Black Swan, White Swan. Royal New Zealand Ballet
…and it comes at a price, a bit like an ad break. Diaghilev and Stravinsky, Douglas Wright and Lin Hwai Min knew how to choreograph for the theatre without inviting, or even allowing, applause in fits and starts. I was waiting and wondering how the themes might coalesce by the end, enjoying anticipation of that, but will confess I found the sudden dumping from a great height of a large bucket of water onto both Siegfried and von Rothbart, was a sur…
New Directions at New Zealand Dance Company
…, Graeme Murphy; the major directorship of the Company by Harry Haythorne; Douglas Wright works in Sydney Dance Company—and numerous other visits and exchanges in both directions—most recently by New Zealand Dance Company. The appointment of the new directors to NZDC, including Australian James O’Hara, thus has an inbuilt thread which could see further weaving between performers and audiences in the trans-Tasman Bubble. Chances to view the globa…
Reading during Wellington Lockdown
…atre in Taiwan, my all-time favourite contemporary dance company (now that Douglas Wright has gone) was also founded by Lin Hwai-Min in the same year as Neumeier’s company, in 1973. The repertoire of both companies has been exclusively of their choreographer/director’s works. These are phenomenal periods of longevity in performance arts and demonstrate that dance companies can survive on artistic genius with administration serving that vision, rat…
Glimpses of Graeme. Reflections on the work of Graeme Murphy. Book review
…me. It’s also a good memory that Murphy invited New Zealand choreographer Douglas Wright to stage his legendary Gloria, to Vivaldi, on Sydney Dance Company. Once when I was visiting Harry in Melbourne, he took a phone call from Graeme and I recall a very long conversation, more than an hour, with loads of laughter while Harry winked and indicated I should continue browsing his bookshelf. They were clearly best of mates with a great deal of respec…
Dance diary. February 2023 (Russell Kerr Lecture)
…ries: 2018 Dr Michelle Potter on the career of designer Kristian Fredrikson. 2019 Dr Ian Lochhead on the visits to New Zealand of Russian ballet companies, 1930s and 1940s. 2020 Jennifer Shennan on the life and work of Douglas Wright 2021 Anne Rowse on the life and career of Russell Kerr 2023 Patricia Rianne (as above) Michelle Potter, 28 February 2023 Featured image: Patricia Rianne and Jon Trimmer, 1978. Photo: © John Ashton…
Joan Acocella (1945–2024)
…aken to Dunedin where RNZBallet were performing a season including halo by Douglas Wright, and Mark Morris’ Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, and her resulting review was full of interest. Then in Wellington Joan conducted a weekend dance-writing workshop—some dozen of us attended NDT’s Mozart program, wrote a review overnight, delivered those to Joan at her hotel before breakfast then met mid-morning to hear her comments on our various reviews. I…
Orbiculus. New Zealand School of Dance Choreographic Season
…ch a lost art? There are models to study, some to emulate, some to eschew. Douglas Wright probably produced the best program copy I’ve encountered—pithy, poetic, themed; locally, Lucy Marinkovich and Sasha Copland know how to write about what they’ve choreographed; then there’s Cloud Gate, and Hamburg Ballet, and the weekly listings of events in The New Yorker that capture mercurial dance in wondrously lucid precis. Words about dance matter becaus…
The Nutcracker. The Australian Ballet (2014)
…oan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House There is a lot to like in Peter Wright’s version of The Nutcracker, the Australian Ballet’s final show for 2015. But once again the stage of the Joan Sutherland Theatre showed its inadequacies as an opera/ballet venue. What a squash it was at times! I admired in particular the logic that Wright has introduced into the story, including the expanded role played by Drosselmeyer, admirably performed by Rudy H…
Inside There Falls. Mira Calix and Sydney Dance Company
…kindly supplied by the Sydney Festival, below are some I took during my visit to the installation — and yes, for once photography was allowed! They show the two dancers I saw, Sam Young-Wright and Laura Wood. Michelle Potter, 19 January 2015 Featured image: Scene from Inside there falls, Sydney Festival 2015. Photo: Michelle Potter…
Frame of Mind. Sydney Dance Company
…s to Canberra in April–May and Melbourne in May. Chloe Leong and Sam Young-Wright in William Forsythe’s Quintett, Sydney Dance Company. Photo: © Peter Greig The Forsythe piece, danced to Gavin Bryars’ Jesus’ blood never failed me yet, reminded me of an event that occurred several years ago now, at a time when people used to go into shops to buy their music. My husband went into a then very well-known music store in Canberra (since closed down) to…