Dance diary. August 2026

Gertrud Bodenwieser

In August an email from James Batchelor arrived in my inbox. It concerned a talk he would be presenting in Canberra at the Street Theatre in conjunction with Ruth Osborne and academics from the Australian National University (ANU). The talk relates to Batchelor’s current work towards a Masters degree at the ANU and is part of a regular Street program with the overarching name ‘Wellspring: Inquiry and Exchange’. Batchelor’s contribution takes place in early September and is entitled: ‘Preserving Australian Modern Dance. Creating a Pedagogy for the Bodenwieser Technique’. Details here.

The beautiful photo that accompaniesthe notification of the event was a surprise, and a very pleasant one. The photo was taken in 1927 and shows a young Gertrud Bodenwieser captured mid-dance. It was a quite new image for me.

Listen at this link.to what Batchelor in his discussion of the forthcoming talk.

The Stellar Company

This year, 2026, marks the 20th anniversary of the Stellar Company, a Canberra-based multi-arts organisation for people of all abilities and backgrounds. It was formed in 2006 by Jolanta Gallagher and used the name Australian Talented Youth Project. Now led by Liz Lea and renamed the Stellar Company it has been invited by Sing Australia to present a series of dance programs at the Sydney Opera House in October as part of Sing Australia’s National Gathering. The event is described by Sing Australia as ‘a three-day celebration of singing, connection, and energy.’

The invitation seems like a wonderful way for the Stellar Company to celebrate 20 years. Read more about the Sing Australia National Gathering at this link.

The Stellar Company in performance, Canberra ca. 2023. Photo (detail): © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

And then there’s Sydney Dance Company

Sydney Dance Company is celebrating 40 years in its current home: The Wharf at Sydney’s Walsh Bay. Check out the company’s website at this link. Read too the article in the Financial Review.

Coming in September …

As I scanned quickly through the dance events that were coming up next month, two productions immediately grabbed my attention. The first was Alice Topp’s exceptional take on Macbeth, a joint production between Royal New Zealand Ballet and West Australian Ballet (WAB), which I saw in Wellington earlier this year. It opens in Perth with WAB on 4 September. Read my review from New Zealand at this link. Don’t miss it if you happen to be in Perth. Dates at this link.

Alice Topp in Perth during rehearsals for *Macbeth*, 2026. Photo: © Andrew Ritchie/*The West Australian*

The second was All in, which will have a Canberra showing at the Belconnen Arts Centre. It comes from Dance Makers Collective (DMC), a ‘community unifier’ (according to current advertising) led by Miranda Wheen. Its Canberra showing features, as well as artists from DMC, input from local groups including Project Dust, Apsaras Arts Canberra, and Quantum Leap Australia. I thoroughly enjoyed All in in Sydney last year. Read my Sydney review at this link and for more information about the Canberra performances read here.

Press for August 2026

– ‘Diamond confronts ageing with unflinching candour.’ Review of Diamond, Liz Lea and colleagues. CBR CityNews, 7 August 2026. Online at this link

Michelle Potter, 31 August 2026

Featured image: Gertrud Bodenwieser, 1927. Photo: d’Ora-Benda © Bildarchiv Austria/Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.

Diamond. Liz Lea and colleagues

My review of Diamond was published online by CBR CityNews on 7 August 2026, following its opening performance in Canberra on 6 August The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the CityNews post. Follow this link to the CityNews review.

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6 August 2026. The Q Theatre, Queabeyan

Diamonds are indestructible; people are not. No matter what media statements might and do say about the brilliance and dazzling complexity of womanhood, for me the idea of destructibility, and its opposite, lies at the heart of Liz Lea’s latest show, Diamond.

Diamond is the second part of a projected dance trilogy. The first was Lea’s 2012 show Red, which took us on a journey through Lea’s career as a dancer battling endometriosis. It had an exceptional reception both in Australia and overseas. Diamond takes us through a new, later stage in Lea’s life, one in which she struggled with the physical and emotional issues she encountered during and after menopause.

The dancing in Diamond was distinctively varied. The show opened with Lea standing centre stage in a sparkling costume—one from the series that has been used everywhere, over and over, as advertisement for the show. During this opening sequence, Lea moved slowly with expressive arms, which nevertheless suggested that age had diminished her ability to undertake complex choreography. She danced with stronger movements at other points throughout the show but much of her input involved sitting on a chair, in a simple, black, body-hugging costume, and speaking about her difficulties as she faced the inevitability of living with an ageing body.

