decades ago as Albrecht in Giselle with the Borovansky Ballet. What a thrill it gave me as a young student, and there were many more exceptional performances to come.

In 1990, after watching his career unfold over the years, and while pursuing my own varied dance activities, I had the huge pleasure of interviewing him for the National Library of Australia’s Esso Performing Arts and Oral History Archive Project. The interview is open for research purposes but is not yet available online: Welch asked that written permission be sought before it was made available for public purposes. The restriction was to last until his death so I am hoping that it might be made available online in the near future. In the meantime, the catalogue summary of the content of the interview gives an idea of the depth of the discussion. Here is a link to the information from the NLA catalogue—Garth Welch interviewed by Michelle Potter in the Esso Performing Arts collection [sound recording]—and, as a taster, below is the summary of the content as extracted from the catalogue entry.

Welch talks about his family background and childhood in Brisbane; his early experience of dance and dance education with Phyllis Danaher; early acting experience; joining the Borovansky Ballet Company in 1954; other ballet artists he worked with and performances with Borovansky. He discusses performing in London and the value of living overseas. He also speaks about working as principal dancer in the Australian Ballet Company and under Robert Helpmann’s choreography; his Harkness Fellowship; beginning as a choreographer; contact with Rudolf Nureyev; moving to Ballet Victoria and on to West Australia Ballet Company as artistic director; his role as Zac in “A Chorus Line”; and his sons who have both become dancers. He speaks about dancing again in “After Venice” with Sydney Dance Company; directing “Othello” in Manila; his current work “In Praise of Folly” and his views on the future of Australian dance.

The National Library’s dance material also contains images of Welch in various roles including some rare shots of a rehearsal in Canberra where, as seen in the two images below taken by the Australian News and Information Bureau, he partnered Margot Fonteyn in Swan Lake in October 1970.*

Garth Welch, AM, 14 April 1936–02 September 2025

Vale!

Michelle Potter, 5 September 2025

Featured image: Garth Welch and Kathleen Gorham in Yugen (detail). The Australian Ballet, 1965. Photo: © Australian News and Information Bureau/National Archives of Australia

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*The photos are dated 1971 on the websites of the National Archives of Australia and the National Library of Australia (and elsewhere on various internet sites). But it is clear from programs held in Libraries ACT that Fonteyn and Welch appeared as ‘guest stars’ in Canberra in a program that began in late October 1970. The year 1970 is also given by Edward Pask in his Ballet in Australia. The second act 1940-1980, p. 154.

Below is the information extracted from the website of Libraries ACT:

Serenade, Gayaneh, Les Patineurs & Swan Lake:Australian Ballet ’70:Program 3
Australian Ballet (Margot Fonteyn & Garth Welch guest stars)
22-Oct-1970 – 27-Oct-1970 Canberra Theatre
1.program 2.flyer 3. local cast insert

Colin Peasley, OAM (1934–2025)

Colin Peasley, whose dance career was extraordinarily varied, has died in Melbourne at the age of 90. In 2000 he was interviewed by Bill Stephens for the oral history collection of the National Library of Australia. The interview is open for research purposes but is not yet available online: Peasley asked that written permission be sought before it was made available for public purposes. The restriction was to last until his death so I am hoping that it might be made available online in the near future. In the meantime, the catalogue summary of the content of the interview gives an idea of the depth of the discussion. Here is a link to the information from the NLA catalogue—Colin Peasley interviewed by Bill Stephens [sound recording] | Catalogue | National Library of Australia—and, as a taster, below is the summary of the content as extracted from the catalogue entry. The interview lasts for over seven hours!

Peasley speaks of his childhood and introduction to ballroom dance and live theatre, visit to the Sydney Tivoli, discovery of the Kathryn Dunham Dance Troupe and their performances, his lessons in ballroom dancing and Adagio dancing from Leslie Rutherford. He talks about his discovery of Gertrud Bodenwieser, the dance scene in Australia and obstacles facing male dancers. He discusses his course in tap and acrobatic dancing with the Rudas School of Acrobatic Dancing, jazz and classical dance with Valerie Tweedie, recollections of Estelle Anderson, his work on television, his parents reaction to his dancing career, industrial action taken by Channel 9 dancers and his decision to audition for Garnet Carroll in his theatrical productions, auditioning for George Carden for a Tivoli show in 1958 and the craft of auditioning and his lessons with Martin Rubinstein. He discusses his meeting with Peggy van Praagh, classes with the Borovansky Ballet dancers, detailed comparison of dancing teaching methods, differences between the roles of corps de ballet and principal dancer, his first days with the Australian Ballet, its structure, early history, the strain of their touring schedule and the campaign to displace Peggy van Praagh. He discusses of the dance styles of Rudolph Nureyev, Eric Bruhn, Garth Welch and Karl Welander and describes Robert Helpmann’s ballet ‘The Display’, Helpmann’s appointment as co-Artistic Director and overall significance to the Australian Ballet, Anne Woolliams period as Artistic Director to eventually be replaced by Peggy van Praagh, Marilyn Jones as Artistic Director, a major strike by the Company dancers, his view of Maina Guelgud as Artistic Director, why he was asked to resign as Regisseur General and instead took the job of Director of Education; and his great enthusiasm for teaching.

The National Library’s dance material also contains images of Peasley in various roles including the two close-up images below (left in Elektra in 1966; right as the younger Ugly Sister in Cinderella in 1973). Both images: © Walter Stringer/National Library of Australia.

Colin Peasley, OAM, 15 October 1934–02 September 2025

Vale!

Michelle Potter, 4 September 2025

Featured image (detail): Colin Peasley taking a curtain call following his retirement from the
Australian Ballet, 2012. Photo: © Jess Bialek