Dance diary. October 2026

Recent social media abuse: a supportive message (if unintentionally so)

‘Everyone thinks about quitting, even the strong. Breathe, then take one more step.’

So says a card in a packet of Kurrajong Kitchen Biscuits (believe it or not)! After an abusive and ignorant message on a Facebook page from Quantum Leap Australia about me and my reviewing, the message above from the packet of biscuits came at just the right time.

Buy Kurrajong Kitchen Biscuits!

‘Dance class 1’

In October I had the pleasure of visiting the Rusten House Art Gallery in Queabeyan where an exhibition by sculptor Martin Rowney was on display. Called Nexus. The Common Piano, it was created from Rowney’s dismantling of old pianos and using the pieces to create sculptural items.

What was especially interesting for me was the way Rowney had highlighted two outcomes that he noticed in his dealings with pianos. Most of the sculptural items he had created were, as he said in the talk he presented, geometric in nature since the piano, as an overall item, has a geometric look to it.

On the other hand, he noted that the sound that emerges when a piano is played is dynamic in nature. To show this inherent dynamism he had used the keys of a piano and manipulated them into structures that were not geometric. There were five items on this idea and Rowney called them ‘Dance class 1, 2, 3 …’ and so on. I loved the dynamic look of these items. They seemed to dance off the walls and I bought ‘Dance class 1’ . It is now attached to a wall in my house.

Sydney Dance Company in 2027

The year 2027 will be a momentous one for Sydney Dance Company. It will be Rafael Bonachela’s final year as artistic director of the company. Bonachela took on the directorship in 2009 and I had the pleasure of interviewing him just two years later, in 2011, for the National Library of Australia’s oral history program. The interview is not currently available online due to rights conditions re public use, but information about the interview is on the NLA catalogue at this link.

The 2027 program has a number of potentially interesting productions, including a new work, as yet unnamed, from Bonachela. It will be part of an October triple bill called Wild Order and, in addition to Bonachela’s new work, the program will include the return of Melanie Lane’s WOOF and New Zealand-born Ngaere Jenkins’ From the Horizon Thereafter.

Artists of Sydney Dance Company in 'WOOF', 2019. Photo: © Pedro Greig — A moment from *WOOF*. Sydney Dance Company, 2019. Photo: © Pedro Greig

For more news about what promises to be an exceptional year, read the media release at this link.

Who’s in the Frame?

London-based choreographer and dance artist Bim Malcomson has recently worked with Royal Ballet soloist, Téo Dubreuil, and architect, Mario Mattia (who lives with multiple sclerosis), to produce a short film, Who’s in the Frame. The film can, apparently, only be accessed on London’s Royal Opera House streaming platform, which requires a subscription. But it is a production with very little fuss accompanying it and is quite moving in the way it demonstrates how different bodies respond to movement and music and the space around them. See more at this link.

Press for October 2026

– ‘Chaos project turns to chaotic on stage.’ Review of We come together to dance, Quantum Leap Australia. CBR CityNews, 17 October 2026. Online at this link.

Michelle Potter, 31 October 2026

Featured image: The Kurrajong Kitchen Biscuit card in top of a small part of the 519 word Facebook spiel about/against me.

Final note on the social media abuse issue: I have never been a fan of social media. I don’t use the sites and never will.

We Come Together to Dance. Quantum Leap Australia

My review of We Come Together to Dance was published online by CBR CityNews on 17 October 2026, following its premiere performance on 16 October. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the CityNews post. Follow this link to the CityNews review.

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16 October 2026. Belconnen Arts Centre, Canberra

We Come Together to Dance is the 2026 production for Quantum Leap Australia’s Chaos project. Chaos has been an annual event for Quantum Leap Australia for many years now and the 2026 production sets out to show different aspects of why and how the art of dance engages aspiring artists of various genders and ages.

