Australian Ballet, 2002-2003 season

Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Swanning about
August 30 2002
Sydney Morning Herald

Star-crossed lovers and flapping swans are among next year's Australian Ballet attractions, writes Jo Roberts.

The Australian Ballet launched its 2003 season in Melbourne yesterday, with artistic director David McAllister outlining six dance works promising "a rich tapestry" of repertoire favourites and exciting new works.

Bookending the season are two classics, opening with a revival of John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet, featuring Spanish-born American star Angel Corella as Romeo, and ending the season, says McAllister, "with a bang" in the form of Andre Prokovsky's version of The Three Musketeers, a piece created for Australia's flagship ballet troupe in 1980 and last presented 15 years ago.

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[ 11-28-2002, 10:05: Message edited by: Malcolm Tay ]

Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Ballet's fairytale reunion
By Jane Albert and Georgina Safe
August 29, 2002
The Australian

A NEW full-length work by Australian choreographer Meryl Tankard will form the centrepiece of the Australian Ballet's 2003 season, a mixture of new local works and classical crowd-pleasers.

Wild Swans is Tankard's first important work in her home country since her acrimonious departure from Adelaide's Australian Dance Theatre in 1999. Since then she has worked largely overseas, with the rare exceptions being choreographing a segment of the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony in 2000 and two works for a concert for the Dalai Lama held in April this year.

"It's great to be back," says Tankard. "I always felt the [Australian] Ballet was my family and my home, but in the past I think they thought my work too avant-garde for them. But now, with a new artistic direction, I think they can see I'm still using the classical techniques but in order to challenge myself and the dancers – which hopefully Wild Swans will do."

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Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Conductor up-beat about changes
By Jane Albert
September 06, 2002
The Australian

IF Nicolette Fraillon gets her way, there will be a lot of changes at the Australian Ballet next year. And they have nothing to do with dance.

The incoming musical director and chief conductor of the AB has many ideas about improving what she sees as the neglected dance orchestra scene in Australia. These range from having more of a musical say in the AB's season program to instigating specialist training for ballet conductors, encouraging closer ties between musicians and dancers and fostering appreciation for the orchestra's work.

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Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

On Graeme Murphy's upcoming reworking of Swan Lake:

Quote:

Better Lake than ever
by Georgina Safe
September 13, 2002
The Australian

"I have not been emotionally engaged by a single one of the Swan Lake productions I have ever seen," says Murphy. He has seen almost a dozen. "Baroque and #### and castles for days."

It's probably a good thing, if a slightly curious one, that during a career spanning more than 30 years in Australia and overseas Murphy has never – not once – danced in the iconic ballet he describes as "almost a pantomime" for its "superficiality and lack of emotional depth".

Murphy is as entitled to his views as Laroche. But given their stridency, it is not unreasonable to ask why on earth he would take up the challenge of reworking Swan Lake for the Australian Ballet, a production that premieres in Melbourne next Tuesday before touring to Sydney in November, Adelaide next February then Asia in October next year.

Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

New life for an old bird
By Neil Jillett
September 17 2002
The Age

The Australian Ballet's new and unconventional production of the classic Swan Lake looks the way it does partly because Kristian Fredrikson wanted to write The Great New Zealand Novel.

More than 40 years after he was struck by that ambition, the novel remains unwritten, and the hobby he took up to support him while he made his name as a Kiwi Patrick White has expanded into a career as one of Australia's busiest and most applauded stage designers.

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An army of swans
By Jo Roberts
September 17 2002
The Age

The first major commission by new artistic director David McAllister, it is a mammoth production, even bigger than the Tivoli collaborative extravaganza that Murphy created last year with his own SDC dancers and the Australian Ballet. This production of Swan Lake involves every one of the AB's 71 dancers, Murphy calling it "a military exercise".

Dancing the principal roles in the first of three casts (which will alternate each night) are Steven Heathcote, Simone Goldsmith and Margaret Illman. "This is a four-act ballet, so it's a killer," Murphy says of the 155-minute work.

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[ 09-17-2002, 04:41: Message edited by: Malcolm Tay ]

Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Murphy's sublime Swan Lake
By Hilary Crampton
September 19 2002
The Age

Swan Lake, Choreographed by Graeme Murphy.
The Australian Ballet.
State Theatre, until September 28.

