309 stories from deborahjones.me
The received wisdom is that ballet is strictly a young person's game. When a classical dancer gets near or just beyond 40 there is much marveling at their longevity and conjecture about what…
Hayes Theatre Co, Sydney, July 6 I'm sure the good folk at Charlie Hebdo magazine won't mind when I say, after seeing You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at the Hayes last night, that je suis C…
State Theatre, Melbourne, June 30 Stanton Welch looked thrilled after the premiere of his Romeo and Juliet in Melbourne, as he should have. The former Australian Ballet dancer and current AB…
Sydney's Hayes Theatre Co was the venue for another in the invaluable Neglected Musicals series (June 21). Rehearsal is minimal (a day only), there may be a sketchy set and a few props, and …
Bangarra Dance Theatre, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, June 16 Bangarra offers balm in a fractured, fractious world. As always the work is radiantly lovely, but more important are underl…
In what has become a tradition at The Australian Ballet, Robyn Hendricks was promoted on stage on Friday in Melbourne to the highest rank of principal artist. She was elevated by artistic di…
A recent holiday took me entirely away from all daily cares and the internet. There was no email, no Twitter, no Facebook, nothing. I heartily recommend it. Now back to Sydney theatre … Sy…
Last week there was only one story … Berlin has a population of about 3.5 million. Its three opera companies " Deutsche Oper Belin, Deutsche Staatsoper and Komische Oper – are fu…
Carriageworks, Sydney, May 6. Visual artists have yet another handsome prize to aim for, with the recent announcement of the biennial Ramsay Art Prize for artists under the age of 40, workin…
A week of contrasts started on Tuesday at the Sydney Opera House with the marvellous Bernadette Robinson in Pennsylvania Avenue, her follow-up to Songs for Nobodies. Both were written by Joa…
St James Theatre, Wellington, May 4. The Wizard of Oz has had quite a journey on its way to Royal New Zealand Ballet and the St James Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand's capital. The ballet…
Sydney Opera House, April 29. Symphony in C is one of George Balanchine's grandest and most cherished pronouncements on the classical tradition. It features a strict hierarchy that cascades …
I could be wrong but I think the only Jonathan Dove opera to have made it to a professional stage so far in Australia is Flight, which I saw in 2006 when the Adelaide Festival presented the …
New York-based Deborah Jowitt is one of the world's most eminent dance critics. She wrote for The Village Voice for 44 years, is a biographer, speaker and lecturer, and has been in Melbourne…
Last week's theatre was all about men in extremis, or at least it turned out that way for me. Not an uncommon situation in our theatres, you might say, although now there is increasing aware…
Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, April 15. "I never realise how dead I am until I meet people like you," says the rather correct "diplomatist" Richard Greatham (Alan Dukes) to the chatelai…
The Australian Ballet, Sydney, March 31, April 2, April 5, April 16. The Australian Ballet will undoubtedly stick with Stephen Baynes's 2012 production of Swan Lake " now being revived for t…
It's 13 years since Li Cunxin published his memoir Mao's Last Dancer and its appeal hasn't dimmed. It's still in print, of course, and there was a condensed version made for young adults and…
In the week just gone I went again to The Australian Ballet's Swan Lake, this time to see Lana Jones as O/O. I'll wait until I've seen Natasha Kusch " coming up at the Saturday matinee " bef…
Sydney Opera House, April 2. The chance to see a dancer's first Odette/Odile will always be a drawcard for the truly dedicated ballet-goer, no matter how many times they have seen Swan Lake.…
Queensland Ballet, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane, April 1. The second act of Liam Scarlett's A Midsummer Night's Dream begins with deliciously controlled chaos. At the behest o…
A CLASH of ballet opening nights saw Queensland Ballet's A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Australian Ballet's Swan Lake go head to head " well, from my perspective. They were in different c…
British director Matthew Warchus had two musicals open within about four months of one another. One was Matilda the Musical, the Royal Shakespeare Company production that premiered in Stratf…
I STARTED this blog in January 2013, not long after retiring from a 25-year career at The Australian spent largely in the arts, writing, editing and reviewing. I'd been writing and reviewing…
There wouldn't be too many 29-year-old men who know exactly where they are going to be in five years. Not in a general sense, as in being pretty sure about being promoted, or settling down w…
