Innholdsfortegnelse for October-November-December 2022 i Dance Australia

OPENING NUMBER WHAT do we mean by ‘legend’? We ascribe the word to many things, usually descriptively – stories, events, people. What they all have in common is our belief that they will not be forgotten. In this issue we have several examples: We have an article on Swan Lake, an example of a legend whose origins are so distant that we no longer know if they hold any truth – though legends such as these often tell their truths at a metaphysical, rather than a factual, level. The West Australian Ballet is creating a new version of the ballet, based on the original story but incorporating a black swan legend from Australia’s original inhabitants and Fremantle as a setting. Given that black swans were unknown to Europeans until they…

INSTEP NEWS | EVENTS SYDNEY Dance Company’s next major season, “Resound”, is a triple bill of two new works and one existing favourite. The two premieres are The Universe is Here, by award-winning choreographer Stephanie Lake (with costume design by Harriet Oxley and music by Robin Fox) and Summer, by SDC director Rafael Bonachela, to the evocative score, Cicadidae, by Australian composer Kate Moore, recorded by the Australian String Quartet, and with costumes by Australian fashion house, Romance was Born. Alongside these is Bonachela’s Ocho, with its driving score by Nick Wales, haunting vocals of Aboriginal artist Rrawun Maymuru and set design by David Fleischer. Ocho won rave reviews from audiences and critics alike when it premiered in 2017. “Resound” takes place from October 29 to November 5 in Sydney.…

SHOWTIME! NO way!” That was Helen Howard’s first thought when she was asked to step in at the last minute in An American in Paris. Howard would have had fewer than four days to learn the role of Madam Baurel, replacing a sick Ann Wood, and she was already busy working on the Disney TV series of Nautilus. Furthermore, the role required some dancing: “I just don't dance, I take weeks to learn if I have to dance in a play!”, she claims. But the show was “desperate” for someone. Covid had attacked the ranks of the Brisbane production and no-one else suitable was available. Having scanned the script and decided it was “do-able”, she cautiously accepted the part. There followed hours of intense drilling by the American in Paris…

GALLERY…

CLASS ON Sunday August 28, the Sydney Eisteddfod’s Ballet Scholarship Final returned to the newly renovated Concert Hall stage of the Sydney Opera House. This was the first time that what has historically been an annual event was able to be held in three years, and the demand for it is definitely still strong, as demonstrated by the record-breaking 226 entries this year! Of course, a considerable amount of adjudication has gone on behind the scenes in the weeks leading up to the final, and only eight finalists make it to this last stage. This year two were from Queensland, two from Victoria and four from New South Wales. (See box.) The standard of finalists at the Sydney Eisteddfod is always high, but it seemed to be even higher this…

Tasdance collaborated with independent artist Jo Lloyd and GUTS Dance from Alice Springs for its latest production. FEATURING a monumental sculpture by blacksmith Pete Mattila, this iteration of Collision makes a big statement by Tasdance in partnership with GUTS Dance (from Alice Springs). It seems this project has been growing over several years both conceptually and practically. The same large space hosted Jo Lloyd and Deanne Butterworth’s Double Double (their own production) during MONA FOMA in the summer of 2019. In that precursor, the large concrete gallery was divided diagonally by a timber screen; each dancer accompanied by a kit drummer on either side before further interaction. Watching Collision in 2022 is more like viewing a two-tone grey football pitch divided by a massive triumphal arch. Mattila’s metal sculpture is…

HEAD inland from Gladstone on Queensland’s central coast and drive for an hour-and-a-half along the Dawson Highway and you will reach the town of Biloela in the Shire of Banana. With a population of about 5400 people, Biloela is described by the founder of Alarna’s Dance Academy as a “fantastically family-oriented town”. Alarna Jane originally called her school Dance Dance Dance when she opened in 2013 after moving to the town from Emerald. The school was rebranded as Alarna’s Dance Academy, or ADA, as she says the students refer to it, in 2014. For the first few years, “we operated out of the local scout hall”, which meant co-ordinating classes around the scout activities. The hall “had old wooden floors and the dirt would come up through the floor boards…