Liz Lea explaining in words some of the issues she encountered during menopause. *Diamond*, Canberra 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

She pulled no punches as she explained those difficulties, with frequent reference to vaginal problems and the life consequences that developed as a result of such issues. From this point of view, Diamond was certainly a courageous show.

The most dancerly moments, however, came from the High Kix dancers from Canberra’s Born Funk studios. These dancers are comparatively young women and they looked fabulous in their blue, feathery outfits, and later dressed in white. They consistently moved beautifully, even with what was relatively simple choreography, and their role in the show allowed us to look back at Lea’s early career as a cabaret dancer.

High Kix dancers performing in *Diamond*, Canberra 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

Then, towards the end of the production, dancers from Canberra Dance Theatre’s GOLD company took the stage, adding dancers older than Lea to the situation. They moved around the stage making attractive groupings rather than dancing anything complex. They too looked fabulous in decorative black and white costumes, including somewhat startling hats. There were even two men involved.

Diamond was stunningly put together as a multi-faceted production. It had exceptional lighting by Karen Norris, as usually happens when Norris is involved. Her input into Diamond was engaging from the beginning, even on the empty stage before the actual performance had started, to the end where an object was placed on the floor and sent out diamond-like rays of light into the auditorium. The diamond rather than the person lives on.

There was also some strikingly structured film input from cinematographer James Hiscutt. It included an absolutely absorbing section where Lea appeared on the backcloth/screen as autumn leaves fell around her body. It was beautifully related to a story Lea spoke about in relation to a request she had from a person who was using her house as a B&B guest. ‘May I sweep up your autumn leaves?’, he asked.

But as a whole Diamond was a production that opened up an area of a woman’s life that perhaps needs not to be made so public, or not with so much confronting speech. Dance can do it without words, or at least on this occasion with fewer words. Then perhaps I am ageing as I disliked the way the subject was constantly and unnecessarily frank in its text? Just dance!

Who knows what the third part of the trilogy will involve?

Michelle Potter, 7 August 2026

Featured image: Liz Lea in the opening moments of Diamond. Queabeyan, 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

I was a guest of Liz Lea Productions at this performance.

Comments on this post have been closed due to a very large number of spam comments recently received.

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. 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

Featured image: Liz Lea speaking to the public in 2021 Source: CBR CityNews, 01 February 2021 Photo: © Helen Musa

Dance diary. October 2025

News from LIz Lea

Liz Lea has just announced news of an upcoming production, Diamond, on which she is currently working. Diamond is the next in a trilogy of works she is developing and follows on from the first work in that trilogy—RED. RED was an exceptional production first seen in 2018 (read the review at this link). After its Australian presentation, it toured in various countries for five years.

Diamond will premiere on 6 August 2026 at the Q Theatre in Queanbeyan as part of ‘Q The Locals’, an initiative with a focus on local productions. There are still nine or so months to go but worth the wait I’m sure.

Larry Ruffell (1941-2025)

Very belatedly I discovered that dancer, writer and arts administrator, Larry Ruffell, had died early in 2025. The news was relayed to me by a colleague who unexpectedly came into contact with Larry’s wife, Priscilla, at a show they were both attending in Canberra. New Zealand born, Larry had a career as a dancer in the United Kingdom before moving to Australia where he pursued a career as a writer and arts administrator. He had a noteworthy career in Canberra and wrote and reviewed extensively for The Canberra Times back in the days, several years ago now, when that newspaper included material about dance and most other arts activities. Larry also had a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Australian National University with majors in philosophy and psychology.

My connections with Larry include publishing an article he wrote for Brolga, the now defunct journal I founded in 1994 and edited until 2006. It appeared in Brolga 17, December 2002, and was titled ‘Perceiving dance: bowing to the ineffable’. The article examined the impact of differing perceptions relating to music and to dance. He was also administrator of the Canberra Opera Society (also now defunct) when I choreographed sections of that society’s production of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice in 1977.

A brief biography, dating back around two decades from the website of Ausdance National, is at this link. A longer article, an obituary, was published in New Zealand by The Post and can be read at this link. The New Zealand obituary contains some photos of Larry, including one referencing the days of his British dance career. It is noteworthy too that in the obituary he is referred to as Laurie Ruffell. He was never called Laurie in Australia, although that name seems to be common elsewhere.

