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.

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...

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...

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.

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.