CriticalDance Forum

What’s On at The Australian Ballet

Season 2008

Bodytorque.To the Pointe.
Six hot new works ... on pointe
Sydney 21 Feb - 24 Feb

Swan Lake
Graeme Murphy’s internationally acclaimed favourite returns
Melbourne 14 Mar - 26 Mar Sydney 4 Apr - 24 Apr

Jerome Robbins - a celebration
A showcase from one of the world’s greatest dance makers
Sydney 30 Apr - 19 May Melbourne 5 Jun - 16 Jun

(The Cage, The Concert, Afternoon of a Faun and Suite of Dances)


Ballets Russes Symposium
Discover more about the Ballets Russes at this fascinating weekend Symposium
Adelaide 23 May - 25 May

French Connections
Where Russian bravura meets French chic
Adelaide 23 May - 27 May

(Afternoon of a Faun, Ballet Imperial and Symphonie Fantastique)

Ballet Imperial
Break out your tiaras for this feast of classical ballet!
Melbourne 20 Jun - 1 Jul

(Ballet Imperial, PdD feom La Bayadere, PdD from Act 3 of Sleeping Beauty, Grand Pas Classique, Esmerelda PdD and Paquita PdT)


Giselle
The ultimate Romantic ballet.
Brisbane 8 Jul - 12 Jul

Interplay
Twenty-first century ballet from three international hot shots, created to new scores from renowned Australian composers
Melbourne 28 Aug - 8 Sep Sydney 6 Nov - 25 Nov

(ballets by Stephen Baynes, Matjash Mrozewski and Nicolo Fonte)


Manon
A sweeping tale of love and temptation
Melbourne 12 Sep - 23 Sep Sydney 28 Nov - 17 Dec

Yosvani Ramos is joining the Australian Ballet. Details here


Very interesting, since it's my understanding that Australian residence is a requirement for being hired (as per the company union rather than immigrations regulations). I wonder if this is a special case - you don't get many dancers of the caliber who probably willing to relocate half way around the world.

This dancer would fly though the whole process of bieing naturalised as he is a ballet dancer!! No problem at all.

What a great pleasure to finally watch beautiful new pieces of dance... "Notte in Bianco" was the one I prefered, sensual, modern and original ! "Triple": in the Balanchine's tradition on the famous Campanella from Liszt, simply beautiful ! "Point Break": once again, Balanchine is here... Inspired from "Rubis" on the wonderful Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto 1. "Wa": as light & pure as the air... "La Barkat": inspired from Béjart's Bhakti, breathtaking ! This ended with "Amusement" on a Bach's suite.

Dancers were all perfect. Pieces were quite long and with many techinical difficulties but it seemed so easy for them .
And they are all so beautiful ! I mean, I'm used to the silhouette of Paris dancers, and I can tell you that I really enjoyed not seeing so skinny girls on pointes !

I really had a great time. It had been quite a while since I was taken by surprise in the good way with contemporary choregraphs !

Well, I keep going twice, three times a year or more to Paris (I usually live in the south of France, so it's not so far...), depending on the proram...
It was really, really magic when dancers from Noureev generation were still here... Now, it's still very good, and many young dancers are talentful, but something is missing in the interpretation, in my opinion...

I saw the Australian Ballet twice and I must admit that the thing I really appreciated is that you can see the dancers having a good time on stage, which is sometimes not the case in Paris...

You lucky thing!!! I was in Paris for only six hours and just had dinner and back on the train to lurdes at the south of France. I would love to see the Paris Opera as that would be a cultural high for me.


That's a shame that this is happening. I wonder what's missing.

Oh good!! I find that when dancers are happy then the performances are of good quality that brings spunk in the dance.

Its much like the Les Ballet's Trockadero de Mote Carlo performances as they are into Classical Russian Ballet and make fun out of it and they make a party atmosphere which makes more exciting.

Paris Opera Ballet toured Australian last year. They even did Balanchine's Jewels. Did you miss that?

I went to see Graeme Murphy's Sawn Lake and I must admit, after all the reviews I read, I was really deceived ...

The choregraphy was good, the dancers were excellent , the costumes were beautiful... But why this need to put the story in a more realist world ? If I'm going to see a ballet, it's still to dream, forget about everything, and yes I do love princes & princesses stories !!!

I didn't go into this story putting the fragile Odette in a psychiatric hospital while fighting against her husband's mistress and then dreaming about swans...
What I usually like in Swan Lake is the dual character of Odette/Odile danced by the same ballerina, which makes it a particulary interesting role... Here it's just the matter of a banal fight between a naive wife and her possessive rival, so that the accent is on the two female dancers and the male role has become really poor ...

I did the mistake to read the program during the intermission and I learned that it's been called the House of Windsor version because the story about Diana, Charles and Camilla was the departure point of this ballet. This definitely ended my dream ...

Yes, I too like the Prince and Princesses as well as this is an old story made for todays real life as I was instantly put off.


The Choreography was quite good and the technical was so effortlessness done as this makes this worth the wile to watch.

Yes that was so unrealistic to the story I thought as if I were to do a Choreography to a ballet, It would be from the ground up meaning that if it was to modern works then I would look at a story of my own making rather than modifying an old one.

Yes I agree with that. There is at one point where Odette & Odille see each other in act 3 where Odette was at the window and Odille was in the palace with prince Fredrick but this ballet is so designed for one prima ballerina doing the two roles.

I didn't get the programe that you would get in the foyer of many theaters as I have watched this on TV on ABC2 at home so I didn't get to read the synopsis of this ballet.
Anyway I will see the Keiv Ballet Theater in their Swan Lake and that I will enjoy.

Stephanie Glickman reviews the Australian Ballet's tribute to Jerome Robbins ("The Cage," "Afternoon of a Faun," "A Suite of Dances," and "The Concert") from a performance in Melbourne, in Australian Stage:

Australian Stage

An interview with Valerie Wilder, recently appointed as Executive Director at Australian Ballet, who has had similar posts at National Ballet of Canada and most recently at Boston Ballet. Sonia Harford in The Age:

The Age