Ausdance ACT’s Youth Dance Festival 2025

Promotional image for *Life on Mars*, Ausdance ACT Youth Dance Festival, 2025

Unforrunately I missed (again) the Youth Dance Festival this year, a program called Life on Mars, although I continue to admire the process that lies behind the Fesitval. As Ausdance ACT notes: ‘The Youth Dance Festival creative process involves professional dance mentors visiting participating schools to provide support and guidance to students in the development of their own work.’ The range of schools involved from across the region is remarkable. Next year I hope I will manage to attend.

Press for October 2025

– ‘Batchelor focuses on the legacy of lost dancer.’ Review of Resonance. James Batchelor + Collaborators. CBR City News, 11 October 2025. Online at this link.

– ‘Celebrating Dalman’s decades of dance creation.’ Review of ECDysis. Mirramu Dance Company and guests from Taiwan. CBR City News, 26 October 2025. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 31 October 2025

Featured image: Liz Lea in a promotional image for Diamond. Photo: © O&J Wikner, 2025.

Critical Path turns 20. ‘Such a creative force’

Critical Path, the Sydney-based centre for research into and development of dance, which Canberra-based dance artist Liz Lea has referred to as ‘such a creative force’, was set up in 2005. It will celebrate its 20th anniversary in mid-November with a three-day, free event, Every Wild Idea. The event will take place in the Drill Hall, headquarters of Critical Path in the inner-Sydney suburb of Rushcutters Bay.

The Drill Hall. Critical Path headquarters, Rushcutters Bay. Photo: © Liz Ham

Choreographer and performer, James Batchelor, whose recent work Resonance delved into the legacy of the late Tanja Liedtke, and who has had a long-standing connection with Critical Path, lauds the influence of the organisation:

Critical Path occupies a valuable place in the dance ecology in Sydney—a dedicated space for independent contemporary dance is a precious resource that we should not take for granted. From an early memory of doing a secondment with Sue Healey when I was younger, to leading a workshop there this year, it’s been a space I have kept coming back to throughout my career. It also featured prominently in the archive of Tanja Liedtke (which I have been researching over the past few years), a space that supported the development of her independent work in the mid 2000s.

Liz Lea also has praise to pass on regarding the influence of Critical Path:

Critical Path is legendary. It is hard to believe it is only 20 years as the impact this organisation has had on dance in and across Australia is profound.

Margie Medlin [an early director] is a visionary who brought an incisive and committed vision to supporting the generation of original and deeply varied work. She supported me in securing a Fellowship at the National Film and Sound Archive leading to my return to Australia after 20 years based in Europe. Claire [Hicks, another director] then brought a new infusion of energy and care – I was supported in the initial development of my one woman show RED which toured internationally for 5 years. The care, time, support and capacity of the works developed in the Drill Hall seep into the very fibres of Australian dance and will do for many years.

Current artistic director of Critical Path, Agnès Michelet, notes that Critical Path was established to fill a recognised gap in the independent dance sector in New South Wales. She remarks that it provided [and continues to provide] a pathway ‘through which professional dance-makers could innovate their choreographic practice’.

In part the media release for Every Wild Idea reads:

Every Wild Idea will kick off on Friday November 14, 7pm-9pm with live performance, artists in real-time ideation playfully curated by Azzam Mohamed who blends street, club and African dance forms. In the spirit of experimentation, research and risk-taking, seven artists will improvise and create in real-time while audiences are free to roam and witness the energy of process-in-action.

Breakthroughs, filmed and directed by award winning arts documentary and film maker Deborah May, will premiere across the weekend. May will unveil the essence of artistic breakthroughs through the eyes of five extraordinary Australian dance artists. What happens when we follow a flash of inspiration over time? The moment when memories, cultures and fragments of practice connect with renewed vitality.

‘Dance is often ephemeral and although documentation is vital in consolidating and propagating our shared history, the video and stills gathered often remain largely unseen or unused and the artists are seldom given a voice,’ says May.

‘Drawing from the rich archive collected by the artists and Critical Path with new video sequences and recordings, Breakthroughs proposes to present an aspect of this pivotal yet largely unseen work in a way that will engage and inspire audiences and lead to a greater understanding of the real work necessary to making exceptional art.’

