Dance diary. September 2026

My name is Maisey

Early in September I had the pleasure again of seeing a performance from the Bachelor of Creative Arts second and third year students in Dance from the Adelaide College of the Arts, working together with fellow students in Technical Production & Design.

I wondered, I have to andmit, about the name of the work. Who was Maisey? Well, it seems that one chair, amidst the various chairs that were used in the show, was especially significant. One of the students told me it represented ‘grandma’s chair’ and that the choreographer’s grandma was named Maisey. Later I discovered via the program that this was indeed the case.

Grandma’s chair from *My name is Maisey*, Adelaide College of the Arts, 2026. Photo: © travels by gabi

Choreographed by Rhiannon McLean, the ‘narrative’ of the work, according to program notes, is: ‘… a reference to time and memory of what we hold in our body as knowledge, what our minds read as fact and what one person might remember over another, in the same place, in the same room, at the same time.’

I’m not quite sure what the purpose of the chairs was but I suspect, since all the chairs were different, they represented individuals present and past? But I particularly enjoyed one section—an expressive fight over a chair, danced by the two male dancers in the group.

All things considered, the work was beautifully danced by all, whether they were performing singly, in a group, or with another dancer in a duet. It is always a thrill, too, to see the way in which the Adelaide College dancers and technical students work so well together. A terrific training experience for future professional careers.

BOLD 2026

Liz Lea established the BOLD Festival in Canberra in 2017 and went on to present further BOLD events in 2019, 2022 and 2024. BOLD celebrates the legacy of dance in all cultures, and from dancers of all abilities and generations. This year, 2026, BOLD is partnering with the Craft + Design Canberra Festival and, as a result, the focus is on dance and design with further emphasis on dissent and disability. BOLD 2026 will run from 6-15 November at various venues. It will include a two day symposium at the Canberra Museum and Gallery on 12-13 November and a great range of other events.

The full program is still being finalised but a selection of live performances and films has been publicised. Just as a taster, the Festival will close on 15 November with a triple bill, Being BOLD. Anca Frankenhaeuser, Patrick Harding-Irmer and Chrissie Koltai will present I Thought You Were Dead But Here You Are and Sue Healey will share two of her films, Angels, My Angels, My Glorious Angels, choreographed and performed by Frankenhaeuser, and The Cry of the Whistler, a film about Jane Mortiss—a dancer, artist, naturalist and farmer who battled mental illness through her art. This is the story of her last work.

Stay tuned for further information.

Screenshot showing Anca Frankenhaeuser in a moment from Sue Healey’s short film *Angels, My Angels, My Glorius Angels*

Press for September 2026

– ‘Choreographer Batchelor investigates Bodenwieser.’ Review of Reviewing a Pedagogy for the Bodenwieser Technique, James Batchelor and colleagues. CBR CityNews, 07 September 2026. Online at this link

– ‘Dancers and audience go ‘All In together.’ Review of All in, Dance Makers Collective and colleagues. CBR CityNews, 25 September 2026. Online at this link

– ‘Vivienne conquers her problems … with cake’. Review of The Whole Cake, Vivienne Rogis. CBR CityNews, 28 September 2026. Online at this link.

MIchelle Potter, 30 September 2026

Featured image: A moment from My name is Maisey, Adelaide College of the Arts, 2026. Photo: © travels by gabi

Dance diary. July 2026

Patricio Revé

As the Royal Ballet moves into its 2026-2027 season, I can’t help reflecting on how lucky we were to be able to watch Patricio Revé, now a principal dancer with the Royal, grow as an artist during his time with Queensland Ballet. But nor can I help feeling how much we will now miss him (unless of course we can pop over to London every so often!). Revé was dancing as a guest artist with the Royal Ballet for several months after leaving Queensland Ballet in mid 2025. It is hard not to wonder why this move happened. It was of course a critical time for Queensland Ballet and the question of why Revé and others moved on remains something of a closely guarded secret at the moment. But Revé was offered an appointment as a principal with the Royal Ballet in January 2026 with the appointment to begin officially with the 2026-2027 season.

Revé was a stalwart member of Queensland Ballet from 2018. How smart was Li Cunxin to bring him from Cuba to dance in Australia? His performances were always memorable, and the Royal Ballet’s appointment is Australia’s loss. For more about Patricio Revé on this website, follow this link.

