Leanne Stojmenov and Daniel Gaudiello in 'Cinderella'. The Australian Ballet, 2013. Photo: Jeff Busby

Dance diary. August 2025

Leanne Stojmenov

News released early in August is that Leanne Stojmenov has been appointed artistic director of the Perth-based West Australian Ballet (WAB). She will begin her appointment in January 2026, taking over the reins from David McAllister, who was appointed in 2024 as interim director following the departure of previous director, Aurelien Scannella.

Stojmenov grew up in Perth, and began her professional employment with WAB. She then had an exceptional career with the Australian Ballet for 18 years (beginning in 2001) before retiring at the end of 2018. Moving back to Perth, Stojmenov took up various dance-related roles before being appointed artistic director. See her biography on the WAB website at this link (still under the heading Rehearsal Director at time of posting).

I have great memories of watching Stojmenov on stage, even as far back as her very early performances with WAB. I will never forget an absolutely stunning performance in the pas de deux from the last act of Don Quixote. She must have been about 18 but her technique was almost unbelievable. For references on this website relating to Stojmenov’s performances follow this link.

As a taster, here is part of what I wrote about her performance in Coppélia in a 2016 Australian Ballet production:

………… I had the good fortune to see Leanne Stojmenov as Swanilda. Her characterisation was engaging and beautifully maintained from beginning to end, including at those times when she was not the centre of attention but mingling with others on the side of the stage. She smiled, she frowned, she pouted, she stamped her foot, she was playful—her every thought was so clear. Her dancing was calm and assured but still technically exciting. It was a truly charming performance.

With every good wish to Leanne Stojmenov for success in her new role!

Meryl Tankard’s Wild Swans

Last year I received a purchase request for 30 copies of my book Meryl Tankard. An original voice, first published in 2012.. When I received the request I had to have a reprint made as I had no copies left from the original run. It was a very small reprint with one or two minor typographical errors corrected—nothing major. But the reprint activities did send me back to a little further research.

I didn’t review the show when it was first performed in 2003 in Sydney as I had various other opportunities to write about the work, including one or two preview articles and an article for the official Australian Ballet program. Just one of those articles, the Australian Ballet program note, appears on this website.

The various reviews were quite diverse. In an article that was commissioned from me by the editor of Australian Art Review,* and published in the issue dated November 2003-February 2004, I wrote that the public reaction ‘ranged from spluttering outrage to to wild enthusiasm’. I was closer to the ‘wild enthusiasm’ end of the range and wrote in that same Australian Art Review article that it was ‘a controversial work from a controversial artist’. I wrote in particular that I especially enjoyed the exceptional collaborative nature of the work.

But just recently, as part of continuing research into the topic, I came across a YouTube item that was loaded from Stella Motion Pictures in January 2025, some twenty years after the creation of Wild Swans. It was a reminder of the work that went into the production and it was quite a thrill to see some of the major dancers who performed in it, including Felicia Palanca, Annabel Reid and Tim Harbour. There are also hints within it as to why the work has never been restaged.

Follow this link to see the video.

Felicia Palanca as Eliza in Meryl Tankard's 'Wild Swans'. The Australian Ballet, 2003. Photo © Regis Lansac — Felicia Palanca as Eliza in *Wild Swans*. The Australian Ballet, 2003. Photo: © Régis Lansac. National Library of Australia

New contact form

It appears that the contact form on this website is no longer working and in fact has probably not been working for some time. An attempt to fix the issue is currently underway and news that the form is again up and running will be provided as soon as available.

Press for August 2025

– ‘Not an easy production to understand or enjoy.’ Review of Marrow. Australian Dance Theatre. CBR City News, 1 August 2025. Online at this link.

– ‘Unexpected collaboration in the right steps.’ Review of Mandolina Ballerina. Canberra Mandolin Orchestra and Tessa Karle, 17 August 2025. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 31 August 2025

* Australian Art Review was a Sydney-based journal published between 2003 and 2013.

Featured image: Leanne Stojmenov and Daniel Gaudiello in Cinderella. The Australian Ballet, 2013. Photo: © Jeff Busby

Leanne Stojmenov and Daniel Gaudiello in 'Cinderella'. Photo Jeff Busby

Dance diary. July 2025

Sydney Dance Company in Athens

A recent article, written by Madison McGuinness and published on 9 July 2025 in The Greek Herald, had the following two introductory paragraphs:

The Sydney Dance Company captivated a crowd of 5,000 at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus last week, performing Impermanence as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival 2025.

Set against the historic backdrop beneath the Acropolis, the emotionally charged performance explored the fleeting nature of existence through movement and music.