Perhaps the most consistent aspect of choreographer Graeme Murphy's career is that he never fails to surprise. Rather than the anticipated radical re-imagining of Swan Lake, Murphy makes frequent reference to tradition. We see the massed ensemble of swan maidens, the familiar four cygnets, and the reconfigured story line still centres around the eternal ideals of light versus darkness, good versus evil, and true love versus desire. Even the famous fouettes make an appearance, though repositioned into Act I.

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Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Promotion for Goldsmith following Odette triumph
By Jo Roberts
September 19 2002
The Age

On a high from her performance as Odette in the world premiere of Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake on Tuesday night, which climaxed in a standing ovation, Australian Ballet senior artist Simone Goldsmith probably thought things couldn't get much better.

That was until the post-show speeches, when AB artistic director David McAllister announced to the packed room that Goldsmith was being promoted to principal artist, effective immediately.

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Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Swan Lake (Review)
By Lee Christofis
September 20, 2002
The Australian

JUST minutes after the curtain went up on the Australian Ballet's new Swan Lake on Tuesday, we knew we were witnessing the birth of a classic and the emergence of a ballerina of extraordinary quality. Three hours later the house went wild, wilder than any ballet audience in town for years, in a nearly 10-minute standing ovation.

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Basheva · **Posted:** Sat Sep 21, 2002 7:39 am

What an intriguing review. Thanks, Malcolm.

Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Burley's bulging disc a blow to ballet
October 01 2002
By John Mangan
The Age

A bulging disc forced Australian Ballet principal Nigel Burley off the dance floor in May - now he has announced his premature retirement from the stage.

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Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Switching chairs
October 03 2002
By Jo Roberts
The Age

Australian Ballet chairman Mel Ward, has been appointed chairman of the Australia Council's major performing arts board.

He succeeds Dr Helen Nugent, who chaired the 1999 key performing arts inquiry.

Ward, who leaves the AB board on November 2 after almost 12 years as a board member, and chairman since January 1999, said he was "pleased to have this further opportunity to serve the arts community in a wider role".

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Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Numbers man new chief of the Australian Ballet
By Sharon Verghis
October 3 2002
Sydney Morning Herald

Accounting supremo David Crawford - more used to untangling numerical webs in his former life as national chairman of KPMG - has been appointed the new chairman of the Australian Ballet.

Crawford, who takes over the position from outgoing chairman Mel Ward early next month, has been the board's deputy chairman since 1999.

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Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

United!
Reviewed by Jill Sykes
November 8 2002
Sydney Morning Herald

The Australian Ballet has been celebrating its 40th all year, one of its birthday gifts being member Adrian Burnett's first work for the touring repertoire. Its title, Subtle Sequence of Revelation, was a mystery to me until curtain call when the lights showed the religious and art history references printed on Jennifer Irwin's costumes. Until then, John Rayment's lighting made lovely stage pictures but revealed little. The piece is well crafted to music from the Philip Glass quartets 2 and 5 and provides plenty of dancing for 16 performers drawn from both companies. The solos, especially Timothy Harbour's, the duets and - outstandingly - a trio are stronger than the larger ensembles, which move the performers around well enough but lack the kind of choreographic invention that makes an impact.

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Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

Triple treat not to everyone's taste
November 5 2002
Sydney Morning Herald

In a year of celebration, the Australian Ballet is counting the cost of being cutting-edge, writes Sharon Verghis.

At Guillaume at Bennelong restaurant at the Opera House last Friday, the Australian Ballet's year-long celebrations of its 40th anniversary took shape in the form of rose petals, martinis, accolades and an official changing of the guard.

The mood, appropriately enough, was upbeat, a stream of celebrities, fashion designers, politicians and the informal ballet aristocracy of former dancers, benefactors and supporters gathering to mark the milestone as well as the massive changes underfoot from boardroom downwards.

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Malcolm Tay · **Joined:** Fri Aug 31, 2001 11:01 pm **Posts:** 962

House full for Swan Lake
By Jane Albert
November 28, 2002
The Australian

"WHO do you have to be to get a ticket to this show?" That was Graeme Murphy's question after learning Ross Stretton would be in the opening night audience of Murphy's Swan Lake while his own friends would not.

Stretton, the recently ousted artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London and former head of the Australian Ballet, is expected to attend tomorrow night's performance at the Sydney Opera House of Murphy's reworking of the 19th century Russian classic for the AB.

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Australian Ballet, 2002-2003 season

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