It’s almost every little girl’s dream to dance the lead in Swan Lake. The chance to be the centre of attention amidst the grace and beauty of ballet at its most finest is just too enticing to resist. Admit it: even if you now couldn’t care less for ballet, there must have been some point in…
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I am an awkward-as-fuck baby giraffe of a human being. It’s not that I’m uncomfortable in my body, I like to think that I’m so insanely comfortable, that I forget about my surroundings, leaving me susceptible to bumping into things and tripping on uneven ground. I like to drag my feet because I love indulging in…
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For two days only, Expressions Dance Company brought their latest production of Carmen Sweet to the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta. As part of a national tour of the simple yet evocative production, the short stint in Parramatta proved fruitful with a packed house and a satisfied audience. I had a chat with the Artistic Director…
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Natalie Weir has been the Artistic Director of Expressions Dance Company for seven years now and is currently touring her rendition of the classic opera Carmen which she’s aptly named Carmen Sweet. I caught up with Natalie and found out how her career in dance and choreography and how she’s captivating audiences from all backgrounds. Can you…
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Trisha Dunn, dancer and choreographer, establishes a sense of control and balance as she tries to make sense of the conflicting demands the world throws at her. Her show Finding Centre held at Gasworks Theatre is an exploration of universal struggle, trying to find centre with the physical, mental and spiritual state. Using stimulating visual…
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Smashing stereotypes about fat bodies, Nothing to Lose is the critically acclaimed dance production by Force Majeure that opens at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre next week after a sold out premiere season at the Sydney Festival. Artistic Director of Force Majeure, Kate Champion says: ‘My interest in working with bigger bodied, fat dancers has been in…
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Have you ever been asked the question, if you could have a dinner party with any one person dead or alive, who would you invite? If you have, would you ever consider inviting 13 women who are known for their erotic presence throughout art, mythology, literature and religion? While Melbourne based performance school Bottoms…
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Leni Ponifasio and his company MAU return to Carriageworks with their Australian premiere of yet another thought provoking work, Stones in Her Mouth. Like MAU’s 2012 production of Birds With Skymirrors, which explored our relationship with the world in a time of climate change, Stones in Her Mouth is a similarly provocative work. Through the…
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Showing as part of the Gasworks’ Moving Parts season, Lake is Lisa Wilson’s first full-length work as a choreographer. She has succeeded in master storytelling without words. Lake is a picture of the Australian landscape; drawing out both its beauty and its inherent and sometimes frightening power. Interested in ‘using water as a metaphor for…
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Evelyn Tadros has achieved so much in such a short time. Just a few years ago in 2006, she founded the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival in Melbourne and since then it has expanded to include a national tour and more recently, a Schools and Community Program that provides events year round…
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We have all heard the saying ‘a picture is worth 1000 words’. For Canberra-based theatre veteran Chrissie Shaw, this rang true a few years ago during a visit to a Melbourne art gallery. There Shaw was struck by a black-and-white photograph, Madame Bijou in the Bar de la Lune, Paris (1932). This image set her…
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A dancework that explores ‘connections to place, landscape and origins’. This is how performance maker and designer Paula van Beek describes Opal Vapour. The formidable piece combines elements of traditional Javanese arts with contemporary dance, music and design. I spoke with van Beek as she and her talented collaborators, dancer and choreographer Jade Dewi…
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‘A modern masterpiece’ is how Victorian Opera describes its new production of Nixon in China. After seeing the production, which showed at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, I can say that the description is spot on. In this exciting adaptation of John Adams’s classic 1987 opera, Victorian Opera brings to life a heroic story that…
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A dance work that captivates ‘an audience so much that they are actively engaging with the performance’ is how choreographer and performer Natalie Abbott describes Physical Fractals, her latest piece. Following on from its recent inclusion in Melbourne’s Dance Massive, where it both impressed and disorientated audiences, the piece will be performed at Sydney’s PACT Centre For Emerging Artists later…
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