The featured image on this month’s dance diary (see above) shows SDC dancers taking a ‘curtain’ call in front of that ancient building. It is the image that leads into the Herald article, an image that is credited to Australia’s ambassador to Greece, Alison Duncan, who according to the article ‘hailed the performance as a personal milestone’.

While it was excellent news to hear of the success of Sydney Dance Company, Duncan’s image from Greece reminded me of those wonderful images dating back to the 1960s showing the Australian Ballet dancing at the Baalbek International Festival in Lebanon in 1965 when, for a few nights, they performed in the precinct of the ruined Temple of Bacchus.

I remember seeing images of the dancers in Baalbek but have not been able to find any for this post. The SDC image now takes the place of those 1965 shots, for me at least.

My review of Impermanence (onstage, Sydney 2021) is at this link.

Mandolina Ballerina (Tessa Karle)

Canberra’s Mandolin Orchestra has an interesting show coming up with the evocative title of ‘Mandolina Ballerina’. It features a Canberra-trained dancer, Tessa Karle, who currently performs with Royal New Zealand Ballet. The image below shows Karle in a recent production by RNZB, The Way Alone choreographed by one of Australia’s most admired choreographers, Stephen Baynes.

Kihiro Kusukami and Tessa Karle in Stephen Baynes’ *The Way Alone*. Royal New Zealand Ballet. Photo: © Stephen A’Court, courtesy Royal New Zealand Ballet

The image below is an advertising poster for ‘Mandolina Ballerina’, for which Karle has created original choreography, and in which she will perform. The music includes sections from Swan Lake and Nutcracker.

I am hoping to see the show, which will have just two performances on 16 August at the premises of Folk Dance Canberra in the suburb of Hackett. Potentially a review will follow.

The Panov tour … a little more

After reporting in last month’s dance diary on the death of former Russian dancer Valery Panov, I went in search of a little more detail on the 1976 tour to Australia and New Zealand by Ballet Victoria in which Valery Panov and his then wife, Galina Panov, were guest artists. I was able to gain access, via the National Library of Australia, to the program for the Canberra season of the tour, which consisted of three shows at the Canberra Theatre, 21–22 June 1976.

The Canberra program began with Petrouchka, which was the major work presented across venues in Australia and New Zealand.

Valery Panov as Petrouchka. Ballet Victoria, 1976. Papers of Laurel Martyn, MS 9711, Series 1, Item 222, National Library of Australia. Photo: © Robert McFarlane

Petrouchka was followed by Concerto Grosso, a work choreographed by Charles Czarny to music by Handel. It had designs by Joop Stokvis and was originally choreographed for Nederlands Dans Theater in 1971 and given its Australian premiere by that company on tour in 1972. Re-choreographed especially for Ballet Victoria by Czarny it was in seven sections: Warm-up, Boxing, Tightrope, Obliquatory [sic], Skating, Football, and Karate. The Canberra program also included Jonathan Taylor’s Stars End, which was created especially for Ballet Victoria to music by David Bedford. Program notes discuss the work briefly, noting that ‘[It] depicts people meeting people … parting … ultimately everyone is alone.’

The audience also saw two pas de deux choreographed by Panov and danced by him and his wife. One was Adagio célèbre to music by Tomaso Albinoni for which program notes state:

This is a prayer to the dream inside Man. Unfortunately, life cannot keep dreams forever and tension takes the beauty of it away. Man prays to keep this dream forever but remains only with the prayer of his dreams.

The other pas de deux seen in Canberra was Harlequinade to music by Riccardo Drigo with choreography by Valery Panov ‘after Fokine’ and with input from Alexander Gorsky who choreographed Galina Panov’s variation. Program notes read that it concerns, ‘The classic involvement of the two prime characters of the commedia dell’arte, Harlequin and Columbine [in which] Harlequin pays court to the demure soubrette, Columbine.’

Programs for other cities included Les Sylphides and various other pas de deux.

News from James Batchelor

James Batchelor has received funding from artsACT to present his new work Resonance in Canberra. Resonance, which is a response to material Batchelor has been investigating in relation to Tanja Liedtke, will open in Sydney in September before travelling to Melbourne and then to Canberra where it will play on 10-11 October.

In addition, Batchelor has been successful in an application to undertake a Master of Philosophy degree at the Australian National University (ANU). His research proposal is entitled ‘Echoes of the Expressive Dance’ and will pursue further his interest in the growth of the expressive dance technique of Gertrud Bodenwieser. The proposal earned him a full scholarship at the ANU and he will begin work on it shortly.