Watch below, too, to see Revé dancing in Cuba in March 2026 with Marianela Nuñez in the Act III pas de deux from Don Quixote. If you can take your eyes off Revé and Nuñez, the corps de ballet dancers working upstage are worth watching. Their actions and poses are often somewhat rustic, especially those of the men seated upstage centre. Cuba has a different take on Don Quixote from what we have frequently seen in Australia.

Beth Dean

Following on from my recent, brief item on Beth Dean in last month’s Dance diary, I received a comment from my colleague, Jennifer Shennan, about the role Dean had played in her life and as part of our dance history in general. The comment can be seen at the end of the Dance diary for June 2026.

Jennifer’s comment made me continue to think about what I had uncovered from the collection of items I discovered in the National Library of Australia’s manuscript collection. It was particularly interesting to read more of the background to Dean’s 1954 creation of Corroboree. She wrote of the role she, as a woman, needed to play during her participation in various Aboriginal ceremonies that led into her creation of her work:

Women do stay for certain periods of time, and when the bullroarers roar forth with the sound of thunder, we all ran out to a far distant stream bed which was dry, and we waited there while certain ceremonies were done, which showed blood or sacred red-ochre colourings or patterns that the women are not supposed to see because it would make then ill. It’s too strong a magic.

Dean’s husband, Victor Carell, was able to stay throughout the entire ceremony that Dean writes about and he was able to assist in the final outcome of the work. Dean herself danced the role of the boy initiate.

Study of Beth Dean as the boy initiate in *Corroboree*, 1954. Image: © Enid T Dickson. Collection of the National Library of Australia

As I noted in my earlier discussion, it is totally fascinating material, provided we look at it as coming from the 1950s.

Simone Forti (1935-2026)

Simone Forti, American dance innovator who worked with particular strength during the period that is now called postmodern, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 91 years. Forti briefly entered my academic life when I began research for my PhD, which focused on the visual artists, in particular Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, who collaborated with Merce Cunningham. Forti, an Italian by birth, took classes at the Cunningham studio and there was introduced to the work of John Cage. Her background is documented in some detail on Wikipedia.
Vale!
.

Simone Forti speaking ay Beyond Baroque Library Arts Centre, Los Angeles 2007. Wikimedia Commons

Press for July 2026

– ‘Determined dancing on a knife’s edge.’ Review of Mettle, Quantum Leap Australia. CBR CityNews, 25 July 2026. Online at this link

Michelle Potter, 31 July 2026

Featured image: Patricio Revé in Rhapsody in Blue. Queensland Ballet, 2023. Photo: © David Kelly

Dance diary. June 2026

Lucy Guerin moves on

Lucy Guerin, director and founder of the Melbourne-based contemporary dance company Lucy Guerin Inc, will step down from her position at the end of 2026. Guerin established her company 25 years ago and, while 25 years is a more than commendable time to have been at the helm of a dance company, the news came as something of a shock. Guerin said of her decision:

After 25 years, I have decided to step down as Artistic Director of LGI to explore new directions in dance. I founded the company in 2002 to support the making and touring of my productions, but over the years it has become so much more than that. It is now a centre for choreography, discussion, learning, connection and ideas and there are so many who have worked incredibly hard to support this organization. I am deeply grateful to all of them

Guerin will continue to lead the company until the end of 2026 and will perform a solo work in October before relinquishing her role as director. The LGI Board will begin a search for a new director in the coming weeks. It will be interesting to see who will be selected to take on the position vacated by Guerin, and what new role Guerin will take on in the future.

For posts about Lucy Guerin on this website follow this link.

Adelaide College of the Arts

I had the pleasure of being in Adelaide recently where I saw a performance by dance and design students from Years 2 and 3 at the Adelaide College of the Arts. The evening consisted of two original dance works, Made to_ by Singaporean guest choreographer Ru Ma, along with there & gone by Peter Sheedy, lecturer and course co-ordinator for the dance program at the College.

The students performed exceptionally well in both works although I especially admired the Sheedy work. It was a thoroughly abstract work making great use of onstage objects that were moved around the stage at various times. It also had the dancers constantly regrouping in various ways and was in fact an exceptional way of introducing students to the various possibilities of choreography. A great training piece although the dancers performed like professionals rather than students in training.

