My review of Aladdin was published online by Canberra CityNews on 24 April 2026 following its opening on 23 April in the Canberra Theatre Centre’s Playhouse. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the CityNews post. Here is a link to the CityNews review.

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This is a surprising presentation of the story of Aladdin, a young man whose life is transformed by a magic lamp that he discovers when lured into a cave by a sorcerer.

The scenario is somewhat complicated and involves a lot of traditional mime by the leading characters—Aladdin (Michael Scott-Kahans); Jafar the Sorcerer (Tristan Gross); a Genie (Daniel Sierra), who obeys the demands of the holder of the magic lamp; Aladdin’s mother (Charlotte Jones); and Princess Jasmin (Elise Jacques), whom Aladdin eventually marries. Those mime gestures included ‘beautiful woman’, ‘to marry’, ‘to dance’ and others. I did wonder whether the narrative was clear to those whose knowledge did not include those gestures, which are rarely used and so probably little-known these days.

Nevertheless, the leading characters performed strongly both in terms of their dancing and in the development of the relationships between them. Scott-Kahans gave an exceptional performance as Aladdin. His dancing was filled with outstanding elevation and expressive partnering in which he always seemed to have a caring relationship with the woman he fell in love with. His fluid arms and upper body were just beautiful to watch and are characteristic of the work of Victorian State Ballet.

Gross maintained a certain mysterious quality as the Sorcerer until he managed to extract the magic lamp from Aladdin. After this the Sorcerer became a nasty individual who was eventually overcome.

Jacques danced beautifully throughout as Princess Jasmin. Her stage presence is remarkable and her technique is almost faultless.

The only main character whose performance I thought needed a little more work was the Genie, danced by Sierra. I found his movement often quite static and his hands stiff and overly stretched. Sometimes, too, his partnering looked a little as though he was struggling to lift his partner. He was making a terrific effort to maintain, I think, a particular distance or difference from the human beings he was dealing with but somehow that interfered with his ability to dance smoothly.

Choreographic highlights came from the four duets representing the jewels that Aladdin found in the cave that he was lured into by the Sorcerer—emeralds, sapphires, rubies and diamonds. The dancers performing the duets were each accompanied by three dancers also dressed as those jewels. They filled the background during the duets and showed well the approach to using the space of the stage by the choreographers (Michelle Cassar de Sierra and Martin Sierra Robles).

The quite large corps de ballet (perhaps only seemingly large on the Playhouse stage?) also related well to each other when dancing, and when standing at the side of the activities while the story progressed. This kind of engagement seems to me to be a major strength of Victorian State Ballet.

The dancxers were costumed by Felicity Kerr, Jill Kerr and Jan Tredrea. Costumes were mainly Arabian-style outfits in a stunning array of colours and decorative elements, although they were replaced by tutus for the women in the closing section. That closing section included a section that looked back to an earlier period, that is it included a pas de deux by the leading couple followed by variations and a coda from them. Then followed a finale in which all the characters joined in the dancing.

Lighting was by Martin Sierra who (perhaps?) was also responsible for the imagery that took the place of a standard backcloth. Especially in Act II the backgrounds were remarkable visions of the palace in which Princess Jasmin lived.

The production took me back to some recent reading on the development of ballet in Russia in the late nineteenth century. It also made me realise how much dance has changed since that era. Although this production of Aladdin was a more than interesting watch, we have moved on from the nineteenth century and are used to a less fussy and certainly more minimalist approach to ballet from what Aladdin showed us. I wished for a slightly less jampacked (for want of a better word) production.

Michelle Potter, 24 April 2026.

Featured image: Dancers of Victorian State Ballet in a moment near the end of the company’s presentation of Aladdin. Photo: © Enpointe Productions, 2025. 

I was a guest of Victorian State Ballet at this performance.