Michelle Potter, 31 July 2025

Featured image: Dancers of Sydney Dance Company taking a curtain call following a performance in Greece, July 2025. Photo: Alison Duncan

Spoken Memory/Oral History

Not so long ago I was looking at the Ausdance National website when I discovered a section called ‘Spoken Memory. Oral History Interviews at the National Library of Australia’. The title ‘Spoken Memory’ is an excellent one and I have taken the liberty of using it for this post, with thanks to Ausdance.

There were several lists on the Ausdance site. They had been assembled under the names (including mine) of various interviewers, and the lists were made up of those interviews that are available online. Not all interviews make it to the online collection—it depends mostly on what the interviewees have agreed to when completing the Rights Agreement at the end of their interview.

The Ausdance lists, which included links to the online version of each interview, stopped (in relation to me) at 2012 and, again in my case, didn’t include all the interviews I had done with people associated with dance in some way. Photographer Max Dupain, for example, who was interviewed specifically for his thoughts on the Ballet Russes dancers he photographed in the 1930s and 1940s, was not included; and musician Eric Clapham, whose background included working as a pianist and adviser for various ballet companies, was not mentioned either; and there are more examples. But the Ausdance lists were a great way of bringing online dance interviews to the attention of people who may not use the National Library catalogue to any great extent.

With the above in mind, I have posted below a list of the interviews I have done with people associated with dance in some way, and which are available online. This list is about one third of the interviews I have recorded to date. My complete list of interviews, which includes people working in areas of the arts other than dance, is included as a link at the bottom of this post.

To hear the audio you need simply to accept the end user licence agreement, which appears when the link is opened. Happy listening!

Alison Plevey. December 2024.   Matthew Lawrence. January 2024
James Batchelor. December 2023.   Alice Topp. November 2023.
Barbara Engel Cuckson. October 2022. Ruth Osborne. February 2021.
Douglas Gautier. February 2020. Susan Street. January 2020.
Chrissa Keramidas. January 2020. Ariette Taylor. October 2018.
Jonathan Taylor. September 2018. Shaun Parker. August 2017.
Victoria Rowell. March 2017. Greg Horsman. April 2016.
Tanya Pearson, August 2015. David de Verelle-Hill. May 2015.
Lisa Pavane. January 2015 Edna Busse. August 2014.
Gailene Stock. April 2012. Hugh Colman. March 2012.
Jennifer Irwin. August 2011. Paul de Masson. July 2011.
Cecil Bates. June 2005. Valrene Tweedie.December 2004.
Eileen Kramer. February 2003. Bill Akers. February 2002.
Anita Ardell. April 2001. Paul Saliba . April 2000.
Reg Bartram. November 1999. Lucette Aldous. February 1999.
Alan Alder. February 1999. Paige Gordon. May 1998.
Patrick Harding-Irmer. May 1998.             Shona Dunlop MacTavish. April
1998.
Marina Berezowsky. March 1998. Coralie Hinkley. March 1998 and
November 1997.
Martin Rubinstein. August 1995. Peggy Sager. November 1994.
Viola Tait. November 1994. Hanny Exiner. November 1994.
Charles Boyd. October 1994. Moyà Beaver. October 1994.
Irina Baronova. August 1994.                   Tamara Tchinarova August 1994
Robert Southey. March 1994.                   Walter Stringer. January 1994.
Margaret Scott. April 1993. Kristian Fredrikson. January 1993.
Eric Clapham. May 1992.                            Kelvin Coe. May 1992.
Noël Pelly. March 1992.                            Max Dupain. September 1990.
KIra Bousloff. August 1990.                      Kenneth Rowell. June 1989.
Geoffrey Ingram. December 1988. Valrene Tweedie. November 1988.

Michelle Potter, 11 July 2025

Oral history list as at June 2025:
The link above includes the interviews that are not available online, information about the special projects for which some oral histories were recorded, and oral histories I have recorded for institutions other than the National Library of Australia.

Featured image: Geoffrey Ingram being interviewed by Michelle Potter in the oral history recording studio of the National Library of Australia, 1988. Photo: © National Library of Australia

Elizabeth Dalman in 'Symbiosis'. Australian Dance Party 2021. Photo Michelle Potter

Dance diary. June 2025

Elizabeth Dalman, AM

It was a real pleasure to see that Elizabeth Cameron Dalman had been awarded an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) in the King’s Birthday Honours announced early in June. Dalman’s dance career has been quite astonishing and has included the establishment of Australian Dance Theatre in 1965, a company that she directed for 10 years and that continues to the present day; the creation of a vast number of contemporary dance works; working and performing with dance artists across the world including in Australia; and the establishment of the Mirramu Creative Arts Centre at Bungendore close to Canberra, along with the Mirramu Dance Company (co-founded with Vivienne Rogis).