KARUL Projects, the First Nations professional contemporary dance company located in Yugambeh Country/the Gold Coast region, has undertaken an extensive tour of Queensland with its production of Silence. Choreographed by Thomas E.S. Kelly, who founded the company in 2017, Silence features seven performers on a stage slowly engulfed in dirt, representing the call for “Land Back”. The tour comprised live and digital performances as well as workshops along Queensland’s east coast, concluding at Redland Performing Arts Centre on October 14.…

LARRAKIA man Gary Lang loves to tell the story of the time when the internationally famous (late) ballerina, Lucette Aldous, came into the room where he was rehearsing. After watching for a while, she said to him: “Gary, your work isn’t contemporary Aboriginal dance, it’s Aboriginal ballet.” It’s a description he has embraced with pride. “I love the aesthetics of classical ballet,” he says, joking that he’s “a bit of a bunhead”. Now the director of his own Northern Territory Dance Company in Darwin, he is adamant that as a choreographer and creator he is pursuing his own aesthetic and vision, which is not confined to Indigenous culture. His own background, as he points out, is a mix of Scots, Larrakia and Filipino. “One of the fore things I say,…

The festival was back this year with an effervescent selection of dance works, reminiscent of pre-Covid years. AFTER two years of rather restrained programming, Brisbane Festival was back this year with an effervescent selection of dance works, reminiscent of pre-Covid years. Although none were international, five works represented some of the best contemporary dance in the country, including a remount of Australasian Dance Collective’s audacious Aftermath, Restless Dance Theatre’s quirky, engaging Guttered, and the exhilarating Manifesto, choreographed by Stephanie Lake. Reviewed here are the other two works on offer, Angel Monster, (Phluxus2 Dance Collective) and Dancenorth’s Wayfinder. Angel Monster premiered in 2019 as part of Brisbane’s Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance, and recently returned from appearances at the Edinburgh Festival. In a sometimes dystopian exploration of both feminine and feminist…

This annual performance was a triumph against many odds. AFTER two years of Covid interruptions, it is a credit to The Australian Ballet School’s teachers, staff and students – led by Director Lisa Pavane – that Showcase 2022 is a triumph against many odds. It is always a privilege to watch young dancers perform, particularly those graduating and about to set forth on their professional dance paths. All of the gifted students on stage showed confident, committed professionalism and unique individual qualities. They displayed versatility and virtuosity, literally did not miss a beat, and were a joy to watch. Frank Croese, the veteran acclaimed lighting designer and former dancer who is an inaugural Australian Ballet School alumnus from 1964, created glorious imagery throughout. Opening the program was Pas De(s) Fleurs…

Ben Dunlop RAD DDTS, RTS Institute of Dance | Baby Ballet School I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. After dancing professionally, the transition happened quite organically. I have always had a desire to share my love of dance, and I am grateful for the opportunity to foster that in the next generation. Do you specialise in a particular age group? I thoroughly enjoy working with all ages and skill levels. I believe the difference between a good and a great teacher is the ability to cater to all levels. I love the challenge of adapting my teaching style to any ability, learning style or level. Has Coronavirus left you with lasting changes? During the pandemic, my resilience and ability to adapt quickly was tested both as a…

How do you stay fit? Do you still do class? I don’t do class anymore as it is just too painful the next day! Although I do a small amount of demonstrating when teaching, I have a 30-minute Pilates-based set of exercises and stretching routine which I do most days to keep me moving. What was your pandemic coping mechanism? Staying in regular contact with our son Benjamin Ella in London and almost daily visits to the Fitzroy Gardens (in Melbourne) – deriving so much enjoyment from the amazing floral displays and bird life through different seasons and many lockdowns! You have been teaching now for about 30 years in many different countries. Have you seen many changes in teaching over that time? The need for good, sound teaching has…

WITH most international borders open at last, international dance companies are once again flying into Australia. The Royal Czech Ballet started its tour at the Theatre Royal in Hobart on September 2 and is now traversing the land, performing 37 performances in 22 venues over two months, before moving on to New Zealand. The company is performing Swan Lake. Also performing Swan Lake is the United Ukrainian Ballet, formed from the Ukrainian dancers, teachers and theatre artists who have fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion. Now based in The Hague in Holland, the company is the initiative of Dutch prima ballerina Inge de Yongh, former principal dancer with the Dutch National Ballet. The company will perform in Melbourne and Sydney in October and Adelaide in November. A portion of each…

