Transfigured Night. Ballet Collective Aotearoa & Chamber Music New Zealand
…cting from the music they have long known and loved well, but not those around me who giggled and applauded and loved it, as indeed did I. It was a commedia dell’arte romp, full of cheer and light, with inspired little fragments of Hungarian folk dance, dumka and czardas, caught in the many nimble rhythm and tempo changes. Two of those repeated movement motifs carried me back decades to pas and port de bras of the little Russian dance in RAD’s Gr…
Dance diary. March 2020
…dancers and the tastes of audiences in Australia. I also want to bring the company around the world. I have these amazing contacts I’ve made throughout my career that I want The Australian Ballet to benefit from. And I want to dive into the company’s responsibility to the greater Australian community. A lot of that has to do with education and really getting into isolated communities in Australia, communities that don’t necessarily make it to the…
Jungle Book Reimagined. Akram Khan Company
…of new lands, but there’s disaster on all sides and many do not make it. Sound familiar? Mowgli the girl child is a casualty, separated from her family, and she ends up in a wild place, a jungle where the wolves will discuss who’s to care for her. Sound familiar? How prescient was Kipling, how sharp is Khan. Throughout the show many other large-scale images are projected onto several gauze curtains layered across the stage … herds of giraffes stam…
Anzac Day 2020. Aotearoa New Zealand
…ung men are in a faraway other place, a different game, writhing on the ground, in an agony of wounds, bleating like sheep. The gorilla passes a microphone among them to record their messages for relaying home. The bleating becomes recognisable as a cry of pathos, ‘Mummy, Mummy’ from one dying soldier after another. Says it all really. Jennifer Shennan, 25 April 2020 Featured image: Dancers of Royal New Zealand Ballet in Passchendaele, 2015. Pho…
Awkward. Catapult Dance Choreographic Hub
…of double performing space when performing this work in other venues? The company certainly looked very comfortable moving up and down, back and forth. It was a shame, however, that the performance was as long as it was—it lasted around 75 minutes. After a while the choreography started to look repetitive and Awkward could have been 15 or 20 minutes shorter and saved itself from losing its power. The multi-disciplinary nature of the work was some…
Australian Dance Week, 2023. Ausdance ACT
…PG’s current exhibition ‘Portrait 23: Identity’. This new, short work is accompanied by an original sound design by Morgan Hickinbotham. It will also be seen in the break between the two works on the Batchelor & Lea program. The GOLDs in a study for Leaning, Rippling, Breathing, 2023. Photo: © James Batchelor/Zander Porter Lea’s Stellar Company, a multi-arts dance company working in an inclusive, intercultural. intergenerational capacity, is prese…
Cinderella by two: some thoughts
…ome of the lighting and projections reminded me of sections of Wild Swans, which is not a bad thing in my opinion. I often ponder how Wild Swans the ballet has pretty much slipped from view whereas Elena Kats-Chernin’s delicious score, or parts of it, are heard often. Such is dance I guess. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBkz8SaMzRQ It seems unlikely that we will see Tankard’s Cinderella in Australia, at least not in the near future. It sounds an…
Some thoughts on Giselle and the Paris Opera Ballet
…nri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and was based on a story by the German writer Heinrich Heine. Its music was composed by Adolphe Adam and its choreography created by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. On opening night the role of Giselle was danced by Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi and her performance that night established her as a major star. Since that opening performance Giselle has hardly been out of the ballet repertoire making it one of the most e…
Platinum. Royal New Zealand Ballet
…w Zealand Ballet, 2023. Photos: © Stephen A’Court The final work, for full company, was a premiere—Prismatic, choreographed by Shaun James Kelly, a tribute to the Company’s landmark work, Prismatic Variations, made by Russell Kerr and Poul Gnatt in 1959. There was an attractive energy, personality and enthusiasm from this cast, with a spirited final image of a dancer poised aloft high above all the group, suggesting airborne hope. It was in consid…
Spring Dance 2010 (1). Transports exceptionnels
…Sydney venue, which also impressed Priasso as he discussed in the interview, but it does give a vague idea of what the work was like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK7ayqN1f0U Photos: Michelle Potter…