My review of Swan? was published online by Canberra CityNews on 26 March 2026. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the CityNews post. Here is a link to the CityNews review. **************************************** 25 March 2026. The B, Queanbeyan First staged in Moscow in 1877, Swan Lake is one of the oldest ballets in the current theatrical repertoire. It is
13 March 2026. St. James Theatre, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Artsreviewed by Jennifer Shennan The program opens with Lament, by Moss Te Ururangi Patterson, performed by New Zealand Dance Company. Shayne Carter’s music has fragments of the traditional chant, E Pã Tõ Hau, commemorating an historic battle between Maori and British forces. during mid-19th century Land Wars.
My review of Impulse was published online by Canberra CityNews on 15 March 2026. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the CityNews post. Here is a link to the CityNews review. *************************** Australian Dance Party, Canberra’s professional dance company, is never one to perform in what we might call a conventional performance space. I don’t recall, for example, ever
via the ROH streaming platform I have to admit that I was bewildered by the name of Christopher Wheeldon’s 2018 work Corybantic Games. What did Corybantic actually mean and did it relate (as some reports or reviews suggest) to England’s hosting of the Olympic Games in 2012? Well, some research and a discussion with a colleague with a strong background
West Australian Ballet (WAB) announced earlier this month that Greg Horsman, having left Queensland Ballet (QB) late last year, had joined WAB as rehearsal director. Horsman brings to WAB decades of world-wide experience in performing, teaching, leadership roles, and choreographing. Horsman’s time with QB, which began when Li Cunxin was appointed director, saw the staging of several of his ballets,
25 February 2026. St James Theatre, Wellington Alice Topp’s version of Macbeth begins, as does the Shakespearean play itself, with three characters interacting with each other. They are witches in Shakespeare’s play, but called influencers in Topp’s ballet and, while Shakespeare’s witches are ‘serious’ individuals, the influencers are hilarious and somewhat crazy persons with phones that they frequently use. They
An obituary from Jennifer Shennan Matz Skoog was instrumental in strengthening and developing the art and profession of dance in New Zealand during his term as Artistic Director of Royal New Zealand Ballet (1996–2001). His wife, New Zealander Amanda Skoog, was General Manager (2006–2015) and Matz was at times ballet master or rehearsal director during that term as well. There
What a pleasure it is to post the news that Bangarra Dance Theatre has been awarded the prestigious Gold Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance by the Venice Biennale 2026. The award has been given previously to choreographers and dancers with Bangarra being the first company to receive it. It is also a first for Australian dance in any Golden
As Australia ponders, across a number of areas and from a number of points of view, the multicultural nature of the country, it was quite fascinating to read of the dancers who have joined Sydney Dance Company (SDC) for the 2026 season. The new appointments, which media information says will contribute to the dynamic physicality of the company, are Caití
Just recently I was alerted to a presentation, Deborah Beck: Revealing the lives of three Sydney artists’ models, in which Beck, currently a lecturer, archivist and collections manager at the National Art School in Sydney, discussed three women who had worked as artists’ models at various stages in their careers. One was Moira Claux, who danced for a number of