‘Melbourne is the epicentre of interesting dance and music’ observed choreographer Antony Hamilton during our interview. It seems fitting, then, that Melbourne is the home of the Sugar Mountain Music and Art Festival, which will take place at the Forum Theatre on January 19. I recently had a chat with Hamilton to discuss his collaboration…
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Opera is one of those things you either love or hate. For most members of Gen-y, the latter view prevails; we have all heard the jokes of ‘fat lady singing’ and the likes. Yet, if there was ever an opera to challenge the view of the genre as out-dated and inaccessible, Opera Australia’s production of Salome…
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The world of the ballet meets high fashion in the sumptuous new exhibit at Melbourne’s NGV International, Ballet & Fashion. Celebrating the close relationship between renowned local and international designers and ballet, the exhibit explores the blurred line between the costumes and haute couture. Launched in conjunction with 50th birthday celebrations for the Australian Ballet,…
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Serena Chalker is a choreographer, improviser, performer, and the co-director of Anything Is Valid Dance Theatre (AIVDT). She’s part of Sydney Fringe Festival’s Life in Miniature. This dance piece is set and performed in a caravan to an intimate audience of 5 people at a time, and looks at the lives of two travellers. Lets…
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From year eight until year ten I only ate intermittently. Of course, by year eleven it had gotten to the point where I had stopped eating all together. Needless to say I did not have a positive relationship with my body. I didn’t like it because it ran into things, couldn’t catch or throw, and…
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Plenty of women would kill to look like Jenifer Ringer. The 37-year-old ballerina is slim, toned and healthy, with a million-watt smile, and something about her that just seems to sparkle. But according to New York Times critic Alastair Macaulay, this beautiful woman ‘looked as if she’d eaten one sugar plum too many’ in her…
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I was never coordinated enough for ballet or dancing of any kind, but my taller, thinner, more graceful older sister was pretty seriously into it between the ages of four and sixteen. Her whole life was dedicated to dancing- every different style you can think of, classes every day, that sort of thing. And although…
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This piece first appeared in issue three of Lip. Age five was the first time I stepped out onto the parquetry of the ballet studio. Excitement, wonderment and joy filled me. I was dressed in a pretty white leotard and skirt, pink ballet shoes and my hair in piggy tails with colourful ribbons. All this…
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