Russell Kerr (1930–2022) Scripting the Dreams
…entire journey sitting in a deck chair planning how to establish a ballet company that might in time become a national one. Upon arrival he was astonished to learn that Poul Gnatt, formerly with Royal Danish Ballet, had already formed the New Zealand Ballet and, thanks to Community Arts Service and Friends of the Ballet since 1953, ‘…they were touring to places in my country I’d never even heard of. So I ditched my plans and Poul and I found a wa…
Dance diary. August 2014
…t of this award winning exhibition is at this link. Press for August 2014 [Online links to press articles in The Canberra Times prior to 2015 are no longer available] ‘Odd mix misses the mark.’ Review of Boundless, Quantum Leap, The Canberra Times, 1 August 2014, ARTS p. 6. ‘S for spectacularly physical.’ Review of S, Circa, The Canberra Times, 8 August 2014, ARTS p. 7. ‘A swirl of colour.’ Review of Devdas the musical. The Canberra Times, 19 Aug…
Joan Acocella (1945–2024)
…nt, elegant and engaging. Her research for her writing seemed to know no bounds. And her way of thinking about dance was profoundly different from most dance writers. In the introduction to her book, Twenty-eight artists and two saints, a collection of essays written initially for other printed sources (largely but not exclusively for The New Yorker), she explains her point of view in relation to the essays included in the book. Her approach addre…
The golden ties that bind
…ancing with RNZB, had organized video messages to Christine from former students living and working afar. All the students then performed a massed Maori tribute, a waiata with the talisman wiri of quivering arms and hands that breathes life into dance. The male students delivered a mightily galvanised haka taparahi that could have given the All Blacks the shivers. The large gathering was a spirited one and no doubt evoked many and varied memori…
Reviewing dance
…recently some of those invitations have included words noting that I am welcome to come and ‘enjoy’ the show but that reviews are not desired. No one has actually said reviews are not to be written, are forbidden, or some such remark, but what is inferred is perfectly obvious. Why are reviews being dismissed? Don’t reviews have a place in the development of dance and dancers (even young ones?). Is this some kind of media manipulation? I struggle t…
Dance diary. January 2021
…ewart. Photo: © Meaghan Coles (www.nowandthenphotography.com.au) Photos by www.facebook.com/meaghancoles.nowandthenphotography CONTENTS FOR THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF CONTEMPORARY BALLET Acknowledgments About the Contributors Introduction On Contemporaneity in Ballet: Exchanges, Connections, and Directions in Form Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel and Jill Nunes Jensen Part I: Pioneers, or Game Changers Chapter 1: William Forsythe: Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and the…
Canberra dance. A professional company?
…rne. It’s an unusual place and those who have watched several professional companies come and go in Canberra since 1980, when Don Asker’s Human Veins Dance Theatre became Canberra’s first professional dance company, will all have an opinion as to what suits Canberra. Anyone who knows me well will not be surprised when I say that for me the most vibrant time for dance in Canberra was 1989 to 1992 when the Meryl Tankard Company was the city’s reside…
Dance diary. January 2022
…iscuss ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’. Revenge tragedies always have a tragic outcome, but Melbourne Theatre Company’s 1975 production of the Jacobean play ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’ had a surprising and very positive outcome for the future of dance in Australia. The talk references Dr Potter’s stunning book Kristian Fredrikson; Designer as the designer of the production and acts as a soft launch for the National Library of Australia’s On Stage exhibition…
Dance. Lucinda Childs Dance Company
…malist art. But behind the facade of minimalism is a structural and visual complexity. Artists of Lucinda Childs Dance Company in Dance, 2009. Photo: © Sally Cohn The work consists of three separate sections each about the same length—twenty minutes. In the opening section, the dancers—eleven in the company I saw—move across the stage from left to right, mostly working in pairs, with their dancing pushed along comet-like by the Glass score. At fir…
Dance diary. June 2012
…and directed by Sally Richardson and I was pleased to see the two NICA students I had interviewed for the Heath Ledger Project, Josie Wardrope and Simon Reynolds, taking major roles in the show. In fact the ‘Lucy’ of the show’s title was Josie Wardrope. Wardrope’s performance on flying trapeze in the closing scene was thrilling, while the variety of skills at which Simon Reynolds excels is remarkable. It was, in addition, a pleasure to see other…