Four professional dancers and choreographers, including Pat Hayes Cavanagh, Gabriel Sinclair and Isabella Stone, worked with a cast of 40 dancers of various ages. The choreographers, with input from the dancers as is the usual process, created an opening and a closing piece along with five sections in between. These mid-sections focused on different reasons for coming together: To Dance ‘Til We Drop, To Grow, To Come Together, To Be Who We Are, and To Belong.

Choreographically, I thought We Come Together to Dance was quite repetitive. My impression was that the hand and arm movements were quite sharp and geometric in pretty much every section. There was also a lot of running across the stage space and several occasions when gymnastic movements, such as hand stands, cartwheels and forward rolls, were inserted. In addition, in the past I have always enjoyed the way Chaos projects have created various arrangements of dancers in appealing groupings. Sometimes these groupings have been stationary: at other times they have moved around the stage. But they have mostly been well maintained over a period of time and thus always became an impressive choreographic addition. There were efforts to do this at various stages of We Come Together to Dance, but the appeal was lost when the dancers had not been rehearsed sufficiently to hold the groupings together in an adequate manner. The entire program appears to have been created in just 10 or so days (as mentioned in the program). This is not enough time, in my opinion, to put together an hour long production when working with young people, some of whom have hardly any performance experience..

Lighting by Owen Davis (and the choreographers as the program notes state) was a highlight. It often took in the audience in a small but not overly annoying manner, which perhaps suggested that we too had come together if not to dance but at least to watch others dance. Sound, as mastered by Kimmo Vennonen, was contemporary and varied and came from composers from around the world, including from Belgian musician Stromae and the English band Spandau Ballet. Costuming was attractive at times, especially in parts of To Be Who We Are where black, gold and sparkly items were apparent.

A moment from *To Be Who We Are* from *We Come Together to Dance,* Quantum Leap Australia, 2026.Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

But in many sections the costuming was overly varied in colour and style. Simplicity and similarity are often better as was very clear with the simple jackets for Gabriel Sinclair’s We Dance to Come Together. They added so strongly to the idea behind his work that environments develop that may mean that dance is forgotten.

A moment from *We Dance to Come Together* from *We Come Together to Dance,* Quantum Leap Australia, 2026.Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

The opening section, in which all 40 dancers occupied the performing space, and in which all 40 of them were wearing sunglasses (as they were in the closing moments as well), was definitely a somewhat startling beginning. But We Come Together to Dance was far from my favourite Chaos project from the many I have seen over the years.

The use of the word chaos as the title for an ongoing production idea has always made me think of the development process. But for me this 2026 Chaos project was chaotic on stage as well. I’m hoping that next year’s Chaos project will feature a stronger overall appearance and less repetitive movement.

Michelle Potter, 18 October 2026

Featured image: A closing moment from We Come Together to Dance, Quantum Leap Australia, 2026.Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

I was a guest of Quantum Leap Australia at this performance.

Melanie Lane. A new move

News just in is that Melanie Lane will take on the leadership of the Melbourne-based contemporary dance company, Lucy Guerin Inc, beginning in 2027. Guerin recently announced that she is retiring from the artistic directorship of the company she has led for 25 years. The company will take on a new name once Lane takes on the role.

The appointment promises much if Lane’s work as an independent choreographer is anything to go by. The news is a particular thrill for the Canberra dance community given that Lane grew up in Canberra and received intensive dance training at the National Capital Ballet School under the direction of Janet Karin. Lane has brought her work to Canberra on several occasions, including for Canberra’s youth company Quantum Leap.

Scene from Melanie Lane’s *Metal Park*. Quantum Leap Australia, 2022. Photo: © Lorna Sim

I spoke to Lane for this website a few years ago when she recalled with pleasure her years as a student in Canberra, especially her training with Karin.‘Janet was so supportive of new choreography,’ Lane says. ‘I really got connected with contemporary movement as a result.’ Read the full post at this link.

