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I had very carefully not read the ENB Carmen thread, nor any of the reviews of either ENB or TAB, before seeing this production last night. Underwhelming. Terrific, terrific performances by Dimity Azoury as Carmen, Adam Elmes as Don José and Maxim Zenin as Torero. I can only sigh for Jill Ogai whom I surmise to have been born for this role according to all the reviews, but golly gee Azoury was sexy, slutty, and it was no wonder the impressionable young man Elmes (who'd already committed murder before even arriving at the tobacco factory) was enthralled by her. Azoury is an experienced principal, paired with Elmes who only joined the company in 2020 so has barely had two years on stage and was promoted coryphée in 2023. He has stood out before now but last night I felt he looked and danced like a man, not a boy, if you see what I mean. As for Zenin, the only word is "wow"! Sinuous, slinky, but with that marvellous upright carriage (which he maintains when leaving the theatre in a long coat, baggy trousers and trainers), he is a real superstar in the making. The wank-fest in front of the mirrors was... entertaining! The production itself in terms of sets was clever, the moving triangular boxes were used effectively, but the costumes were...boring and cheap-looking. Rolling around on the stage, females' legs splayed in presumed sexual invitation or display, vocalisations (there's a reason they're dancers not singers)...filler and not good filler. Tends to give the impression the choreography ran out of steam for a "full length" production (1h44m including 25 minute interval). I didn't "get" the people in black rolling all over the stage, in fact I found them irritating, possibly because we had no indication on the stupid online cast sheet of who or what they were. Nor did we know the young men were called "Dogs". I note the PDF cast sheets from ENB listed and named Guards, Dogs, Cigarreras, Main Shadows, and Shadows. No such information was provided by TAB. So disrespectful and downright annoying. My fears about the music were not entirely allayed, but it was better than I had thought it might be. Music director Jonathan Lo obviously committed elsewhere (Cathy Marston's Atonement in Zürich with added bonus Lake Lucerne cruise with Brandon Lawrence and Sean Bates) so Daniel Capps led the Opera Australia Orchestra (one does wonder who was playing for OA's West Side Story just across the water, we saw and heard a bit at our interval) with sensitivity. I have to say that for a production based on the Mérimée text rather than the opera, and alleging focus on passion and violence, with an entirely male creative team (choreographer, assistants, and dramaturg), it succeeded admirably in blaming the woman for the violence. I wish I could have seen more than one performance, in order to be able to make a more full assessment.

I’ve already commented on the Jill Ogai/ Marcus Morelli performance that preceded their on stage promotions. https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/28711-jill-ogai-and-marcus-morelli-promoted-to-principal-dancers-of-australian-ballet-onstage/?do=findComment&comment=425468 I was lucky enough to see most of the other casts. Two of the principals who danced Odette/Odile impressed me enormously. One was Benedicte Bemet who, during the Company’s London visit, drew a lot of attention when she danced with Joe Caley in Diamonds and in the Don Q pas de deux. In these performances of Swan Lake her Odette/Odile was truly lovely. Her Odette was sublime and her Odile cunningly sensual. Another who impressed was Sharni Spencer. Her Odette, in particular, was beautifully danced and very moving. However the performance that stood out from all the others was the one I saw a few days ago. Rina Nemoto, a senior artist (equivalent to first soloist), who was a Lausanne apprentice at the Royal Ballet some years ago, was partnered by ex Mariinsky dancer, Misha Barkidjija. Misha really lived the role of Siegfried and I found his performance intensely moving. This didn't just come from his facial expressions. He was acting through his dancing, something I find quite rare and have experienced with very few male dancers. His partnership with Rina was electric. They were completely in tune with each other and their pas de deux, especially in the white acts. were absolutely beautiful and very moving. Throughout the performances, the dancers in the corps de ballet were exemplary. Laura Day, who is now the corps de ballet repetiteur, can be very proud of them. As a footnote, one interesting difference to the Royal Ballet is that the female soloist roles, in the performances I saw, were most often taken by members of the corps de ballet and coryphées (and an occasional soloist). Although senior artists sometimes took the soloist roles, on occasion, a senior artist was cast as a cygnet while lower ranks danced the soloist roles. In fact, despite having been promoted to principal dancer on the 16th, on the 19th Jill Ogai was a cygnet!