Dalman has been the recipient of numerous awards including an OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia) in 1995; a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Dance Awards in 1997; a creative Arts Fellowship from ArtsACT in 2004; induction into the Australian Dance Awards Hall of Fame in 2015; and the award of Canberra CityNews Artist of the Year also in 2015.

Academically Dalman is the recipient of a Masters of Creative Arts degree from the University of Wollongong earned in 1994 and a Doctorate in Dance from the University of Western Sydney achieved in 2012.

The above is a very brief account of an amazing career. She has just recently published a book, Nature Moves, which gives more information. And for more about Dalman on this site see this tag.

Anandavalli

I had the pleasure in June of recording an oral history interview for the National Library of Australia with renowned Sydney-based dancer, teacher and choreographer, Anadavalli (pictured on the left). Once processed for inclusion in the NLA’s collection, the interview will be readily available to those interested in what has been, and continues to be an exceptional theatrical career.

Valery Panov (1938-2025)

Valery Panov, a dancer whose professional career started with the Kirov Ballet but who left Russia in 1974, has died in Ashdod, Israel, at the age of 87. Obituaries are available online through a number of sources.

Panov’s career has been written about extensively in books and a variety of other sources but rarely, if ever, do authors mention that he and Galina Panov danced a major season of ten weeks in Australia and New Zealand with Ballet Victoria, the company established by Laurel Martyn.

Unsurprisingly, Edward Pask, in his book Ballet in Australia. The Second Act 1940-1980 does not ignore the visit by the Panovs and gives an account of the productions in which they danced and some reviews of their dancing. While Petrouchka was always the major item on the program, both in Australia and New Zealand, other works presented included a work by Panov himself, Adagio celebre, Jonathan Taylor’s Star’s End, Les Sylphides and Harlequinade.

(left) Valery Panov as Petrouchka. Ballet Victoria, 1976. National Library of Australia, Papers of Laurel Martyn, MS 9711, Series 1, Item 222. Photo: © National Library of Australia/Robert McFarlane; (right) Poster for the New Zealand tour by Ballet Victoria, 1976. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections Eph-Post02513. Reproduced with permission.

Over May, June and July of 1976, the Panovs and Ballet Victoria performed in Australia in Sydney, Brisbane, Newcastle, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne before moving on to New Zealand where they were seen in Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin and Christchurch. Ballet Victoria did not, it seems, last as a company for much longer after July. In fact the company was dissolved in October 1976. Pask suggests that it was due to a major financial loss as a result of the Panov tour. The Panov season clearly deserves a thorough re-examination.

Dance Showcase, Adelaide College of the Arts

it was a thrill to see first year tertiary dance students at the Adelaide College of the Arts performing their first work-in-progress event. The showcase was a thirty-minute-long production, full of choreographic surprises and very well performed by all. ‘It was great to see professional contemporary dance,’ said a young person sitting next to me. The students are being taught by Sarah-Jayne Howard (back row in a red top in the image below), who joined the dancers for the attached group photo taken at the end of the showcase.

Sarah-Jayne Howard with first year dancers from Adelaide College of the Arts tertiary dance program, 2025. Photo: © Tim Potter

Press for June 2025

– ‘Carmen – so different, so beautiful and so well danced.’ Review of Carmen. The Australian Ballet. CBR City News, 21 June 2025. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 30 June 2025

Featured image: Elizabeth Dalman in Symbiosis, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra. Australian Dance Party, 2021. Photo © Michelle Potter. (To see a review of Dalman’s performance in Symbiosis activate this link)

Dance diary. May 2025

Illume. Bangarra Dance Theatre

The May edition of Qantas Magazine carried a two page spread on visual artist Darrell Sibosado, who is the designer for the forthcoming Bangarra production, Illume. The article, written by Kate Hennessy, had the title ‘This First Nations visual artist is shining new light on ancient ceremonial carvings’. From reading the article, I discovered that Darrell Sibosado comes from the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia and that his family is one of carvers, who, across time, have created designs on pearl shells to be used in particular ceremonies. In the article Sibosado says that, historically, the work of his family is ‘about capturing the iridescence, shine and many layers of the pearl’. It will be interesting to see how this background translates into his designs for Illume, in which Bangarra suggests we will ‘step out of the shadows and into the phenomena of light—the central life force of our planet’.

illumine, with choreography from Frances Rings, opens in Sydney on 4 June 2025 before travelling elsewhere. See the Bangarra website for further details of the creators and of the performance schedule.