News from Loughlan Prior

Loughlan Prior’s production of Hansel Gretel, made originally for Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2019, has just recently been performed in Las Vegas by Nevada Ballet Theatre. It was really well received there and was described in one review as a ‘spectacular, surreal imagining’ of the well-known story with ‘stunning visual design’ and ‘high energy choreography’.

Read Jennifer Shennan’s review of the work as seen in Wellington in 2019 at this link, and also her review of the 2023 return season at this link.

Prior is currently working in London on a new show, The McRae/Vassiliev Project, in collaboration with director Natalie Abrahami, dancer and choreographer Steven McRae, musician Vasko Vassilev, and dancer Sarah Lamb. Inspired by the work of violinist Niccolo Paganinit, it will premiere in September in the Linbury Theatre at London’s Royal Opera House.

See more about The McRae/Vassiiev Project at this link.

Loughlan Prior and Laura Saxon-Jones performing with artists from the New Zealand School of Music, 2019. Photo: © Stephen Gibbs

Beth Dean

I quite accidentally came across a small manuscript collection of material about Beth Dean held in the National Library in Canberra (MS 10011, received 2004). I was always under the impression that her collection was held in Sydney at the State Library of New South Wales, and indeed there is a substantial collection there. But somehow a small number of items found their way to Canberra. It was a thrill to find some early photographs of Dean, which I had never seen before.

Beth Dean in Cleveland, Ohio, 1935. Photo: © Harry A Cole

But especially interesting, given that several years ago now (and without being aware of the NLA material), I had given a paper on dance in Australia in the 1950s. My talk focused on Australian themes and my mention of Dean included a brief discussion of her choreography for an Australia focused work called G’day Digger danced to a score by John Antill. So, I was especially interested in Dean’s writings in the NLA collection regarding her extensive research for her production of Corroboree, also danced to an Antill score and created especially for presentation during a visit to Australia in 1954 by Queen Elizabeth II. Of her approach to the story of her Corroboree Dean wrote:

The story of my “Corroboree” was about a young boy and his initiation, and his facing of himself and of the chimeras of our fears and our imagination. The Dreamtime stories of his ancestors are shown to him, as they were when we sat in the red dust with those people during all their ceremonies.

And of her background research she wrote:

For my version of the ballet I had spent those months [on which she elaborates at length elsewhere in the papers] living with the Aboriginal people studying their mythology, but even more finding the beauty and the depth of their discipline.

It is totally fascinating material, provided we look at it as coming from the 1950s.

Press for June 2026

– ‘Opera Gala (Snow Concert Hall ).’ Review of Opera Gala. Limelight Magazine, 1 June 2026. Online at this link.

– ‘Physicality fuels Sydney Dance Company’s engine.’ Review of Engine, Sydney Dance Company. CBR CityNews, 25 June 2026. Online at this link

Michelle Potter, 30 June 2026

Featured image: Portrait of Lucy Guerin. Photo: © Amber Haines

Dance diary. May 2026

Alice Topp goes to Houston

In January 2026 Alice Topp lost pretty much everything in a devastating bushfire in Harcourt, the small town in regional Victoria where she lived. The rebirth of the town led to her latest work, Sisu, a Finnish word meaning, as Topp explained in an article in Houston Chronicle, ‘finding hope when you can’t see the light’. Sisu was premiered by Houston Ballet on 28 May 2026 and a reviewer for Houston Chronicle, Adam Castaneda, wrote:

Houston Ballet’s triple bill An Evening with the Stars opened Thursday night [28 May 2026] with a powerful and introspective world premiere of Australian choreographer Alice Topp. Sisu proved to be an evocative exploration of human responses to adversity, and how people survive through community, connection, and confluence.

In the circumstances that led to the development of Sisu, I am simply staggered that, in just under two months after the fire, Topp managed to produce her amazing production of Macbeth for Royal New Zealand Ballet. And now Sisu!

Beau Dean Riley Smith: a fellowship

Recently announced was the establishment of the Shaun Parker & Company Choreographic Fellowship funded by the New York-based Denise and Michael Kellen Foundation. The fellowship, which grew out of the development of a relationship with the Foundation by Shaun Parker, offers the astonishing amount of $100,000 per year to support the development of significant dance works by leading choreographic artists.

It is an absolute delight to hear that the inaugural recipient of the award is Beau Dean Riley Smith, who will receive the fellowship over two to three years and will, in due course, present the world premiere of a work created on the dancers of Shaun Parker & Company.