The Australian Ballet has announced its 2023 season will once again be "livestreamed". Happily the model has changed and we now have 14 days from the start of each stream to watch, on "any" device. Cost is $100AUD for all four, or $29/26AUD separately. Sadly the mixed première bill Identity featuring new work by Alice Topp and Daniel Riley is not included. The four shows are Don Quixote, Jewels, Swan Lake and The Dream/Marguerite and Armand. All start at 7:15pm Australian east coast time. The dates are Friday 24 March (Don Quixote) Thursday 6 July (Jewels) Friday 29 September (Swan Lake) Tuesday 21 November (Ashton bill) Casting is usually available a week or so before each season starts, with Melbourne Don Quixote casts here (Ako Kondo as Kitri, Chengwu Guo as Basilio, and about-to-retire Adam Bull as the Don). Here is the Ballet TV page with details.

The Australian Ballet has announced 11 new hires for 2024: Soloists Mia Heathcote (principal, Queensland Ballet) Victor Estévez (principal, Queensland Ballet) Davi Ramos (grand sujet, Het Nationale Ballet) Corps de ballet Laura Griffiths (joined mid-year from ENB School) Alice McArthur (John Cranko Schule, company says "from Paris Opéra Ballet" but I think that was a short-term contract only as she was a finalist in this year's external recruitment competition but not ranked top six) Plus six graduating students from Australian Ballet School: Yaru Xu, Isabella Smith, Macy Trethewey, Charlton Tough, Corey Gavan, and Jeremy Hargreaves. Leavers this year include principals Adam Bull, Amber Scott and Amy Harris, senior artists Chris Rodgers-Wilson and Dana Stephensen, plus Coco Mathieson, Karen Nanasca, Jacqueline Clark, Corey Herbert, and Lisa Craig. There may be more by the end of the year.

Australian Ballet principal artist Amy Harris has announced her retirement, to come at the end of the November Ashton double bill season in Sydney. She will be dancing Marguerite in Marguerite and Armand . Miss Harris, wife to senior artist Jarryd Madden (who will be co-hosting AusBallet's World Ballet Day stream once again) and mother to daughter Willow and son Phoenix, has been with the company 22 years. She's always been a popular dancer, winning the People's Choice in the company's internal Ballet Dancer Awards twice before winning "the big one". She joined AusBallet in 2002 and was promoted to coryphée in 2007, soloist in 2011 and senior artist in 2012. In 2018 she was promoted to principal artist on stage after dancing the secondary lead of Tertulla in Lucas Jervies' Spartacus. She's never danced Giselle, but Myrtha. Not Alice, but the Queen of Hearts. Not Cinderella, but Stepmother. Never Odette or Odette-Odile in any of the three Swan Lakes we've had during her time in the company. Not Juliet, but Lady Capulet. Not even a Sugar Plum Fairy as far as I can remember. Quite odd. London audiences may remember her as the Baroness in the Graeme Murphy Swan Lake some years ago, or in pdds from Concerto and Anna Karenina in the recent 60th anniversary gala, both with Nathan Brook, who will be her Armand. He btw is my tip for next male principal.