Bonsai Ballerina

Jennifer Price was a dancer in Chicago but, after retiring, became transfixed by the art of Bonsai and took up the study of the creative procedure behind that art form. She was recently in Canberra for the 2025 AABC National Bonsai Convention, which celebrated (amongst other things) the 50th anniversary of the Canberra Bonsai Society. The convention closed with an exhibition (free to the public) and the images below are two of the items that were on display in that exhibition.

Two examples of Bonsai from the Canberra Bonsai Exhibition, 2025. Photos: © Michelle Potter

I know very little about Price’s dance background, and probably less about the art of Bonsai, but from the often stunning examples on show in the exhibition I was not surprised that a former dancer was moved to look deeper into the art form. I was attracted of course by the name that the media gave to Price—’Bonsai Ballerina’!

Stanton Welch on a new Raymonda

I have been thinking recently about Queensland Ballet’s repertoire of ‘reimagined’ narratives for well known ballets—Greg Horsman’s La Bayadère and Coppélia for example. So I was interested to discover that Stanton Welch, Australian artistic director of Houston Ballet since 2003, has just created a new version of Raymonda. It opened on 29 May and the YouTube link below features Welch talking about creating this work.

Chandrabhanu turns 75

Back in 1998 I recorded an oral history interview for the National Library of Australia with dancer Dr Chandrabhanu, whose particular interests were, and still are in Bharata Natyam, Odissi and contemporary dance. That interview is available for research purposes but any public use of it requires written permission. A summary of the contents of the interview can, however, be seen at this link.

Chandrabhanu, ca. 1998. Photo: © Jim Hooper/National Library of Australia

Well Dr Chandrabhanu is turning 75 this year and his latest production, Bharata Natyam Reprise, will celebrate that personal milestone with a revival in Melbourne in early June of classical and contemporary compositions of the Bharatam Dance Company. See this link for further details.

Press for May 2025

– ‘Multi-media novelty item that was sometimes over the top.’ Review of A Book of Hours, Rubiks Collective. CBR City News, 4 May 2025. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 31 May 2025

Featured image: Media image for Illume, Bangarra Dance Theatre, 2025. Photo: © Daniel Boud

Manon. The Australian Ballet (2025)

14 May 2025. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House

Having just reread Different Drummer, Jann Parry’s 2009 biography of Kenneth MacMillan, choreographer of the ballet Manon, I was curious to see the Australian Ballet’s production of that work. Would the background that Parry provides in her biography open up the work for me. Well I wasn’t disappointed.

As a choreographer MacMillan is definitely a ‘different drummer’ and it was a particular treat to watch his pas de deux, the format with which, according to Parry, he loved to start work on each new initiative. Although I thought some of the pas de deux in Manon might be considered a little long (the final one in which Manon died in the arms of Lescaut for example), all were spectacular in terms of the connections, physical and emotional, that the choreography set up between whichever two characters were involved. Not only that I was fascinated to watch the tiny details MacMillan put into his choreography. The feet and the hands often took on surprising details, and the pirouettes and tours en l’air from the male dancers often ended in unusual ways that clearly required exceptional technical input. Then there was MacMillan’s handling of groups of dancers, including some quite beautiful moments of canon-style choreography. As a whole, the choreography of Manon is truly masterful.

But who staged the production I wondered? For the choreography to look as remarkable as it did, the work also needed to be staged well and with more than a passing understanding of what constitutes excellence in staging a narrative ballet. It turned out that this production was staged by Laura Morera and Gregory Mislin. Mislin is the Royal Ballet’s choreologist. Morera is a former Royal Ballet dancer whose work I have admired on many an occasion but who is now artistic supervisor for both the MacMillan and the Scarlett Estates. Morera was recently principal coach for Queensland Ballet’s production of MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, which was staged by Gary Harris. Both Harris and Morera did a magnificent job on that occasion. So I was not a bit surprised when I discovered Morera had staged the Australian Ballet’s Manon. The Australian Ballet’s Manon, like the Queensland Ballet Romeo and Juliet, was completely engaging as a story from beginning to end, as well of course as being fabulously danced by the impressive artists of the Australian Ballet.

At the mid-season matinee I attended I saw Jill Ogai as Manon and Marcus Morelli as Des Grieux, Manon’s (eventual and final) lover. Both danced well, perhaps especially Morelli who attacked the choreography with strength and commitment. But for me the standout dancers were Cameron Holmes as Lescaut (Manon’s brother) and Katherine Sonnekus as Lescaut’s mistress. They both have secure techniques, which allows plenty of freedom to develop characterisation. The acting from both of them was outstanding making it easy for the audience to engage with them. The absolute highlight was their pas de deux in Act II at the party given by Madame X (Gillian Revie) at which Lescaut had had one too many glasses (or bottles) of alcohol. His drunken stumbles, at which the audience fell about laughing, simply made his attack on MacMillan’s demands look even more brilliant. Sonnekus managed to handle beautifully the many incredible lifts that, cleverly, looked like the work of a drunken man but which were definitely MacMillan-esquely balletic.

