My review of Mandolina Ballerina was published online by Canberra City News on 17 August 2025. That review can be read at this link. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the City News post.
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16 August 2025. Folk Dance Canberra, Hackett ACT
Mandolina Ballerina was a somewhat unexpected collaboration between the Canberra Mandolin Orchestra, augmented by the presence of a harp and a double bass, and Canberra-raised Tessa Karle, a former student of Canberra’s Dance Development Centre and currently a dancer with the Wellington-based Royal New Zealand Ballet. The program, which had just two performances on one afternoon, consisted of ten separate, short musical items from various well-known composers. Each item was introduced by conductor Michael Hardy. Four of the musical items included a solo choreographed and danced by Karle.
First the music. One item, Serenade Espagnole, was written especially for mandolin in 1963 by French composer François Menichetti. The rest, which included short excerpts from well-known ballets such as Swan Lake, Coppélia and Nutcracker, had been arranged for mandolin by Hardy.
With the exception of Serenade Espagnole, which had just the right sound to my ears, the musical excerpts conveyed a quite different impression when played on mandolins rather than by an expanded orchestra. But it was an experience to watch the audience’s reaction. Almost everyone was taken in by the music and people around me, especially older folk, were fully absorbed as they swayed from side to side, or followed the music with waving hands or (silent) tapping of the feet. These reactions were especially noticeable during the playing of Johann Strauss’ Beautiful Blue Danube—that very danceable waltz.
Secondly the venue. Mandolina Ballerina was performed in a small hall in the Canberra suburb of Hackett, a hall used by Folk Dance Canberra for its classes and activities. The hall had a stage, which was not used. The audience was seated in three rows arranged in an untiered semi-circle with the orchestra also on floor level in front of the stage. An open area was set up between the orchestra and the audience with a Tarkett dance floor spread over that space, which became the performing space for Karle.
Thirdly the dancing. The small size of the dance space meant that Karle’s choreography was limited. It could not include, for example, large jumps that moved through the space, or any structure that developed a noticeable floor pattern. The arrangement of seating on a single level also hindered the audience’s view (apart from that of those sitting in the front row) of the choreography. This was especially frustrating in relation to Karle’s performance of Anna Pavlova’s famous solo The Dying Swan, which has sections of the choreography taking place on the floor with the dancing showing the dying moments of the swan. I was seated in the third row and stood up for every dance section so I could see Karle well (including her feet!).
But in the circumstances, Karle’s performance was well worth watching. She has beautifully developed upper body movement and she also managed to inject a particular personality into each of her solos. Her changing emotional responses were perhaps most noticeable in her rendition of the ‘Habanera’ from Georges Bizet’s music for Carmen, which looked very different from, say, her facial expression and carefully considered movement in her performance of ‘Prayer’ to the music of Léo Delibes from Coppélia. Her performance of The Dying Swan, however, received the strongest applause. That particular solo always has a strong resonance for everyone.
In conclusion. Canberra Mandolin Orchestra deserves congratulations for taking on this collaboration. There were various aspects of the show, especially in relation to the dance component and background, that perhaps needed to be thought through in more detail. But, I hope the organisation will continue to work on the idea of collaboration across the arts.
Michelle Potter, 18 August 2025
Featured image: Portrait of Tessa Karle. Photo: © Eva Schroeder
I was a guest of Canberra Mandolin Orchestra at this performance.