On Sunday November 16, 11am-1pm, join dance and multimedia artist and writer Ira Ferris for the launch of the special edition of Critical Dialogues #16, celebrating 20 years of Critical Path alongside Vignettes flickers fades: a text, a sound montage and a map. A conversation between artist-archivists Ira Ferris and Tammi Gissell unveils new experimental approaches to archiving in a dance context. Plus a music performance by Alexandra Spence and a dance performance by Ryuichi Fujimura.

‘The aim of Vignettes flickers fades is to reflect not only the significant moments in Critical Path programs and activities, but to invoke sounds, smells, colours of Drill Hall,’ says Ira Ferris. ‘Its water-based location and porous features that imbue creative processes.’

Azzam Mohamed, *Why is this Mine* Choreographic Lab 2021. Photo: © Anna Kucer

See more at this link
Dates and times:
FRIDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2025—7pm to 9pm
SATURDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2025—11am to 3pm
SUNDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2025—11am to 3pm

All events are free at The Drill, 1C New Beach Road, Darling Point. Book tickets here https://events.humanitix.com/every-wild-idea-open-weekend

Michelle Potter, 18 October 2025

Every Wild Idea is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW, the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and Woollahra Municipal Council’s Cultural Grants Program.

Featured image: Gok-Lim Finch and Sophie Dumaresque in a nightime moment from FORBIDDEN. Creative Development 2025. Photo: © Estelle Yoon

A Stellar Lineup, 2024. Liz Lea Dance

My review of A Stellar Lineup from Liz Lea working with a range of community companies was published online on 23 November 2024 by CBR CityNews. Read it at this link. Below is a slightly enlarged version of the review.

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22 November 2024. Belconnen Arts Centre, Canberra

The dance scene in Canberra has long had a strong community focus, with representation from multicultural communities, groups of senior artists, people living with physical issues, groups focusing on a distinct form of dance, youth organisations, and many other specific groups. Everyone wants to feel what dance can offer and what dance can express.

Canberra’s Liz Lea, director of A Stellar Lineup, has so often been at the forefront of developing and presenting community dance in Canberra. The 2024 presentation of A Stellar Lineup is, in fact, the third iteration of a production that brings together groups of dancers representing the range and strength of this community focus.

The 2024 presentation focused on the Olympic Games, and not just on the relatively recent 2024 Paris events. We were told through dance, with a background of film, still photographs and spoken and printed words projected onto a backcloth, of events that have stood out, often focusing on Canberra-based stars across the history of the Games, and sometimes on Olympic funding issues.

Groups represented in the 2024 Lineup included the Indian community with several turbaned Sikh members of that community standing out; the now well-known GOLD Company of senior dancers; Fresh Funk representing breakdancing, which was included as a sport for the first time in the 2024 Paris Games; The Deaf Butterflies; ZEST Dance for Wellbeing; the Chamaeleon Collective, Lea’s relatively recent addition to Canberra’s community groups; a large gathering of very young dancers (including two babies carried in slings) from Project Dust, a First Nations’ contemporary dance group led by Emma Laverty; and various other organisations.

The dancing itself was, unsurprisingly, varied in terms of performance strength. For me the breakdancing from Fresh Funk stood out. Their section, Moment 4 Life, was fast-paced, and filled with energy and surprising moments of spectacular movement. Every single dancer gave his or her very vibrant best and, despite a few predictions, or perhaps suspicions, by colleagues before the show opened, as far as I could see there wasn’t a reference to Raygun and her controversial input in Paris. The Raygun performance was the last thing on my mind as I watched Fresh Funk performing.

Dancers from Fresh Funk in ‘Moment 4 Life’ from *A Stellar Lineup.* Photo: © Jen Brown

The GOLD dancers also showed their strength, especially in their ability to engage the audience with their physical and emotional engagement with the choreography. They are now an experienced and well trained group and are always worth watching.