Lane has made some truly remarkable works over the past years including for some of Australia’s leading contemporary dance companies. They include the much celebrated WOOF for Sydney Dance Company in 2019. Read my thoughts on WOOF in this review (It’s at the end of the review of a triple bill program!).

Scene from Melanie Lane's 'WOOF'. Sydney Dance Company, 2019. Photo: © Pedro Greig — Scene from Melanie Lane’s *WOOF*. Sydney Dance Company, 2019. Photo: © Pedro Greig

Her recent production, MOUNTAIN, with an electronic soundscape from CLARK and design by Akira Isogawa, will have one performance on 17 October 2026 at the Canberra Theatre Centre.

Follow Lane’s work as reviewed on this website at this link.

Michelle Potter, 1 October 2026

Featured image: Melanie Lane (left) with Lucy Guerin, Melbourne 2026. Photo: © Gianna Rizzo

‘Reviewing a Pedagogy for the Bodenwieser Technique.’ James Batchelor and colleagues

My review of Reviewing a Pedagogy for the Bodenwieser Technique was published online by CBR CityNews on 7 September 2026, following the initiative in which James Batchelor’s work for a Masters degree relating to the technique of Gertrud Bodenwieser was discussed. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the CityNews post. Follow this link to the CityNews review.

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3 September 2026. The Street Theatre, Canberra

Canberra’s dance community gathered recently at The Street Theatre for an event in the series Wellspring: Inquiry and Exchange, a regular collaborative endeavour between The Street and the ANU School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics. This particular Wellspring occasion had the specific name ‘Reviewing a Pedagogy for the Bodenwieser Technique’ and was part of the ANU Masters degree program being undertaken by choreographer James Batchelor.

Part of the audience watching James Batchelor dancing during ‘Reviewing a Pedagogy for the Bodenwieser Technique’, 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner photography.

The evening was introduced by ANU researcher and coordinator of the Wellspring program, Leslie Barnes, and was sponsored by the ANU and the team at The Street via Caroline Stacey. The main participants were Batchelor himself; Ruth Osborne, a former student of the Bodenwieser style and also a former artistic director of Quantum Leap Australia and teacher of the Bodenwieser technique; and Wesley Lim, senior lecturer at the ANU and supervisor of Batchelor’s research.

(l-r) Wesley Lim, Ruth Osborne and James Batchelor leading the Wellspring conversation, ‘Reviewing a Pedagogy for the Bodenwieser Technique’, 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner photography.

The program for the evening consisted of a spoken introduction from Lim on the history of Bodenwieser technique, especially in Australia. It was followed by a further introduction from Osborne of specific aspects of the technique; and then a demonstration, led by Osborne and performed by a small group of dancers, including Batchelor and Lim, of certain elements of the technique. Finally, we watched a solo, created and performed by Batchelor, on aspects of the technique that had been previously discussed. A Q&A session concluded the evening.

Dancers demonstrating aspects of the Bodenwieser technique, ‘Reviewing a Pedagogy for the Bodenwieser Technique’, 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner photography.

While both the discussion and performances, especially the group dancing demonstrating Bodenwieser’s use of a figure-of-eight movement by the body, were more than interesting, one aspect of the conversation bothered me somewhat. There was some discussion by Batchelor and Osborne that Bodenwieser is not as well-known in Australia as she should be, given the major influence her technique has created.

Perhaps it is necessary for some kind of teacher training to be introduced that should suggest that Bodenwieser’s name be added to teaching and technique development.

From a personal point of view, I recall as a student often being asked to carry out a particular ballet barre exercise called ‘Danilova grands battements’. It was a development of a standard exercise, the grand battement, but was something of an evolution invented by well-known Ballets Russes dancer Alexandra Danilova. I also discovered that part of a solo performance I did at a studio performance came from George Balanchine’s famous early work Serenade. So, thanks to my teacher at the time, I was well aware I was dancing material created by previous and much-admired artists. It was a thrill to know this and I suspect the same might occur for Bodenwieser students if teachers were trained to add her name somewhere during a class.