The music by Jules Massenet was nicely played by Opera Australia Orchestra while Peter Farmer’s sets and costumes evoked well the period and the locations. With all aspects of the production working together so well, the story (which I have not gone into in detail here*) was clear and the two to three hours of dancing was an absolute delight.

I guess my one quibble is that this production really needs a bigger stage than that of the Joan Sutherland Theatre (a common issue of course). There were times, especially in Act I, when there was just too much happening on stage. The activities were being brilliantly handled but there were times when those activities were too close to the main action and were thus distracting from that action to too great an extent.

Despite the quibble, this production of Manon showed MacMillan’s brilliance. Huge compliments must go to Laura Morera and Gregory Mislin for their input in making that brilliance shine through, not forgetting that the dancing was splendid across the board from the dancers of the Australian Ballet.

Michelle Potter, 15 May 2025

Featured image: Artists of the Australian Ballet in the card scene from Act II of Manon, 2025. Photo: © Daniel Boud

*For a synopsis of Manon see this link.

Dance diary. April 2025

April is the middle month of Autumn in the southern hemisphere. Spectacular colours abound in nature as dance for 2025 continues, despite a disheartening approach to funding for the art form.

The difficult financial situation that Queensland Ballet is facing, for example, is more than disheartening, although the exact changes that are being made to the company are yet to be fully revealed. To date, Brett Clark, Chair of QB Board, is reported as saying (amongst other remarks on the situation): Over the years, we have worked hard to leverage our base grants from State and Federal Governments and have unapologetically advocated loudly for parity of Federal funding to bring us in line with our peers in New South Wales and Victoria. To date we have been unsuccessful.

In 2025, to ensure our ongoing sustainability, we have made the difficult decision to re-vision our organisation across our Artistic and Business teams which will see us farewell some of our artists and arts workers.

It is also thoroughly frustrating that in the lead-up to the federal election in Australia on 3 May no political party appears to have made any mention of the arts.

New books

Elizabeth Dalman’s book, Nature moves, was launched in Canberra on 27 April 2025 with a short opening performance from Vivienne Rogis and Peng Hsaio-yin. The performance was followed by a launch speech from Cathy Adamek, executive director of Ausdance ACT.

The performance was danced on a lawn that fronts a particular shopping area in Canberra, and under a large and very old tree—appropriate of course given that Dalman’s book examines dance and nature. When the dance came to an end, the audience simply crossed the road for the launch function, which was held in, and sponsored by, the local bookshop, The Book Cow.

Vivienne Rogis (standing) and Peng Hsaio-yin dancing at the launch of *Nature Moves*, Canberra 2025. Photo: © Michelle Potter

Under the heading ‘Press for April 2025’ (see below) is my short article, which was published in CityNews on 28 April 2025, and which expands a little on how the launch unfolded.

Nature Moves is available from The Book Cow, via this link.

I also discovered, quite accidentally, news about the latest publication by Jill Rivers, whose generosity to reviewers I remember clearly from a period, some years ago now, when she was media director for the Australian Ballet. Her current publication, The Genius of Nijinsky, is an interesting read as Rivers had spent much time speaking to the present-day family of Vaslav Nijinsky. Her presence with, and thoughts about, those family members in a range of situations, sometimes quite personal, are embedded within the story.

The Genius of Nijinsky can be bought via a link to the site Art-full Living.

David Hallberg at Jacob’s Pillow, 2012

The latest playlist from Jacob’s Pillow has a short clip of David Hallberg, currently artistic director of the Australian Ballet, performing Nacho Duato’s Kaburias. Watch at this link.

A still showing David Hallberg in a moment from *Kaburias*, Jacob’s Pillow 2012

Just a year or two prior to the performance at Jacob’s Pillow, I had the pleasure of seeing Hallberg perform solo in New York in the series Kings of the Dance. Read my review here.

International Dance Day 2025

International Dance Day, 29 April, is always celebrated with a message from a major figure in the dance world. This year, 2025, the message came from Mikhail Baryshnikov whose comment read:

It’s often said that dance can express the unspeakable. Joy, grief, and despair become visible; embodied expressions of our shared fragility. In this, dance can awaken empathy, inspire kindness, and spark a desire to heal rather than harm.