Beau Dean Riley Smith at the Bennelong Photoshoot, Photography Tiffany Parker, 2017 — Beau Dean Riley Smith. Photo: © Tiffany Parker, 2017. Photo taken at a photo shoot for Bangarra Dance Theatre’s work *Bennelong*

Beau Dean Riley Smith is a Wiradjuri and Gamillaraay man from Dubbo NSW, raised on Yuin Country in Culburra Beach, Nowra, now living on Gadigal land. For more about Beau Dean Riley Smith on this website see this link.

Back in 2017 Shaun Parker was interviewed for the National Library of Australia’s oral history project. Listen at this link.

The Denise and Michael Kellen Foundation is a private foundation based in New York. It supports education, philanthropy, voluntarism, and Human Services, primarily in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Reading in May

Some years ago now I was given a book that a colleague had found in a book sale, which I have only now got around to reading. The book is Twin Journey and is an autobiography by Beth Dean and Victor Carell.

I am somewhat shocked I have to say at the appalling way in which the book was edited. There are just so many typographical errors, including one in which Beth is spelled Bth! Not only that there must have been something wrong with the printer as at times the printing is quite black whereas at other times it is much lighter. Nor is there any evidence that a designer was employed as the pages are without any form of pleasing spacing. And I could go on ….

It’s just as well the subject matter is quite interesting and certainly gives a different take on what Dean and Carell accomplished.

Press for May 2026

– ‘Sphere turns industrial Vault into living stage.’ Review of Sphere. Australian Dance Party. CBR City News, 15 May 2026. Online at this link.

– ‘Sheltering (Bangarra Dance Theatre).’ Review of Sheltering. Bangarra Dance Theatre. Limelight Magazine. 25 May 2026. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 31 May 2026

Featured image: Alice Topp and Artists of Houston Ballet rehearsing Sisu. Photo: © Alana Campbell, 2026. Courtesy of Houston Ballet.

Dance diary. April 2026

Dance week opening event—Ausdance ACT

The opening of 2026 Dance Week from Ausdance ACT took place on top of Canberra’s Mount Ainslie on 29 April, international Dance Day. Founded in 1982 by the International Theatre Institute, International Dance Day takes place annually on the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810). Noverre is generally regarded as the founder of modern ballet.

The Canberra event began with a Welcome to Country delivered by Ngunnawal elder Aunty Serena Williams, who also prepared and administered the smoking ceremony. The International Dance Day message for 2026 was written by Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite. It was read to the assembled audience on Mount Ainslie by Elizabeth Dalman. Follow this link to read the message.

(left) Aunty Serena begins the smoking ceremony; (right) Elizabeth Dalman reads the International Dance Day message. Photos: © Michelle Potter

The official introductory messages, which also included a welcome from ACT MLA Caitlin Tough, were followed by a solo dance by Liz Lea from her forthcoming production Diamond, and then a group dance by a range of Canberra-based performers, also a sneak peek at what the Diamond presentation might look like. All dancers were spectacularly dressed and Diamond, due to take the stage in August, promises much!

A few changes …

April was filled with news of changes to the careers of several leading figures in the Australian dance world. A move by Callum Linnane, exceptional principal artist with the Australian Ballet, was the first to be brought to my attention. Linnane will leave the Australian Ballet in June to take up a role as principal artist with Hamburg Ballet.

Callum Linnane in rehearsal for Alice Topp’s *Aurum*. Photo: © Jeff Busby

I have admired Linnane’s dancing for some time. For more about him, and my thoughts on his dancing on this website, see this link.

Raewyn Hill is moving on from her position as artistic director of Perth’s Co3 Contemporary Dance, a company she has led since its inception in 2014. She will remain with the company, which is presently searching for a new director, until the end of 2026. It is not yet clear how Hill’s future will unfold.

Then Kyle Page and Amber Haines, co-directors of Townsville-based Dancenorth, will also leave the company at the end of 2026. Their futures are also not clear at this stage.

Vale

It was sad to hear that Ben Stevenson had died in Fort Worth late in March.

In Australia Stevenson’s choreography has been brought to our attention by Li Cunxin, who worked with Stevenson after arriving in America from China when Stevenson was directing Houston Ballet (1976-2003). Li brought Stevenson to Australia on occasions to stage several of his works for Queensland Ballet. Stevenson’s productions of Nutcracker and Cinderella were especially popular.