Quite the clear-out at AusBallet this weekend. Following principal artist Adam Bull's retirement a couple of weeks ago, tonight no less than six experienced company members appear for the last time in Melbourne. Some of you may see some of them in London. Farewell to senior artist Dana Stephenson, mother of three, joint winner of the Telstra Ballet Dancer Award (TBDA) way back in 2010, with a smile that always lit the stage. Saddest of farewells to the divine senior artist Chris Rodgers-Wilson, who is embarking on a new chapter as a photographer. He won the TBDA in 2013, after RBS upper school, BRB for four years, then joining AusBallet in 2011. Beautiful dancer, lovely partner, shone to me particularly as Jack in Wheeldon's Alice, with Lauren Cuthbertson; Franz to Miwako Kubota's Swanhilda, specially in her final show; Levin in Anna Karenina who gets the most beautiful solo of the whole ballet; Camille inThe Merry Widow - so debonair; Romeo in the Cranko version; and a really touching Bottom in The Dream in 2015. Retiring just in time not to do Bottom again, in November this year! Soloist Jacqueline Clark who is an RBS upper school alumna, 2006 I think, and danced with the Royal Ballet 2009-2015 before coming "home", is another hanging up her pointe shoes. Coryphées Lisa Craig, Corey Herbert and Coco Mathieson are also leaving. I shall particularly miss Coco Mathieson in the more contemporary repertoire. Corey Herbert is getting married and embarking on new adventures with her husband. She was one of the company members who took leave to perform in the ensemble of and as a lead cover in An American in Paris on its Australian leg.

Australian Ballet dancers will hold the curtain for 15 minutes tomorrow night. I shall report, as I will be there. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jun/22/australian-ballet-dancers-strike-first-industrial-action-42-years?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

I just received below message from ROH that Australian Ballet will bring Jewels instead on Kunstkamer to London in August. “We’re delighted to announce that The Australian Ballet will present one of George Balanchine’s most loved works, Jewels, as part of its 60th Anniversary Celebration Season at Covent Garden. The Australian Ballet is thrilled to be able to share this much-loved work with you, which will be replacing Kunstkamer as previously advertised, when they return to Covent Garden for the first time in 35 years this August. George Balanchine’s three-act masterpiece will showcase both the classical precision and stylistic versatility of The Australian Ballet’s dancers.”

As reported in today’s Dance Links and the Australian Ballet Facebook and other social media, Jonathan Lo replaces Nicolette Fraillon, who is stepping down in December after almost 20 years in that position and 25 years conducting for the company (including the first 5 years conducting for Australian Opera too). Jonathan is currently Music Director of Northern Ballet, Staff Conductor at the Royal Ballet, having also conducted for Birmingham Royal Ballet, and also as a guest with other dance and opera companies, various choirs and many orchestras. Congratulations to Jonathan on this prestigious appointment! (Very sad to lose him to the Australian audiences though!) He gained lots of street cred for participating at a rehearsal when Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov when they were rehearsing Tchaikovsky pas de deux, and following the rehearsal and conducting along with their pianist. Admittedly it was being filmed, but it was still amazing because the number of times I’ve seen ballets or pas de deux with tricky timing being rehearsed, I've never seen the conductor at a studio rehearsal (unless he is the composer of the score as well)- just the stage rehearsal. It was brilliant to see him being so diligent as to join in the studio rehearsal process. Without wanting to be gossipy (but a question I know is burning in the minds of many BRB fans)... I just hope we won’t have to lose a certain popular and wonderful dancer, principal character artist and repetiteur at BRB as well (Laura Day), given the distances between Australia and England. That said, Jonathan is currently guest conducting their performances of Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet in Melbourne (where he’s impressed many fans already) and he’s still scheduled to conduct some of the Royal Ballet’s Nutcrackers this winter and Cinderellas next spring, so hopefully they can make the transcontinental and multiple time zone hopping work. Lucky Australian Ballet!