Dancers from the GOLDs in ‘Game, Set, Match’ from *A Stellar Lineup.* Photo: © Jen Brown

I was also impressed by Rachel Hilton, who paid homage to her mother, Daphne Hilton, with a simple, but beautifully lyrical solo. Daphne Hilton was a Canberran and Australia’s first female Paralympian to medal. Then there was a homage to the legally blind cyclist Lindy Hou, and then to Louise Ellery a Paralympian in the track and field area. Towards the end of the show there was an engaging performance, The Silent Spirit of Deaf Sports!, from The Deaf Butterflies, which had the audience using deaf applause. And more…

An Acknowledgment of Country opened the evening and was also a highlight given that it was a choreographed acknowledgment from a stage filled with performers of various abilities. Indigenous input into the Games was also strongly acknowledged with an amusing section from Project Dust with appearances from some of the youngest performers of the evening, including those two babies carried in slings. It featured an Aboriginal flag, whose colours were matched by the red, black and yellow costumes of the performers.

Dancers from Project Dust including the babies in slings in ‘Eye of the Tiger’ from *A Stellar Lineup.* Photo: © Jen Brown

We can but admire Liz Lea’s determination to present community dance to Canberra audiences. Similarly, the strength and determination of members of the community groups that have developed over the years is also admirable, and a strong and definite addition to dance in Canberra. Dance is for everyone.

Michelle Potter, 23 November 2024

Featured image: Dancers from ZEST Dance for Wellbeing in ‘I used to Run a Marathon’ from A Stellar Lineup. Photo: © Jen Brown

Dance diary. October 2024

West Australian Ballet in 2025

I was interested to hear the latest from West Australian Ballet (WAB), perhaps in particular that David McAllister will continue to direct WAB for another year. The media information says that he will work with the Board on the search for a new artistic director, and that he will also help develop a new strategic plan for WAB for the next five years as well as programming the season for 2026. McAllister was brought up in Perth, home city of WAB, before moving to Melbourne to join the Australian Ballet School and then the Australian Ballet in 1983. It is hard not to wonder whether McAllister’s current role at WAB will become permanent?

But in addition, it was good to see that Alice Topp will present Butterfly Effect, a new commission from WAB and a new take on the opera Madame Butterfly. Topp’s Butterfly Effect will premiere in Perth in September and will recontextualise the well-known narrative as a ‘story for modern audiences, weaving together threads from the old and the new, through themes of love, loss, and shattering betrayal, and Puccini’s classical score.’ I will be especially interested to see where the work is set (if indeed it is set in a specific country?).

News from James Batchelor

James Batchelor, who works between Australia and Europe, has been in Australia recently teaching at the Victorian College of the Arts and Sydney Dance Company. In addition, he has been developing new works, in particular a piece he is calling Resonance, which grew out of an invitation by the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, and which examines how Liedtke’s work has impacted the course of contemporary dance in Australia. (Dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke died in Sydney in 2007 following a road accident. She was the incoming director of Sydney Dance Company but never had the chance to take on the role).

James Batchelor at Mulligan’s Flat, 2024. Photo: © Akali (Yao Yao) Guan. Mulligan’s Flat is a wildlife park in the north-east of Canberra.

Batchelor will be back in Europe for the last several weeks of 2024 where Shortcuts to Familiar Places will have a season in Italy, and where, in Berlin, he will continue to work on the development of Resonance. He will then head back to Australia for projects in January.

A Stellar Lineup—Olympic Edition

Liz Lea continues her development of community dance in Canberra with a presentation of A Stellar Lineup—Olympic Edition. She writes:

We are thrilled to bring you another stunning lineup of Canberra’s most engaging community dance companies, celebrating the power of inclusion and imperative for excellence. This year we return to Belco Arts to mark the Olympic Games and the sporting achievements of our many performers including Olympians and Paralympians. Our program features Project Dust, Dance4Me, Taylor Mingle, ZEST Dance for Wellbeing, the GOLD Company, Deaf Butterflies, Rachael Hilton, Fresh Funk and the Chamaeleon Collective.

Dancers from *A Stellar Lineup*, 2024. Photo: © O&J Wikner Photography

Performances of A Stellar Lineup—Olympic Edition will be presented at the Belconnen Arts Centre, 22-23 November 2024. Further information is at this link.

Forgotten Impresario. Discovering Daphne Deane

Back in 2022 I posted a note about a beautifully researched e-book, Forgotten Impresario. Discovering Daphne Deane, by John Anderson. The book followed the diverse theatrical career of Queensland-born Daphne Deane, a career that Anderson rightly believed had been largely ignored. Recently, Anderson updated aspects of his book to include more information about Deane’s experiences during World War II; her trial in France for a ‘contractual breach of trust’, which brought aspects of her career to an end; and her connections with Marie Rambert.