Ben Stevenson in the Queensland Ballet studio with Li Cunxin. Photo: © David Kelly

From a personal point of view I continue to recall walking down a street in Dallas, Texas, one Sunday afternoon in 2011 and seeing two tutu-clad dancers walking along the same street. They were on a mission to advertise Stevenson’s then forthcoming presentation of Nutcracker for Texas Ballet Theater, which he directed after leaving Houston Ballet.

Texas Ballet Theater dancers, 2011. Photo: © Michelle Potter

Another book from Brisbane

After my visit to Archives Fine Books in Charlotte Street, Brisbane, in October last year (2025), when I discovered their range of second hand dance books, I had another opportunity to visit the shop after seeing Queensland Ballet’s presentation of Messa da Requiem in March this year (2026). I headed, of course, straight to the dance section and was pleased to find another book that was not part of my collection: Diaghilev. Creator of the Ballets Russes, edited by Ann Rodicek with an extensive prologue by Rodicek and contributions from six authors. It was a book published to accompany an exhibition held at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in 1996.

Page of costume designs by Nikolai Roerich for *The Rite of Spring*. 1913

Without wanting to diminish in any way the strength of the prologue and written articles, what especially attracted me were the many images of the items that had been on display in the exhibition. In particular there were a number of costume designs that I had not seen before (see above). It was also fascinating to see portraits of those associated with the company (not necessarily dancers although they were there of course). A fascinating new look at Diaghilev and the work of his collaborators! And such a great second hand bookshop.

Press for April 2026

– ‘Aladdin retold through a ‘minimalistic’. Review of Aladdin. Victorian State Ballet. CBR City News, 24 April 2026. Online at this link.

– ‘Elegant dancing that was hard to see’. Salut! Baroque. CBR City News, 25 April 2026. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 30 April 2026

Featured image: Liz Lea in a solo moment from her forthcoming production Diamond. Photo: © Michelle Potter

Dance diary. March 2026

Rafael Bonachela to leave Sydney Dance Company

Sydney Dance Company announced in March that Rafael Bonachela, artistic director of Sydney Dance Company since 2009, will leave the company in mid 2028. It was perhaps not surprising news but it certainly aroused many thoughts about Bonachela’s input into the company.

What perhaps stands out, at least from my viewpoint, was the physicality that characterised Bonachela’s choreography. Bonachela did not usually look for a narrative focus to his works. He left us as the audience to add our own thoughts about what his works meant—if indeed there was a meaning for us to absorb beyond the movement.

But there was much more to his directorship of the company than making his own dance works. His introduction of New Breed, a program that gave opportunities to emerging choreographers, was certainly a highlight as was his extensive touring. The Sydney Dance Company media release, in which much more of his input is mentioned, is at this link. A search for a new director will begin shortly.

As an aside, I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Bonachela in 2011, which was quite early in his tenure of the job, for the National Library’s oral history program. The interview details are at this link and the Library’s summary gives an indication of the content of the interview.

Glasshouse Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

The first show to be presented at Brisbane’s newly completed Glasshouse Theatre was Queensland Ballet’s Messa de Requiem (my review of this show can be found elsewhere on this website). But I have to mention what a stunning piece of architecture the new theatre is, both outside and inside. Inside the beautifully curved areas are a delight to walk past while the stage area looks spacious and easy to dance on. The sightlines are excellent from an audience point of view, which is a real thrill. The Glasshouse is an absolute delight from every point of view.

Glasshouse Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane. Photo: © Brian Hurst

Swan Lake Act III. Dance Theatre of Harlem (via Jacob’s Pillow playlist)

I must say I was somewhat staggered watching an excerpt from the Act III pas de deux in Swan Lake, as danced by Michaela DePrince partnered by Samuel Wilson, via a playlist on the Jacob’s Pillow website. DePrince’s arms in the 32 fouetté section are just incredible.

Watch at this link.

Press for March 2026

– ‘Dancing on impulse was a ‘pleasure to watch’.’ Review of Impulse. Australian Dance Party. CBR City News, 15 March 2026. Online at this link.

– ‘But everyone else seemed to be enjoying it.’ Review of Swan? Lauren Brady. CBR City News, 26 March 2026. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 31 March 2026

Featured image: portrait of Rafael Bonachela, 2026. Photo: Toby Burrows

Dance diary. February 2026

Greg Horsman

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, the most exciting to my mind being a reimagined version of La Bayadère. Bayadère is a ballet that has suffered somewhat in recent years, being thought of as unsuitable for presentation in this day and age because of its perceived treatment of various ethnic groups. But Horsman’s ballet scarcely fell into that category in my opinion. Read my review at this link.

