The stars were out and so was the moon. The audience gathered, as always, on the terraces at City Beach’s Quarry Amphitheatre with the traditional picnic baskets and wine to hand. The danc…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 12:43AMIf you want to sum up the thrust of Karen Pearlman’s witty new short film in one piece of advice it’s this: women, whatever you do, do not gaze wistfully through a window. This passive…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 07:30PMQueensland Ballet has chosen Ivan Gil-Ortega to be its next artistic director. The Spanish-born international artist will be the company’s seventh AD. He will start in February after a per…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 07:09PMObviously we’re not precisely at the opera. If so, the doors would have been shut against all-comers at the scheduled start time and there wouldn’t be all these people standing around in…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 12:52AMIt’s been a few years since I’ve done a year’s-best list. Everyone loves a list, including me, and it’s fun to see what others found memorable. But while I’m always happy to share …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 09:04PMCan something be simultaneously too much and not enough? That was the case for Oscar Wilde in his tumultuous, ill-fated, on-off relationship with the mercurial Lord Alfred Douglas and it’s…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 08:54PMIs there anyone, anywhere, ever, who hasn’t kept shtum about something not precisely true when put under pressure? Mostly it doesn’t matter but in the earnest chamber musical Dear Evan …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 04:14AMThe unwieldy name of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s bio-ballet carries the intimation that not everyone will know who Chanel was. Tell that to Brisbane, where Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 12:40AMFrancesco Ventriglia became artistic director of Alberta Ballet in January 2024. Now 46, he has worked as a dancer, artistic director and choreographer in Italy, New Zealand, Uruguay, Austra…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 01:06AMAndrew Lloyd Webber is rarely absent from a stage somewhere and it’s safe to say his work will outlive the scoffers, of whom there are many. Oh well, he can always cry all the way to the b…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 10:02PMWe have Opera Australia’s 2025 program in front of us now, launched this week without the presence of its key architect, former artistic director Jo Davies. As all opera-lovers know, Davie…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 02:04AMWhen announcing her 2023 season for Royal New Zealand Ballet, then-artistic director Patricia Barker described the returning Romeo & Juliet as “a glorious production made for the St…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 03:58AMOpera Australia chose an unusual day on which to announce it had parted ways with its artistic director, Jo Davies. Tomorrow – Saturday, August 31 – is the Sydney opening night for Suns…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 03:18AMIn what will be David Hallberg’s fifth year as artistic director of The Australian Ballet, the company’s 2025 program offers new works by William Forsythe and Stephanie Lake, the return …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 08:24PMSolace is a beautiful, onomatopoeic word. It sits softly in the mouth and the taste of its meaning lingers. It promises comfort, although has little to do with being comfortable. This is com…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 09:03PMFormer Royal Ballet superstar Leanne Benjamin arrived at Queensland Ballet in mid-January as the company’s sixth artistic director. On August 2 she leaves the building. In a statement rele…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 10:28PMQueensland Ballet’s commitment to its Bespoke program is important and necessary for the company, for choreographers and for the QB dancers. Bespoke isn’t the only place where new work h…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 05:19AMHow on earth do you keep a bunch of toddlers and babies quiet for more than half an hour? (Well, as quiet as toddlers and babies can be.) Club Origami seems to have the answer. This origam…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 08:36PMGeorge Balanchine’s Jewels was premiered by the Australian Ballet as part of the company’s 60th anniversary celebrations last year and very welcome it was too. It’s unlike anything…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 03:58AMWhen Bangarra Dance Theatre takes to the stage it is, without fail, in a spirit of generosity. That was true under the long-standing leadership of Stephen Page and feels true with Frances Ri…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 12:52AMLove is love. If you want just three words to sum up Romeo and Juliet Suite, they’re the ones. Benjamin Millepied’s thrilling dance work, set to selections from Prokofiev’s mighty ba…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 02:50AMThe name BIG Live doesn’t exactly scream ballet but that’s what the organisation does. BIG stands for Ballet International Gala, the arena in which BIG Live started operations in 2022. T…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 02:31AMTy King-Wall finished his ballet career at the top, retiring from The Australian Ballet as a principal artist. By the time he stopped dancing in 2022 he had two young children, one born just…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 11:56PMThomas E.S. Kelly’s SILENCE has been well travelled since its premiere at the Brisbane Festival in 2020. That’s a measure of how well it’s been received, which is excellent, and the …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 06:23PMIt was a memorable few days for Royal New Zealand Ballet dancers Ana Gallardo Lobaina and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson. When they made their debuts as Odette/Odile and Siegfried at the May 2…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 08:39PMThere is a great deal of joy in Liam Scarlett’s deliciously funny, sensual A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And – always – a great deal of sadness that his life was so short. Yesterday, A…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 01:36AMJohan Inger sees Carmen as a nightmare, which it is. In his darker-than-dark version of a story that just won’t go away, the Swedish choreographer gets inside the head of the woman’s mur…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 09:08PMIn 2018 Greg Horsman choreographed a version of La Bayadère for a trio of commissioners, Queensland Ballet, West Australian Ballet and Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet. His setting was mi…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 03:13AMSpeaking in 1985 at a symposium about the creation of West Side Story, Jerome Robbins said he had wanted to see how far he, Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents could go in bringing their …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 12:41AMAmber McCartney’s solo dance work Tiny Infinite Deaths was a big success when it premiered in 2022 in an artist development program called Pieces, presented by Melbourne’s Lucy Guerin …
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 07:49PMChristopher Wheeldon is a ballet choreographer who doesn’t stay in his lane. Neither did George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille or Jerome Robbins. Ditto Twyla Tharp, still making new work at th…
SOURCE: deborahjones.me at 05:28PM