The revised edition is available to read, at no cost, at this link.

Farewell to Ruth Osborne

Ruth Osborne at Gorman Arts Centre, 2024. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

In October a large gathering of Canberra’s dance community said farewell to Ruth Osborne as director of QL2 Dance. The farewell event was held at Gorman Arts Centre, home of QL2 Dance (and a variety of other arts focused organisations), and featured speeches from some of those who had been associated with Osborne over the years. Speakers included Richard Refschauge, current Chair of the Board of Ql2 Dance, who gave an outline of Osborne’s career and input into the development and growth of QL2 Dance, and Daniel Riley, former student at QL2 Dance and current artistic director of the Adelaide-based Australian Dance Theatre, who spoke about his experiences as a young, emerging dancer at QL2 Dance and his resulting dance career.

The afternoon also included two performances from QL2 dancers, which were performed in one of the beautiful courtyards of Gorman Arts Centre. One was choreographed by Alice Lee Holland, and consisted of extracts from her work Earth, which we saw recently as part of the Elemental program. The other was one of Osborne’s works from the past repertoire of QL2 Dance.

QL2 dancers performing extracts from *Earth* in the courtyard, Gorman Arts Centre, 2024. Photos: © Michelle Potter

Press for October 2024

– ‘Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon (Queensland Ballet)’. Limelight, 6 October 2024 . Online at this link. (And in a slightly enlarged form here.)
– ‘Chaos, a dance project of highs and lows.’ Review of Elemental. QL2 Dance, Chaos Project. CBR City News, 19 October 2024. Online at this link. (And in a slightly enlarged form here.)

And it’s Halloween again …

Michelle Potter, 31 October 2024

Featured image: Publicity image from WAB for Alice Topp’s Butterfly Effect. Photographer not identified.

Dance diary. March 2024

Johan Inger’s Carmen

Coming in April from the Australian Ballet is a production of Carmen by Swedish choreographer Johan Inger. Recent discussions about the background to the work, which was first created in Madrid in 2015, always mention the appearance of a child as a character in the work. One British reviewer has written that the child ‘represents the wider fall out of abuse’. This Carmen, apparently, is dramatically sexual and has a focus on violence towards women. It is described by the same reviewer as ‘uncomfortable to watch’, although she admits that those words are not a reason to stay away from the show!

The work is set to Rodion Shchedrin’s 1967 Carmen Suite, an adaptation of Georges Bizet’s score for the opera Carmen. The Shchedrin score is also frequently mentioned in reviews, especially for its use of percussion instruments. But what especially struck home to me was that Shchedrin’s wife was the acclaimed ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. The score was written for her when she was preparing to dance a version of Carmen choreographed for her (at her request) by Alberto Alonso. The story of the creation of the score appears as a whole chapter in I, Maya Plisetskaya, Plisetskaya’s autobiography published in 2001 by Yale University Press.

It is worth noting too that the same score was used by Natalie Weir for her exceptional work Carmen Sweet, made in 2015 for her Brisbane-based Expressions Dance Company (now no longer in existence).

In the brief clip below, Inger talks about his Carmen, while behind him a rehearsal for a section of the production takes place in London. In addition to Inger’s words, the clip is interesting from the point of view of the choreography, which is classically based to a certain extent, but which has a powerful contemporary feel/look to it. Some dancers from the Australian Ballet also appear in the rehearsal, which was basically for English National Ballet’s performances, which began in February 2024 at Sadler’s Wells.

The Australian Ballet’s production of Inger’s Carmen plays in Sydney 10–24 April.

On dramaturgy

I recently received a private comment on my review for Canberra City News of Catapult’s show Awkward. The comment included the suggestion that the show might have been stronger had a dramaturg been employed to develop a more focused approach. Well, I couldn’t agree more. Even if a dramaturg might not always do a stellar job (as was also suggested in the comment), it’s worth making the effort. One of the most remarkable shows I have seen over the past several years has been Liz Lea’s production, RED. Lea employed Brian Lucas as dramaturg for the show and, while the content of RED was highly complex, it ended up being a brilliantly focused production.

A slightly expanded version of my City News review of Awkward is at this link.

Press for March 2024

‘Awkward performance dances on too long.’ City News (Canberra), 28 March 2024. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 31 March 2024