But there were also others of his works that shone in the QB repertoire including a version, again reimagined, of Coppélia, which in fact was a co-production with WAB. He also held QB together until a new artistic director was found after Leanne Benjamin unexpectedly left her role as artistic director in August 2024.

Horsman gave a lot and his departure is significant loss for QB. But it is a definite gain for WAB! Here is a link to the WAB information.

Australian Dance Party

Canberra’s Australian Dance Party (ADP), led by Alison Plevey and Sara Black, is celebrating its 10th year of existence. The celebrations include IMPULSE, a free improvised dance, music and visual art performance set in two of the city’s major town centres, Woden and Gungahlin. Audiences are invited to become part of the activities., which will take place on 14 March in Woden and 21 March in Gungahlin.

For more information see the ADP website at this link.

Borobudur Dance Troupe

Canberra’s multicultural festival is an annual event taking place in the city and surrounds each February. It always has a strong dance component in its very varied activities and this year I noticed performances by a group called the Borobudur Dance Troupe. I had never seen performances by this group before, despite the fact that it was founded in 2017. But with fond memories of visiting the Borobudur temple in Java (some years ago now), I thought I should take a look. I saw only one of the items the troupe was presenting but didn’t catch the name of the dance.

Borobudur Dance Troupe at the Canberra Multicultural Festival 2026. Photo: Michelle Potter

My initial reaction was that it didn’t look to me like the traditional style of Javanese dance that I have seen before. There was a lot of quite broad smiling (not obvious in the image above but very obvious when watching) and I had always felt that Javanese dance was quite differently focused. Perhaps age is catching up with me and what I have experienced before is outdated? My companion suggested I should look at it as folk-oriented rather than as a classical item. Anyway, it was interesting to see the performance. The costumes were very intricate, and the dancers used the red cloth that was part of the costume quite beautifully.

I look forward to seeing the company again somewhere. We are lucky in Canberra that we have opportunities to experience such presentations.

Force majeure

The Sydney-based company Force majeure (a major force in contemporary dance development in Australia) has just appointed Nick Power as its new artistic director and CEO. Force majeure was founded in 2002 by Kate Champion. Following Champion, Danielle Micich led the company from 2015 to 2025. More about Power, and about Force majeure, is available on the company’s website at this link.

Creative Antarctica

An exhibition, Creative Antarctica: Australian Artists and Writers in the Far South has recently opened at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). It runs until 2 May 2026 and includes a film made by James Batchelor with sound by Morgan Hickinbotham. The film was created by Batchelor during his participation in an expedition to the Heard and McDonald Islands in January 2016 on board the RV Investigator. Read about the exhibition and its location here.

Michelle Potter, 28 February 2026

Dance diary. January 2026

Sydney Dance Company: new artists for 2026

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 Ellen Carpenter, Jai Fauchon, Mahalia Adamson, Finn Armstrong, and Ali Dib. Adamson, Armstrong and Dib made their debuts with SDC in late 2025 and will continue with the company into 2026.

These five dancers have quite different backgrounds, which include not just differences in cultural background, but also differences in training and work experiences to date. Caití Ellen Carpenter is a UK-born dancer and actor who trained at Rambert School, joining Rambert’s main company in 2021. She has worked as a freelancer across the UK and Europe since 2023.

Sydney-born Jai Fauchon joined the Australian Ballet School in 2020 and has performed in two national tours with the company. In 2025, he was selected as a Jette Parker Young Artist with Queensland Ballet.

Finn Armstrong is a dancer from the Gold Coast. In 2022, he graduated from the Netherlands’ Codarts Rotterdam and, in 2024, joined Danish Dance Theatre as an apprentice. He debuted with SDC in 2025, in its Continuum and New Breed programs with fellow incoming SDC dancer Ali Dib.

Born in Sydney and of Lebanese heritage, Ali Dib trained at the Dorothy Cowie School of Dance, Brent Street Studios and Alegria Studios. He was the recipient of the Brisbane International Dance Prix and won the Contemporary Dance Open in 2025.

