Next Stage: David McAllister

2020 was to be David McAllister's swan song with the Australian Ballet. After an epic 20 years at the helm, on March 3rd, McAllister announced that David Hallberg would take over as artistic director of the Australian Ballet in 2021. Within 10 days of the announcement, the Covid-19 pandemic forced theatres around the world to close, the Australian Ballet’s forthcoming seasons in Melbourne and Sydney were cancelled, and dancers were using kitchen benches as barres for daily class.

Bright Young Things

“Art is the only way to travel without leaving home.” Twyla Tharp’s quote rings truer than ever, as we negotiate our various states of isolation. For dancers, the Covid-19 pandemic has meant training at home, taking part in online classes, and interacting with dance fans via social media. For the foreseeable future, the performing arts are confined to the digital realm.

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...

Two Dance Memoirs

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?

Movement Language

Yin Yue is a dancer and choreographer based in New York. She is the artistic director of YY Dance Company, and has developed a signature training method and approach to movement called FoCo technique. FoCo (folk-contemporary) incorporates five elements (root/ground, wood/axis, water/surrounding, metal/tension and fire/kinesphere) and three rhythmic stages (pulse, drop, flow) across three training segments for dancers (triggering, rooting, mapping). The FoCo technique requires the dancer to masterfully integrate all elements, resulting in finessed texture and well-rounded movement quality. 

Dance in the Time of Covid-19

Who knew that the performance of American Ballet Theatre's world premiere, “Of Love and Rage,” that I was privileged to see at Segerstrom Center for the Arts on March 5 would be the last live dance concert I would share with some 3,000 thrilled theater-goers. Yes, that’s a rhetorical question, but since the world irrevocably changed in a matter of weeks because of Covid-19, the novel coronavirus, all dance troupes, performing arts organizations and any place people gather—whether for culture, entertainment, dining, drinking and/or to experience nature—have effectively shut down.

Dancing Through It

Like dance companies the world over, and just days out from opening night, Sydney Dance Company was placed on pause. Not paused indefinitely, but on hold until the threat of Covid-19 passes. What follows is a condensed version of my phone conversation with the company’s artistic director Rafael Bonachela, who spoke candidly about his family in Spain, how the dancers are keeping fit, SDC’s new virtual studios, and the importance of the arts in a time of crisis.

Be Moved: Shale Wagman

Although still in his teens, Shale Wagman’s career in dance has been well-documented, thrilling Canada’s Got Talent audiences with dance routines when he was just eleven years old. The Toronto-born dancer graduated from the Princess Grace Academy in Monaco and danced with English National Ballet after winning the prestigious Prix de Lausanne. He has most recently performed with the Mariinsky Ballet in a principal role. 

Second Detail: Tom Leprohon

A Toronto-native, Tom Leprohon started dancing when he was four years old. He trained at Canada’s National Ballet School and the European School of Ballet in Amsterdam. Tom joined the National Ballet of Canada’s apprentice program in 2018 and will dance with Sarasota Ballet for the coming season.

Paris Match: Lucy Elliott

Born in St. Tropez, Lucy Elliott grew up in the south of France where she started dance classes at four years of age. By age 7, she knew wanted to dance professionally. She trained in Cannes, Paris Opera Ballet School, and Canada’s National Ballet School. Last September she went the European Ballet School in Amsterdam, before joining the Paris Opera Ballet in January of this year, and before the lockdown, she was preparing to dance in George Balanchine’s iconic ballet, “Serenade.”

Finding Her Voice: Hannah Galway

Hannah Galway grew up in Comox, Vancouver Island and has been dancing since she was four. She graduated from Canada’s National Ballet School and joined the National Ballet of Canada’s apprentice program in 2017. Hannah now dances in the corps de ballet with the National Ballet of Canada, and recently originated a lead role in Crystal Pite’s new ballet, “Angels’ Atlas.”