Especially now—as hundreds of thousands endure war, navigate political upheaval, and rise in protest against injustice—honest reflection is vital. It’s a heavy burden to place on the body, on dance, on art. Yet art is still the best way to give form to the unspoken, and we can begin by asking ourselves: Where is my truth? How do I honor myself and my community? Whom do I answer to?

Latvian-born, Baryshnikov defected from the USSR in 1974. He has performed in Australia on various occasions, including in 1975 when he appeared with Ballet Victoria.

Mikhail Baryshnikov as Albrecht. *Giselle*, Act Ii. Ballet Victoria, 1975. Photo: © Walter Stringer/National Library of Australia

Press for April 2025

Dalman’s book looks at the creation of dance in nature

Michelle Potter, 30 April 2025

Dance Week 2025. Savour the program being presented by Ausdance ACT

A somewhat intriguing sentence appears on the website of Ausdance ACT as the organisation sets out to introduce us to its program for Dance Week 2025. The suggestion is, Experience a tasting plate of performances, workshops, and activities for all ages with a range of free classes and events. Within those three sections (courses?) on the tasting plate—performances, workshops, and activities for all ages—there is a diverse menu from which we can choose.

Dance in the ACT has a community focus, which in a variety of ways reflects Canberra’s multicultural population. It also has a focus on diversity with the area’s dance activities also being inclusive of a range of ages with, for example, the presence of groups such as Canberra Dance Theatre’s GOLD company, which consists of dancers over the age of 55, and the Blueberries Classes for children from two to four years of age (and their parents). Many of these community groups have strong professional connections, but there is also a range of fully professional organisations focusing specifically on dance.

Dr Cathy Adamek, Executive Director of Ausdance ACT is convinced that dance has a particularly strong and well-defined presence in the ACT. She notes:

I have examined statistics from AusfitNation, which comes through the Department of Sport and Recreation and, according to those statistics, there are more dance studios per capita in the ACT than anywhere else in Australia. We have very strong student and pre-professional training pathways in Canberra. Not only that, perceptions of dance have changed. Dance has become a more inclusive form of activity. It has also become something that can be done at any level as a hobby.

Ausdance ACT’s 2025 Dance Week program brilliantly puts on display the complexity and diversity of dance in the ACT. Looking at the ‘Performance menu’, for example, there are presentations from Folk Dance Canberra; the Stellar Company featuring the Chamaeleon Collective and Hilal Dance Australia; Canberra Dance Theatre; QL2 Dance; a solo show from independent artist Mia Rashid; and a street performance combining contemporary dance, Butoh and improvisation.

A scene from *Stars in 3D* from the Chamaeleon Collective. *Stars in 3D* will feature in Dance Week 2025. Photo: © Andrew Sikorski

The ‘Workshop menu’ is also hugely varied and includes a Burlesque Workshop from the Menagerie of Misfits, and a Dance Film Workshop to discover, with Peng Hsiao-yin from Danceology Taiwan, how to film an original and creative self-portrait video. Then there’s the Australian Dance Party’s Immerse Lab with Omer Backley-Astrachan, a choreographer and educator who has worked with a range of dance companies across Australia, and an improvisation event with Debora Di Centa at Mirramu Creative Arts Centre. And more.

As for classes that are available, many of which are free to participants, the variety is impressive. They cross a wide range of dance styles—ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, belly dance, street dance, fitness, and other styles—and they range from classes for young children, classes for those with a disability, classes for older people, and more. One has a fascinating name: ‘Loitering & Leaping in the Library with ZEST’. It takes place in the National Library of Australia and is led by ZEST Dance for Wellbeing.

A class for older dancers. Photo: O&J Wikner Photography

Cathy Adamek stresses that there is a very strong emphasis on participation and inclusiveness in this year’s program, along with what she refers to as ‘a real rise and engagement with a younger generation as well as connections we have been able to make with some independent artists.’

Dance Week, which is always held around the date of International Dance Day on 29 April, runs in Canberra from 28 April to 5 May. The tasting plate looks delicious.

Here is the link to the full program for Dance Week in the ACT. Watch or participate, or both. Dance is for everyone.

Michelle Potter, 23 April 2025

Dance diary. March 2025

Norton Owen. Director of Preservation, Jacob’s Pillow

Norton Owen is Director of Preservation at Jacob’s Pillow, an exceptional centre for dance that includes a school and a performance space in Becket, Massachusetts, in the beautiful mountainous region of the Berkshires. Norton has been awarded the 2025 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. It is in celebration of his 50th year of being on the staff of Jacob’s Pillow and carries a cash award of $25,000, to be used however the awardee wishes. It also includes a custom-designed glass sculpture by Berkshire-based artist Tom Patti. The award is financed by an ongoing annual gift from an anonymous donor.