Mahalia Adamson joined SDC’s Pre-Professional Year in 2024 and performed in the Sydney season of Resonance, alongside works by Rafael Bonachela, Zee Zunnur, Emma Harrison and more

The varied backgrounds of these new appointees suggest we can look forward to a dynamic input into SDC’s 2026 performances.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Some years ago now I spent a beautiful, snowy Christmas in New Mexico. We were staying not far from the area where American visual artist Georgia O’Keeffe, whose art I have admired for many years, had two homes, one on Ghost Ranch territory, the other in Abiquiu. It was a pleasure to visit ‘Georgia O’Keeffe territory’ over the time we were in the area.

Ghost Ranch landscape. Photo: © Michelle Potter

So, it was more than interesting to read a statement O’Keeffe had made about her approach to art, which appeared in a recent Reader’s Catalog email from The New York Review of Books. O’Keeffe said at some stage, ‘I found that I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn’t say in any other way—things that I had no words for.’ If we replace ‘colour and shapes’ with movement or some similar word, the statement seems perfect as a way of speaking about dance. Surely?

Queensland Ballet

Queensland Ballet has appointed Lisa-Maree Cullum as rehearsal director of the company. Hear what Cullum has to say about her position in the YouTube link below.

But what has happened to Greg Horsman and Matthew Lawrence? They contributed so much to the growth and development of Queensland Ballet over the past several years but seem to have disappeared from the scene. Both Horsman and Lawrence have been interviewed for the National Library of Australia’s oral history program. The Horsman interview (recorded in 2016) is available online at this link. The Lawrence interview (recorded in 2024) is also available online but requires written permission for public use so at this stage, and until I find out how to contact Lawrence, I cannot provide a link on this site.

Coming up … Canberra’s Multicultural Festival

The National Multicultural Festival is held annually in Canberra in February. It always has a strong dance focus, including this year a Bharatanatyam performance, a Dragon Dance, a Bellydance Showcase, a performance by the Borobodur Dance Troupe, a performance by the Lao Oz Dance Group, dancing from the Serendipity Dance Crew, the Benjo Academy, Contemporary Bihu, the Australian Tamil Cultural Society of the ACT, Mexbourne Dance, and folk dances from Chile. And more …

The Festival is largely an outdoor event so here’s hoping the weather doesn’t reach 40 or so degrees Celsius. Read more on the website, especially the Festival Program pages.

Dancers from the Borobudur Dance Troupe with National Multicultural Festival director Petra Rutledge, 2025. Photo: © James Coleman.

Michelle Potter, 31 January 2026

Dance diary. December 2025

Looking ahead…

While the list of dance productions to be staged in 2026 offers dance-goers a wide range of productions to anticipate, there are two new works that I am especially looking forward to seeing. The first is Alice Topp’s production of Macbeth. It will premiere in February in New Zealand with Royal New Zealand Ballet before going on to Perth in September where it will be part of West Australian Ballet’s 2026 season.

Macbeth? Many years ago now I studied Macbeth in my final year of school. We read and analysed it for a whole year! Then to my absolute surprise a few years ago, which was decades after I had finished school, while on a sightseeing trip in Scotland, we were told by the guide we were heading to Dunsinane. The name immediately took me back to that final year of school and the phrase ‘from Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill’, which features in Macbeth. But that aside, Macbeth, given its high drama and deeply emotional content, is perhaps the last Shakespearean play I would have thought I would see as a ballet. Topp says her production is :

An epic story fuelled by political ambition, passion, desire for power and the burden of guilt, Macbeth’s themes are potent and enduring.

I am definitely looking forward!

The second new work I am anticipating with particular pleasure and interest is Liz Lea’s Diamond. I mentioned Diamond in my Dance diary. October 2025 and it has since been officially launched. It will be premiered in Queanbeyan in August. One media comment explains:

With moments of raw honesty and riotous play, Diamond celebrates the brilliance that emerges through time – the courage, fragility, and power that define you as you evolve. Inspired by the enduring strength and many facets of a diamond, the work reflects on how we are shaped by experience, pressure, and the will to keep shining. A sparkling homage to the resilience and beauty of ageing women – bold, unapologetic, and full of life.

Lea has worked extensively with community dance companies over the past several years, with great success. But it will be heartening to see her create a new work that will show us more of her creative self. In the production of Diamond, she will be working with a number of diamond consultants and the writer and dramaturg Brian Lucas. See this list for those working with Lea on Diamond.