Below are two images of Bodenwieser teaching in Australia in 1955. The images were created by Eric Cuckson who offered Bodenwieser classes initially to children of workers employed in his zipper factory at St Mary’s in western Sydney, and then to the general public.

Bodenwieser has her back to the camera in both images. She is wearing a black outfit with cross-over straps at the back. The photos here are posted with the kind permission of Barbara Cuckson.

Michelle Potter, 8 September 2026

For more about James Batchelor on this site see this tag. And for more about Gertrud Bodenwieser see here.

Featured image: James Batchelor speaking during ‘Reviewing a Pedagogy for the Bodenwieser Technique’, 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner photography.

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

UPDATE 19 September 2026: Comments on this post have been closed due to a large number of attempts to comment from spam outlets.

Mettle. Quantum Leap Australia

My review of Mettle was published online by CBR CityNews on 25 July 2026, following its opening performance in Canberra on 24 July. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the CityNews post. Follow this link to the CityNews review.

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24 July, 2026. The Vault, Dairy Road Precinct, Fyshwick (Canberra)

‘It’s time to test your mettle,’ says media advertising for the latest production from Quantum Leap Australia. Mettle, the production, had choreography by the current director of Quantum Leap Australia and Jack Ziesing, with a soundscape by Sascha Budimski, visuals from Creswick Collective and lighting from Holland, Zeising, Ninian Donald and Owen Davis.

The venue was The Vault, located in the Dairy Road Precinct in Fyshwick, an industrial area of Canberra. The Vault is often referred to as a ‘cave’ or ‘concrete bunker’ as a result of its somewhat vast, windowless space without any theatrical trappings. In fact, it was originally a space used to store coins, and later beer, and it has become an ideal space for immersive productions with the audience usually surrounded on three sides by various aspects of the production.

But rather than having a strongly felt immersive aspect to it, the production of Mettle was more like watching dancing on a knife’s edge. While the soundscape, the lighting and the changing visuals were there to be noticed, the focus was more on what would happen next. How would the dancers manage what seemed from the beginning to be a challenging situation for them?

Thirteen dancers of varying ages began quietly in a line at the back of the performing space and walked slowly forward. But one by one they fell to the floor and began twisting and turning, standing and falling, separately and then together in various combinations. The choreography was highly complex and mostly fast-moving with some sections quite acrobatic and others, such as movements of the fingers, quite small but clear and intense.

Groupings in the early stages looked unstructured as bodies seemed to fall on top of each other in a jumble. Some of the connections between dancers, such as a duet between the two male members of the cast, even looked full of hostility.

A group of dancers in *Mettle,* Quantum Leap Australia, 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

As the work moved along, however, there were moments when the jumbled look gave way to a structure that was more ordered and even a little symmetrical. As the end approached, the choreography continued its speed and power and, after a solo by one dancer, a stillness as we had seen at the beginning returned. Had the mettle been tested and had resilience emerged?

Solo dancer in *Mettle*, Quantum Leap Australia, 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

Costumes by Aleisa Jelbart were the strongest collaborative element. Jelbart had created thirteen different designs, one for each dancer. They consisted of black and grey items—tops, pants (some short and tight, some long and loose), socks and leggings, arm coverings and other elements. Some items of costuming looked grungy and torn, others fashionable in a present-day style. They added an excellent element to the production and to the diversity of the dancers, a diversity of age, size and experience.

Mettle was a production that must have been quite exhausting for the dancers. It was an hour of almost continuous movement from every dancer. They attacked the choreography, with its continuing and spectacular twists and turns, and its ongoing interpersonal connections, with determination and skill. They demonstrated clearly that dancing on a knife’s edge has a strength and ultimately an influence on an audience.

Michelle Potter, 25 July 2026

I was a guest of Quantum Leap Australia at this performance.