IN what promises to be a memorable production, the Adelaide Festival has announced that Christian Spuck’s "monumental" Messa da Requiem will be one of the star attractions in 2023. First performed in Milan in 1874, Verdi’s requiem is an oratorio with opera coursing through its veins. This production will bring together the dancers of Ballet Zurich in Switzerland with local choristers, soloists and musicians; a total of 200 performers. German-born Spuck established himself as a choreographer with the Stuttgart Ballet, for which he created 15 major works that carried on the company's narrative ballet tradition established by John Cranko. In recent years the much-lauded choreographer has extended his artistic reach to film and opera. Spuck has been the leader of Ballett Zürich since 2012 and has recently been appointed artistic…

THE late choreographer Douglas Wright was a uniquely gifted artist. He was not only a superb dancer and gifted choreographer, he also drew like Cocteau and wrote like an angel. If he had not been born in New Zealand, so far away from the (so-called) centres of contemporary dance, he might have been world famous. On the other hand it is impossible to imagine such an original talent as his emerging from anywhere else. Like his idol, the author Janet Frame, he was vulnerable and sensitive but he was also bold and mercurial, living life to sometimes reckless extremes. By the time he died in 2018 aged 62, he had earned the undying respect and devotion of NZ’s arts community. He was bestowed with a NZ Order of Merit and…

OUT of Bounds, a showcase of choreography with Q&A after, is an exciting addition to Melbourne’s growing landscape of platforms for emerging choreographers, invoking the spirit of experimentation and idea sharing. The first showcase took place in August at the Temperance Hall in South Melbourne, a historic building converted into a theatre space. A collaboration between international dance artists Phillip Adams, director of BalletLab, and Lucy Guerin, director of Lucy Guerin Inc., Out of Bounds showcases are programmed twice a year. The space is dedicated to emerging dance practice and, as Adams puts it, “radical inclusivity”. I was able to attend some of August’s showcase, to get a taste of Out of Bounds and talk to these two accomplished Melbourne-of-origin choreographers about the project. “Lucy and I came up with…

This is Daniel Riley’s first full-length production as Artistic Director of the Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), which for the first time has an Aboriginal artistic director. THE momentousness of Savage’s creation and premiere at the Adelaide Festival Centre is well documented. It is Wiradjuri dancer, choreographer and Bangarra Dance Theatre-alumnus Daniel Riley’s first full-length production as Artistic Director of the Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), which for the first time has an Aboriginal artistic director, despite the company’s long history of performing works about (and frequently without the involvement of) Aboriginal people. A one-act, non-narrative work, Savage’s opening night took place at the Adelaide Festival Centre, performed by the ADT’s ensemble of six dancers, supported by Riley and nine further guest artists from the Adelaide College of the Arts. The distinction…

RED dust, 35 degree days, driving four to five hours and, when necessary, camping by creeks, waterholes and within school grounds to be able to teach the next morning. It doesn’t sound like the ideal creative environment for a dance school, but for Brie Healy, founder of From Dust Creative Arts in Tom Price, WA, these are the lengths she is prepared to go to the share the joy of dance. Healy officially started her venture in 2017 in Tom Price, a small mining town in the Pilbara region with a population of just over 3000 people. Over the last five years the school has grown to 160 students enrolled from Tom Price and neighbouring town Paraburdoo (an hour down the road). The school offers studio dance classes in tap,…

Beth Appiah Cain Trained: Jason Coleman’s Ministry of Dance Now: Professional Dancer What is your best memory of your full-time dance studies? Looking back, my best memory of full-time would be towards the end of my first year during end of year showcase. I was lucky enough to be one of the few first year students who was put as a lead for one of the routines. I remember coming off stage specifically after that number with an overwhelming amount of happiness and feeling very proud of myself. I had struggled quite early on and had considered quitting full time but thanks to my mentors at MOD I stayed. In that moment looking back on the year I had pushed through, it made me realise that I am capable of…