Hans van Manen (1932-2025)

I recently received news that Dutch dancer and choreographer Hans van Manen had died in Amsterdam in mid December, aged 93. Van Manen had an extraordinarily extensive career as a dancer and choreographer. As a choreographer he created more than 150 works, of which sadly I have seen very few (mostly overseas}. But his influence on Australian dance artists has been extensive.

The Hans Van Manen Foundation has an informative website. It contains a wealth of material about the man and his work including a list of his choreography’

Press for December 2025

– ‘Young choreographers step into the spotlight.’ Review of Emerging Choreographers Project. Quantum Leap Australia. CBR City News, 14 December 2025. Online at this link.

UPDATE 15 January 2026: Comments are closed on this post given that it has been receiving, in a very short space of time, an inordinate number of spam messages.

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Thank you to all who have visited this website over 2025, especially those who have taken the time to comment on specific posts. I wish you a happy and safe new year and look forward to welcoming you back to the site in 2026.

Michelle Potter, 31 December 2025

Featured image: Royal New Zealand Ballet artists Ana Gallardo Lobaina and Branden Reiners in a publicity image for Macbeth. Photo: © Ross Brown

Dance diary. November 2025

Liz Lea: the latest

Liz Lea , ever engaged in new projects, has been commissioned by the Sydney-based AMPA (Academy of Music and Performing Arts) to create a new work for the dance students of the Academy for their upcoming end of year show, Euphoria. Lea’s work is called Promenade and will premiere on 5 December 2025.

Dancers from AMPA rehearsing for *Promenade*. Still from a rehearsal video

Watch below for an insight into the work.

Creative Australia Awards

Two dance artists, choreographer and director Kate Champion and dancer-choreographer Rosalind Crisp, have been honoured at the 2025 Creative Australia Awards held in Brisbane in November. Kate Champion received the Theatre Award and Rosalind Crisp the Dance Award.

Kate Champion, currently artistic director of Black Swan State Theatre Company in Perth, Western Australia, was honoured for ‘three decades contributing to Australian Performance’. Those decades include the founding of the much admired contemporary dance-theatre company Force Majeure in 2002, which she directed until 2015. Her credits extend across a variety of theatrical genres in addition to dance including opera, film, theatre and circus.

Rosalind Crisp was the recipient of the Dance Award. She founded Omeo Dance Studio in Sydney in 1996 and was invited to Paris in 2002, where she became Associate Artist at Atelier de Paris (2004–2014). She was awarded a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2015, and her work has toured nationally and internationally. She is currently commissioned by the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company.

Brief videos focusing on the awards are available online: Kate Champion at this link, Rosalind Crisp here.

Honouring Ana Gallardo Lobaina

My colleagues in Wellington, New Zealand, have let me know that on 19 November, His Excellency Luis Ernesto Morejón Rodríguez, Ambassador of Cuba to New Zealand, Cook Islands and Niue, was welcomed into the Royal New Zealand Ballet studios to honour principal artist Ana Gallardo Lobaina. His Excellency presented Ana, born and trained in Cuba, with an artwork by Cuban visual artist Yosvany Martínez Pérez. It is, I understand, a tradition in Cuba to honour artists who have made a significant input into the company with which they work. In presenting the award the Ambassador said:

Today, we are delighted to see a dancer born and trained in Cuba take her place among the principal figures of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, bringing her talent, sensitivity, and energy to this company. The recognition we are presenting to Ana today is a testament to her tireless work, unwavering perseverance, and artistic excellence.

I have greatly admired the dancing of Ana Gallardo Lobaina, in particular in Loughlan Prior’s production of The Firebird (2021), and the award is well deserved. For posts that feature the work of Ana Gallardo Lobaina on this website see this tag.

The Firebird, Royal New Zealand Ballet, 2021. Photo: © Stephen A’Court — Ana Gallardo Lobaina in the title role of Loughlan Prior’s *The Firebird*. Royal New Zealand Ballet, 2021. Photo: © Stephen A’Court

… and then there’s Elizabeth Dalman

A similar honour will shortly be bestowed on Dr Elizabeth Dalman, AM. Elizabeth will be awarded the insignia of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ambassador of France to Australia, His Excellency M. Pierre-André Imbert on 2 December at the Embassy of France in Canberra.

The award was established in 1957 to recognise eminent artists who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world. More after 2 December.

MIchelle Potter, 30 November 2025