Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Former Royal Ballet superstar Leanne Benjamin arrived at Queensland Ballet in mid-January as the company's sixth artistic director. On August 2 she leaves the building. In a statement releas…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 10:28PMSaturday, July 27, 2024
Queensland Ballet's commitment to its Bespoke program is important and necessary for the company, for choreographers and for the QB dancers. Bespoke isn't the only place where new work happe…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 05:19AMMonday, July 22, 2024
How on earth do you keep a bunch of toddlers and babies quiet for more than half an hour? (Well, as quiet as toddlers and babies can be.) Club Origami seems to have the answer. This or…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 08:36PMMonday, July 15, 2024
George Balanchine's Jewels was premiered by the Australian Ballet as part of the company's 60th anniversary celebrations last year and very welcome it was too. It's unlike anythi…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 03:58AMThursday, June 20, 2024
When Bangarra Dance Theatre takes to the stage it is, without fail, in a spirit of generosity. That was true under the long-standing leadership of Stephen Page and feels true with Frances Ri…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 12:52AMMonday, June 10, 2024
Love is love. If you want just three words to sum up Romeo and Juliet Suite, they're the ones. Benjamin Millepied's thrilling dance work, set to selections from Prokofiev's mighty ballet…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 02:50AMWednesday, June 5, 2024
The name BIG Live doesn't exactly scream ballet but that's what the organisation does. BIG stands for Ballet International Gala, the arena in which BIG Live started operations in 2022. There…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 02:31AMSunday, May 19, 2024
Ty King-Wall finished his ballet career at the top, retiring from The Australian Ballet as a principal artist. By the time he stopped dancing in 2022 he had two young children, one born just…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 11:56PMWednesday, May 8, 2024
Thomas E.S. Kelly's SILENCE has been well travelled since its premiere at the Brisbane Festival in 2020. That's a measure of how well it's been received, which is excellent, and the en…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 06:23PMTuesday, May 7, 2024
It was a memorable few days for Royal New Zealand Ballet dancers Ana Gallardo Lobaina and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson. When they made their debuts as Odette/Odile and Siegfried at the May…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 08:39PMWednesday, April 17, 2024
There is a great deal of joy in Liam Scarlett's deliciously funny, sensual A Midsummer Night's Dream. And " always " a great deal of sadness that his life was so short. Yesterday, April 1…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 01:36AMMonday, April 15, 2024
Johan Inger sees Carmen as a nightmare, which it is. In his darker-than-dark version of a story that just won't go away, the Swedish choreographer gets inside the head of the woman's murdere…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 09:08PMIn 2018 Greg Horsman choreographed a version of La Bayadère for a trio of commissioners, Queensland Ballet, West Australian Ballet and Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet. His setting was …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 03:13AMMonday, April 1, 2024
Speaking in 1985 at a symposium about the creation of West Side Story, Jerome Robbins said he had wanted to see how far he, Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents could go in bringing thei…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 12:41AMThursday, March 21, 2024
Amber McCartney's solo dance work Tiny Infinite Deaths was a big success when it premiered in 2022 in an artist development program called Pieces, presented by Melbourne's Lucy Guerin …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 07:49PMWednesday, February 28, 2024
Christopher Wheeldon is a ballet choreographer who doesn't stay in his lane. Neither did George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille or Jerome Robbins. Ditto Twyla Tharp, still making new work at the …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 05:28PMMonday, February 12, 2024
In Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894) the law of the jungle is the furthest thing from anarchy. Social structures built by the animals are adhered to without fail. They give an often v…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 09:39PMFriday, February 9, 2024
By start time of 8pm Perth's temperature had dropped a little from its high of 41°C to something, well, not much below that. But the sky was clear and humidity low " a perfect night, then…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 11:45PMSaturday, January 27, 2024
Most of Australia's well-established contemporary dance companies are based in the country's capital cities for obvious reasons. That's where audiences and resources are closest to hand. Ade…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 02:36AMFriday, December 22, 2023
The Australian Ballet's 60th anniversary celebrations came to a close in Sydney with Swan Lake and with promotions for 14 dancers " about 20 per cent of the company. TAB ended 2023 …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 05:39AMTuesday, December 19, 2023
Leanne Benjamin has been named Li Cunxin's successor as artistic director of Brisbane-based Queensland Ballet. She is the sixth AD in the company's 63-year history and the first woman to be …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 11:38PMTuesday, December 12, 2023
At the end of PPY23 Revealed there were huge shouts of joy from the young dancers who had just performed. For about half of them " and there were more than 50 in total " it was a gradu…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 05:25PMThursday, November 9, 2023
Up close is right. It's likely you'll never get nearer the spectacular Sydney Dance Company bodies than this. SDC is usually seen in the conventional 900-seat Roslyn Packer Theatre just …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 05:21PMThursday, October 26, 2023
The Australian Ballet's announcement today that Stephanie Lake is to be its new Resident Choreographer from the beginning of next year is very good news indeed. Lake is one of the country's …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 01:26AMSunday, September 24, 2023
Tradition reigns in The Australian Ballet's new Swan Lake, based on a fondly remembered 1977 production by former artistic director Anne Woolliams. Nearly 50 years on it's still recognisa…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 02:23AMFriday, September 15, 2023
In 2019 Brisbane Festival artistic director Louise Bezzina, then new in her role, travelled the substantial width of Australia to attend the Perth Festival, as you do. There she met British …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 04:39AMWednesday, September 13, 2023
There should be much rejoicing in New Zealand dance circles today with the announcement that Ty King-Wall is to be Royal New Zealand Ballet's next artistic director. It's a homecoming for Ki…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 01:12AMTuesday, September 12, 2023
A new ballet by Christopher Wheeldon, Oscar, is the centrepiece of David Hallberg's 2024 program for The Australian Ballet. It is being made on the company in what is Hallberg's first ful…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 04:45AMMonday, September 11, 2023
Wubkje Kuindersma's new echoes of VAN GOGH for West Australian Ballet looks wonderful. The artist's work is everywhere in Tatyana van Walsum's designs, almost overwhelmingly so. Intens…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 02:57AMMonday, August 21, 2023
The Australian Ballet's recent appearances at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden got plenty of attention here and in the UK. Travelling somewhat under the radar was another touring venture,…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 02:37AMThursday, August 17, 2023
Sydney Dance Company's generous outreach to contemporary choreographers, INDance, opened its second season last night with works from two West Australian choreographers. Founded last year, t…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 09:10PM 
