The Sleeping Beauty. Queensland Ballet
…he pondered the lack of love in his life. But once he started dancing I found him a little wooden. I wished he would move his upper body with more fluidity and use his feet more strongly. Gary Harris’ sets are gorgeous. His interiors recall Gothic architecture with its emphasis on soaring space; his exteriors are airy, beautiful places in which the story can unfold; and the final scene with its starry background provides an especially elegant set…
Alexei Ratmansky. ‘The real thing’
…others who worked with Ratmansky on that Australian production. They all found it a huge pleasure and had nothing but praise for Ratmansky. But nothing changes my opinion of his Scuola di ballo, and I had nothing to go on other than what I saw on stage, which is as it should be for any reviewer. However, I now believe that David was right, at least in the wider scheme of things. I recently had the good fortune to see two performances of Ratmansky’…
Murphy. The Australian Ballet … second viewing
…of Charluet’s work and nostalgic reminders of how exceptional Sydney Dance Company was under Murphy and Vernon. Shéhérazade, however, remained a disappointment without its silk tent. It might be one thing to perform an excerpt without the full set, which if I recall correctly was the case in Body of Work (2002) when just the opening pas de deux was performed. But the Murphy program presented the full work and it truly lost its mysterious and eroti…
Don Quixote. La Scala Ballet
…n production, in part due to the set design by Raffaele Del Savio with its combination of architectural ruins and European-style architecture in the village square, not to mention its tavern scene at the beginning of Act III, and the quite beautiful, almost ruined wooden windmill in the Gypsy Encampment scene at the beginning of Act II. Don Quixote arrives in the village square. La Scala Ballet. Photo Marco Brescia & Rudi Amisano. Courtesy Teatro…
whY Chromozone. Tempo Dance Festival
…shaped dance we saw. Dane Head, a 14 year old pupil of Allan Barry at Mt. Eden Ballet Academy, performed the peasant pas male variation from Giselle. His impressively clean technique and sound musicality, coupled with his obvious delight in dancing, made for a pleasant experience for him and us, both. Outcast by Fenjay Sapon was a quartet of Unitec dancers often pitching one against three. Confident in their strength and their ability to build atm…
Glimpses of Graeme now available and launch date set
…flections on the work of Graeme Murphy, is now available at the FortySouth online store. This is a ‘niche book’ and only 350 copies have been printed. Buy your copy soon. Here is the link to the FortySouth store. Glimpses of Graeme will be launched in Hobart on 18 November at which MADE (Mature Artists Dance Experience) will perform excerpts from works created for them by Murphy. For more information about the launch follow this link. Scroll down…
Ballets Russes: ‘We’re going to Australia’
…1 Modified text and PowerPoint slides at this link Some audio clips as used in the live talk and referred to in the text: Irina Baronova on coming to Australia in 1938; Kira Bousloff on farewelling the company in 1939. The full audio interviews with Baronova and Bousloff are available online from the National Library of Australia: Baronova; Bousloff. Michelle Potter, 1 January…
Twyla Tharp
…s well worth a read. Here is the link. Reading the article so soon after seeing In the Upper Room in Melbourne, I was inspired to search through my bookshelf for Tharp’s autobiography, Push comes to shove, published in 1992. There I read a little about the genesis of and inspiration for In the Upper Room. In particular, I was fascinated by Tharp’s account of the role of the two women who open and close the work. Tharp writes: In picturing the grea…
Dance diary. November 2012
…sented to dancer and mentor, Francis Owusu. There is an enormous amount of community dance currently being practised in the ACT and Francis Owusu founded Kulture Break, a not-for-profit charitable creative arts organisation with a community focus. It acts as an outlet for young people to build self-confidence through dance. Reviews: The Canberra Times Here are links to my reviews published during November by The Canberra Times—performances by Les…
Tamara Tchinarova Finch (1919–2017)
…pt from that interview in which Tchinarova talks about Hélène Kirsova. The complete interview and transcript is available online at this link.* I met Tchinarova again, and her daughter Anita, in New Orleans at a Ballets Russes conference/reunion in 2000 but in 2004 a remarkable event occurred. I was dance curator at the National Library at the time and in that capacity I received an enquiry from Moscow via the now defunct website, Australia Dancin…