2021 Live on Ballet TV Melbourne season New York Dialects (Balanchine: Serenade; Four Temperaments. Tanowitz: Watermark) Available to watch in real time at 7.15pm AEST Friday 11 June, or at your convenience until 5.30pm AEST Sunday 13 June Anna Karenina (Yuri Possokhov) Available to watch in real time at 7.15pm AEST Thursday 24 June, or at your convenience until 5.30pm AEST Saturday 26 June Romeo and Juliet (Cranko) Available to watch in real time at 7.15pm AEST Thursday 2 September, or at your convenience until 5.30pm AEST Saturday 4 September Harlequinade (Ratmansky reconstruction) Available to watch in real time at 7.15pm AEST Thursday 16 September, or at your convenience until 5.30pm AEST 18 September Priced at $25 each or $80 for the season package https://australianballet.com.au/the-ballets/live-on-ballet-tv

The Merry Widow is venerable in Australian Ballet terms. It was the first full length ballet comissioned by TAB in 1975, the gift ... it turned out to be the parting gift ... of Robert Helpman. (Helpman for me will always be the chivalrous, courteous and dignified Don Quixote of Nureyev's filmed production with TAB. Deluded, yes, but dignified. For me, no other Don Quixote comes near him.) But back to the Merry Widow. It's a glorious romp, Deceptively complex choreography (Ronald Hynd), sumptuously costumed, to great music (thank you John Lanchbery, who did a seamless job of rearranging Franz Lehar's music) and wonderfully danced. The night I attended, Hanna Glawari was danced by Kirsty Martin. Who? Oh, shame. Kirsty Martin turns out to be, not a principal dancer, but perhaps the principal dancer of TAB ten years ago. Retiring in 2011, she now teaches at the Australian Ballet's school, and came back for two performances of this ballet. Her return was facilitated by the fact that, although Marilyn Rowe was the first Hanna (and was repetiteur for the present production), Hanna's role was also designed with an aging Margot Fonteyn, who danced the role in the New York premiere in 1976, in mind. Together, seasoned principal Adam Bull and Martin gave us a couple by turns astonished, hurt, flirtatious and finally, recognizing their love. Leanne Stojmenov, as Valencienne and Andrew Killian, as Camille, were delightful, as was Colin Peasley as Valencienne's elderly husband. Colin first danced the husband's role at the premiere in 1975, and has danced it many many times since. Gives a whole new meaning to growing into a role. An amazing wealth of dance styles, from waltzes, polonaise, and mazurkas (why do mythical ballet kingdoms always get placed somewhere in eastern Europe? How about central Asia, for once? Great dances and no mazurkas) finishing with a great cancan (Chez Maximes) and a final delicious waltz which resolves everything and gives us a happy ending. I cannot tell a lie. I went along with no great expectations, and was completely won over. It may be fluff, but it's great fluff.

It's been announced that Joseph Caley, a Leading Principal with the English National Ballet, will be joining the Australian Ballet as a Principal Artist.

There is a Podcast on dance called "A body's language" and in November 2020, they had David Hallberg as incoming Artistic Director speaking about his transition from a dancer to incoming director. Of course he speaks about his performances, and I loved especially the memories he had with Romeo&Juliet and Sleeping Beauty. Available here, no registration required. https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/a-bodys-language/id1555671551

What a lovely way for Mr Hallberg to announce this year’s company promotions! Many congratulations to them all...especially Isobelle, who seems to have skipped a rank! 👏❤️ https://www.instagram.com/tv/CPFlhSUBoKA/?utm_medium=copy_link

Australian Ballet has announced discounted A B and C Reserve tickets for the upcoming Counterpointe mixed bill at the Sydney Opera House (season runs 27 April to 15 May). $99 (no refunds of the difference if you've already spent over $200, sorry). Available until 11:59pm AEST Tuesday 20 April. Programme is Artifact Suite (William Forsythe), Raymonda Act III (staged by David Hallberg after Marius Petipa), and George Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux. Link to tickets here

