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The Piano
REVIEWS | Par Madelyn Coupe

Edge of a Wild Sea

The next episode from Royal New Zealand Ballet’s “Live in Your Living Room” series diverges from their previous content. Up until now, the company has broadcast filmed productions such as “Romeo and Juliet,” or dress rehearsal recordings, “Cinderella” from their archives. This time, however, they decided to share something completely different. Instead of presenting a finished product—a performance with everything perfectly rehearsed and every detail finalised—RNZB chose to broadcast a documentary that focuses upon the rehearsal process. This episode shows how complicated and turbulent the creative process can be.

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A New Firebird
REVIEWS | Par Oksana Khadarina

A New Firebird

As the coronavirus pandemic brought live performances to a halt, many ballet companies around the world turned to online platforms to present their work and to engage with their audiences, bringing dance performances straight into our living rooms. In fact, these trying times created an unprecedented opportunity for people all over the world to enjoy a wealth of ballet productions, new and old, which the majority of viewers would never be able to see otherwise.

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Royal New Zealand Ballet
REVIEWS | Par Madelyn Coupe

Violent Delights, Violent Ends

When it comes to restaging canonical works, the process is extraordinarily complex. A myriad of difficulties can emerge depending on how much or how little a new work differs from the original ballet. Every aspect of the restaging—from form to characterisation and plot—does not exist in isolation; the theatrical elements are irrevocably tied to and haunted by the canonical predecessor. How a choreographer, then, approaches a restaging is uniquely singular them and their creative practice.

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Love is Not Blind
REVIEWS | Par Gracia Haby

Love is Not Blind

Memory is not linear. Have I told you this before? I saw this production of see Graeme Murphy’s “Romeo & Juliet,” filmed on Wednesday 21st September, 2011 at Arts Centre Melbourne with Orchestra Victoria, before I wrote my first piece for Fjord Review.

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For the Fallen
REVIEWS | Par Madelyn Coupe

For the Fallen

The 25th of April is an important day for Australia and New Zealand—it is Anzac Day. It is a day where two countries come together and acknowledge the suffering that our servicemen and women have endured. This year, however, Anzac Day was quite different. There were not the usual migrations, no congregations and even the shores of Gallipoli—normally filled with thousands of visitors—were bare. Instead, people decided to commemorate at home. They lined their driveways at dawn and waited for the Reveille to play through the radio.

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Mischief at Midnight
REVIEWS | Par Madelyn Coupe

Mischief at Midnight

There is something inherently mysterious about the midnight hour; it has an otherworldly power that can be both alluring yet also sinister. Curses can be sworn, spells can be broken, and even the most beautiful things (including carriages) can be returned to mundane, everyday objects. Midnight is cloaked in mystery because it is a liminal space—a threshold of time. It signifies the moment when one day turns into the next, and it is within this transition that it holds its power. As time suspends between the days, so too does rational thought. Because midnight is the hour that gives voice...

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Lived Experience
REVIEWS | Par Lorna Irvine

Lived Experience

Glasgow's Barrowland Ballet have long explored the nuances of human interaction with style, grace and humour. The company often work with those from different backgrounds and age groups, and their own professional dancers are absolutely superb. Whiteout is definitely one of artistic director Natasha Gilmore's most intimate projects, as she was inspired by creating a humane piece which speaks to her own inter-racial marriage. Speaking in an interview in The List in 2015, she said to writer Kelly Apter, “This is one of those pieces I felt compelled to make . . . So I started to identify the common...

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Hansel and Gretel
REVIEWS | Par Madelyn Coupe

The Sweetest Witching Hour

On March 23, 2020, the Royal New Zealand Ballet announced the suspension of all rehearsals, performances, and community events until the spring—the company joining an ever-growing list of arts organisations affected by Covid-19. The future of their 2020 season now in doubt. “Venus Rising,” due to premiere in May, has been postponed until August. “The Sleeping Beauty” remains tentatively programmed for October, and “Dangerous Liaison” has been removed from the current season entirely.

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The Ferryman
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Par Lorna Irvine

The Ferryman

Belgian-French choreographer, dancer and performer Damien Jalet's extraordinary works seem to be not quite of this Earth: they are comprised of a not altogether human landscape, a liminal space of knotted limbs. His complex choreography creates a fleshy mass that means his dancers are more akin to animals. He others the corporeal, wherein it often becomes hard to differentiate between plant and mammal. Bodies entwine and hands grasp like pincers or gnarled tree branches. At times, the spectator is reminded of paintings, either from Goya who referenced the horrors of civil war, or Francis Bacon's Screaming Popes. This is uncomfortable, visceral...

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The Statement
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Par Róisín O'Brien

Making a Statement

What is the friction between words and movement? What does one give us that the other doesn’t? If there is an intelligence in movement and physicality that cannot be expressed through words, do we look down on that intelligence?

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A Midsummer Night's Dream
REVIEWS | Par Rachel Howard

Amidst Darkness, A Dream

March 6, 2020 was not an ordinary opening night at San Francisco Ballet. Some patrons inside the War Memorial Opera House wore hospital masks; others counseled fellow audience members to wash their hands a full 20 seconds in the bathroom at intermission. Onstage, the performers in Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”—not staged at SFB in 34 years—danced as though this were their last night before lockdown, and in the velvet seats, the audience applauded as though we would never see these dancers again. We headed home with our memories of an exquisite performance. And as we slept, the order came:...

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Revisor
REVIEWS | Par Rachel Elderkin

Comedy & Corruption

There is a striking clarity and intelligence with which Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young approach narrative. Their combination of choreographer and actor/writer/director is not only dance-theatre gold, but allows for an incredibly rich interplay between words and movement.

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Featured Reads

REVIEWS | Rachel Howard
Starry Nights

Beneath blue California skies, manicured trees, and the occasional hum of an overhead airplane, Tamara Rojo took the Frost Amphitheater stage at Stanford University to introduce herself as the new artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.

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