309 stories from deborahjones.me
Governments rise and fall. Children grow up to be mothers and then grandmothers. A man steps on the moon. Evolution creates a new version of humankind, the digital native. And serenely Th…
The Australian Ballet is in a nostalgic mood. The company's 60th birthday is just around the corner " its first performance was in Sydney on November 2, 1962 " so thoughts naturally go to…
Kenneth MacMillan's Manon premiered in 1974, not quite a decade after his Romeo and Juliet, and in some ways is the earlier ballet's dark twin. Each has as its heart young lovers in…
Savage's subtitle is The Violence of Forgetting, letter and words separated from their neighbours by full stops and slashes. Australian Dance Theatre adds even more emphasis with attentio…
Adapted and directed by Kip Williams. Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney, August 10 and September 7. Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case starts not with Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde but with Jekyll's c…
Theatre Royal, Sydney, August 30, 2022 She was sitting in the front row of the Theatre Royal stalls, which means she was practically onstage. The young woman was on her own, applauding like …
One of the stranger side effects of Covid has been Opera Australia's double dip into The Phantom of the Opera. First up was the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour extravaganza directed by Simo…
Neilson Studio, Sydney Dance Company, August 19, 2022 INDance is a new Sydney Dance Company initiative, one in which it shares space and resources with independent dance artists. It's good f…
Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, June 11. Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article contains the name of someone who has passed. T…
QPAC, Brisbane, June 4. When Queensland Ballet performed The Sleeping Beauty in 2015, artistic director Li Cunxin cast international superstar Alina Cojocaru as first-night Aurora. She…
Playhouse Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, May 26 Amy Hollingsworth's relief was palpable and profound. THREE had finally arrived. It was 14 months late, but it was here. Th…
Sydney Opera House, April 27. Does Counterpointe shine an illuminating light on the journey of classical dance from the 19th century to the 20th or is it a mighty clash of opposi…
Sydney Opera House, April 6 and 21. The Australian Ballet returned to the stage in February with Summertime at the Ballet " a Melbourne-only gala celebration after last year's disappointment…
Carriageworks, Sydney, March 13. It's often the case that alarm bells start ringing when an artist writes a highly detailed program note explaining precisely what their contemporary dance pi…
Festival Theatre, Adelaide, March 7. The idea is transfixing. Three of the greatest 20th century contemporary choreographers come to grips with Beethoven's Grosse Fugue, a monumentally knott…
Teac Damsa, Heath Ledger Theatre, Perth Festival, February 27 One definition of the West Kerry word mám is yoke and another is obligation or duty but that's only the beginning of its poss…
On December 4 last year David Hallberg tweeted that he'd loved revisiting The Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House but "there is a very good chance it was my last". And so it probably wa…
Choreographed by Graeme Murphy, adapted from Oscar Wilde by Murphy and Kim Carpenter. Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane, February 25. Graeme Murphy's The Happy Prince was to have p…
Quarry Amphitheatre, Perth, February 7 A woman climbs, higher and higher, on a path made by the bodies of other dancers. Later she will descend and fall, but her head will be caught by an en…
Sydney Opera House, January 31. Death is ever-present in Hofesh Shechter's deeply moving Grand Finale, and so is an unquenchable lust for life. The two conditions are irrevocably twinned. We…
Carriageworks, Sydney Festival, January 16 The short Sydney Festival season of Stephanie Lake's Colossus has ended but the show is by no means over. Next month it will be seen at the Perth F…
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Auckland, December 5. It is no small thing to make a full-length narrative ballet that wins its place in a company's repertoire. Many are attempted and many end up as…
Carriageworks, Sydney, December 6 The mysteries of dance and dancemaking are great. What drives the need to watch this person closely and not that one? Why does a work speak to something dee…
Sydney Opera House, November 30. The Australian Ballet doesn't have an annual tradition of presenting The Nutcracker, although on present indications it could. The ballet doesn't have as tig…
Brisbane's Expressions Dance Company has a new name to go with its new leadership. Amy Hollingsworth, who became artistic director of EDC at the beginning of 2019, announced at her 2020 seas…