I have great memories of Norton and his work, including the ‘Pillow Talk’ I did with Gideon Obarzanek at Jacob’s Pillow way back in 2007. The invitation for me to participate came from Norton and since then I have enjoyed following the work he does. In particular I love receiving the monthly playlist of excerpts from footage preserved at Jacob’s Pillow, which reflects the works that have been presented over the years at the Pillow.

From the March 2025 playlist, whose title is ‘Ailey Connections’, I especially enjoyed Pas de Duke, created originally for Judith Jamison and Mikhail Baryshnikov by Alvin Ailey in 1976 to ‘Old Man Blues’ by Duke Ellington. The footage of Pas de Duke on the March 2025 playlist is from a 2024 presentation, performed on that occasion by two alumni of Jacob’s Pillow school—Jacquelin Harris and Patrick Coker. Watch the 2024 Pas de Duke here.

But the playlist is but one aspect of a wider online platform for which Norton is responsible—Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive. It can by accessed at this link.

Norton’s award is so well-deserved. He is an exceptional curator of dance matters.

Recent reading

Again from my collection of dance books that either I didn’t get around to reading when I first acquired them, or that have generated new interest for one reason or another, I have just finished reading Carolyn Brown’s autobiography, Chance and Circumstance. Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham, and am in the middle of Jann Parry’s biography of Kenneth MacMillan, Different Drummer. The Life of Kenneth MacMillan.

Chance and Circumstance is surprising in its honest account of Brown’s attitude to her career and contains many, many insights into the personalities with whom she worked. Different Drummer is no hagiography! Parry gives a startling account of MacMillan’s mental issues, his alcoholism, and his bouts of anxiety, all of which explain to a certain extent the nature of the subjects he chose for his works. Both are well worth reading.

Some statistics for ‘on dancing’

I am always interested to read, via Google Analytics, which posts on this website are the most popular and which cities login to the site most frequently. In the last week of March, Sydney, London, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Wellington were the top five cities (in numerical order). Everything changes of course, even from day to day, and popularity reflects the timing of posts in most cases. In the last week in March, the top five posts in order were ‘RNZB with Scottish Ballet’; ‘Romeo and Juliet. Queensland Ballet’; ‘Essor. Yolanda Lowatta’; and ‘Choros (I dance). Coralie Hinkley’.

I am sometimes curious when an older post pops up and, just recently, my obituary for philanthropist, Anne Bass, published in April 2020, kept appearing on the top ten list. I did a bit of research and discovered that her apartment on 5th Ave, New York, had been sold in January 2025. Clearly there had been interest in what had appeared online about her. And, as a matter of particular interest, her beautiful statue by Degas, ‘Little dancer aged fourteen’, sold separately two years earlier for a record price of $41.6 million.

I continue to think of her often. My 2020 obituary is at this link,

Michelle Potter, 31 March 2025

Ausdance Network Submissions. Federal Budget & Child Safety

As I write this an Australian federal budget is shortly to be delivered, just ahead of the 2025 federal election. Leading up to these two events, the Ausdance network has been working hard to bring dance to the attention of various areas of the Australian federal government. Two documents have recently been submitted:

Ausdance Federal Budget Submission: The Ausdance network is calling on the federal government to recognise the vital role dance plays in the nation’s health, economy, and cultural identity by making meaningful investments in the 2025 federal budget.

Read the full submission at this link: 3fef73_c1d02e36fa654ac3a23b062ea005578b.pdf

Ausdance National Office of Child Safety Submission: The national Ausdance network has made a landmark submission for dance to the National Office for Child Safety in response to its Child Safety Annual Reporting Framework consultation paper.

It is not possible to overstate the urgency expressed by Ausdance members to comprehensively address the issue of child safety. The overwhelming response of the dance sector – following substantial consultation over more than four years – is that it should be better regulated so the safety of children in organisations is improved.

The full submission is available at this link: FINAL Advocacy_AusdanceNationalsubmission_National-Office-Child-Safety – Adobe cloud storage

Dance is frequently marginalised, along with other areas of the arts, in government circles (with a few major exceptions and, without wishing to deny the input from others, the impact of former Prime Ministers Gough Whitlam and, later, Paul Keating spring immediately to mind). So it is always a more than commendable matter when efforts are made to promote the potential impact dance can make across a variety of areas of society.

Both Ausdance submissions are in depth approaches to what dance can accomplish for a wide section of the population. My fingers are crossed for a positive approach from those to whom the submissions have been made. So many will benefit, young and old across the many areas identified in the submissions.

Michelle Potter, 21 March 2025