Emerging Choreographers Project. Quantum Leap Australia

My review of the Emerging Choreographers Project was published online by Canberra CityNews on 14 December 2025. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the CityNews post. Here is a link to the CityNews review.

Emerging Choreographers Project. Quantum Leap Australia. A Block Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre, Canberra. 13 December 2025

The Emerging Choreographers Project (ECP) has been an annual Canberra-based event for several years now. Its aim has always been to give aspiring young choreographers an opportunity to collaborate with professional artists in the creation of an original dance work. The initial surprise of the 2025 program, however, came from some opening remarks when the news that the organisation is working towards the establishment of a new name, Quantum Leap Australia. The reason for the change was not explained, although one has to assume that it was, at least partly, a result of the leadership change. But it does also position the event in a wider context (in a geographical sense) and Canberra arts events can certainly do with being given wider recognition even if only by a name change.

The 2025 ECP was presented under this new name with six emerging choreographers participating in the program: Akira Byrne, Chloe Curtis, Jahna Lugnan, Lucia Morabito, Gigi Rohrlach and Maya Wille-Bellchambers. They were mentored by Holland and Emma Batchelor and were also given the opportunity, a new initiative, of working closely with Owen Davies of Sidestage, the Canberra-based organisation dealing in audio-visual technology for stage productions. While this I’m sure gave the choreographers extra inspiration, some of the lighting was quite dark, which is not an uncommon feature of dance productions at present (unfortunately I have to say).

In terms of mentoring, it would have been an added benefit if there had been some emphasis on how to speak out to the audience when, at the beginning of each work, the choreographer is required to give a brief introduction to the work. It is slightly annoying when the speaker is jigging around, as happened in most cases in this show. Please, ‘Speak up, stand still and look out at the audience!’

The work that stood out for me was Breathing Statues by Gigi Rohrlach in which four dancers moved from one sculptural pose to another. It appeared to me that the work was set in an Asian context in terms of the costumes, in the somewhat twisted and evocative arm movements as the dancers wrapped themselves around each other, and in sections of the music by Japanese composer Masakatsu Takagi.

I also enjoyed the closing work, Jahna Lugnan’s The Dog Shows No Concern, which Lugnan described in program notes as ‘resisting audience expectations and traditional narratives’. It certainly was unexpected in its musical approach, beginning with an excerpt from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen but moving on to sound that was much more contemporary. So too was the costuming varied, perhaps one might even say outrageous, but certainly expressive of a variety of possible thoughts.

Scene from *The Dog Shows No Concern*. Quantum Leap Australia, 2025. Photo: © Olivia Wikner

The shape of me is shifting from Akira Byrne left me wondering about the difference between physical theatre and dance. I found Byrne’s emphasis on the spoken word frustrating, especially when at times it was hard to hear the words over the music. Nor was I a fan of the movement, especially for the group of four dancers who were like a collection of drooping shapes while the two main performers wrapped themselves around a metal structure. Program notes say the work examined the ‘relationship between mind, body, self and skin’.

A scene from *the shape of me is shifting*. Quantum Leap Australia, 2025. Photo: © Olivia Wikner

Some ideas don’t easily translate into dance especially when they are quite abstract concepts. I felt this was the case with Byrne’s work and also with Chloe Curtis’ Chorophobia, which set out to examine psychological reactions to fear.

One positive aspect of all works was the strength of the use of the performing space by each of the choreographers, including in those works that were staged in several short sections, such as Metamorphosis from Maya Wille-Bellchambers and Mirage of Memories from Lucia Morabito. Also interesting on a number of occasions was the visual nature of the groupings (if not always all that original).

Scene from *Metamorphosis*. Quantum Leap Australia, 2025. Photo: © Olivia Wikner

Choreography is not an easy art to master and, despite my reservations about some aspects of the works on show on this occasion, I have the utmost respect for those members of Quantum Leap Australia who had the courage to step up and create.

Michelle Potter, 16 December 2025

I was a guest of Quantum Leap Australia at this performance.