Melbourne: The Happy Prince - new Graeme Murphy - 19-26 March Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Wheeldon - 8-22 June LAC - Jean-Christophe Maillot - Les Ballets de Monte Carlo - 27 June-6 July Sylvia - Stanton Welch - 31 August-10 September The Nutcracker - Sir Peter Wright - 17-28 September Sydney: Verve - mixed bill of Stephen Baynes' Constant Variants, Alice Topp's Aurum, and Tim Harbour's Filigree and Shadow - 5-25 April The Happy Prince - 1-18 May Sylvia - 8-23 November The Nutcracker - 30 November-18 December Plus Alice in Brisbane 25 February-2 March and The Nutcracker in Adelaide 8-12 October. Plus Paris in July, and a mixed bill at the Joyce Theater in New York in late May, comprising Aurum, Unspoken Dialogues by Stephen Baynes, and a new Tim Harbour. Casting will be available on the company website approximately one week before each season opens. Allegedly. My brother and I have a joint subscription to Australian Ballet's Melbourne seasons. This means five nights over the period March-September. For 2017 it was $636 each for second-rank seats. For 2018 the exact same seats will cost us $812 each, which is $176 or (I think) a 27% increase. And for three of five shows we're further back than usual as they're removing the front two rows to accommodate a larger orchestra pit. Sadly all the cheaper seats are either way at the side (restricted view although they rarely admit it) or way up the back. Grrr 😡

I went to Sylvia twice. And if I'd written this review 10 days ago, it would have been considerably more negative than it is! Anyway, it's a sprawlling ballet. The Australian version was choreographed by Stanton Welsh, and he introduced two more love stories, the first between the gods Artemis and Orion, the second between god and mortal (Eros and Psyche). Anyway, trying to keep all these Greeks separate was impossible, not only for me but for lots of the audience with whom I talked. So first time I had no idea what was going on. And while the individual dancers and the pdd were superb, really superb, I found the ensemble pieces (lots of military and militant nymphs) both ragged at times and always overwhelmimg. Also, on the first night, the lighting was adventurous and amazing, but tended to obscure the action. This was solved by the time of my second viewing. So second time around individuals and pdd still wonderful; ensemble pieces much less intrusive. Lighting much improved; and I finally had some idea of the various stories being enacted on stage, so overall a pleasant evening, which I would not have said originally.

The Australian Ballet 2020 season - A Month in the Country makes its TAB début, Alice Topp from strength to strength, co-productions with the Joffrey and American Ballet Theatre...David McAllister's final season as AD. Queensland Ballet 2020 season - Dracula was a success in WA, Stevenson's Nutcracker now a company staple, and new work including one from HNB principal Remi Wortmeyer. West Australian Ballet has not yet announced their 2020 season but I will add it here when they do.

Paris Opera Ballet: Thanks, Bruce! I'm not sure what the geographic spread of these outside France is, but thought we should record it anyway.

You may remember that Graeme Murphy, TAB's famous choreographer, pulled out of presenting his latest work, The Little Prince only a couple of months before it was due to premiere. Ill health. Anyway, TAB replaced it, in Sydney, with Giselle, which was presented in Melbourne last year ( I saw it with David Hallberg as Albrecht. Unforgettable.) This presentation was good but not great. Ako Kondo was a feather-light Giselle, dazzled by the wonderful, good-looking, apparently considerate creature who was interested in her. You saw her move from dutiful daughter, remembering her mother's (undoubted) warnings, to confident and care-free woman, secure in her love. You saw her reluctance to hurt Hilarion (Andrew Killian) but her determination to respect her own feelings. Chengwu Guo, as Albrecht, was less impressive. He is a great dancer, capable of exploding into action, apparently from stillnes. However, his Albrecht showed no development. You did not see him gradually fall in love with Giselle. In fact his somewhat disengaged demenour at the beginning of Act 1 was largely unchanged at the end of the act. Act 2 was better, but I got little sense of the desperation which needs to underpin Albrecht's dancing. The dancing of the corps de ballet was wonderful, rivetting. In Act 1 they created a sunny, untroubled vision of village life against which the tragedy unfolded. In Act 2 they were steely and flint-hearted: exacting terrible revenge for their own suffering. Overall, a good evening, so I will avoid unnecessary comparisons with last year in Melbourne.😊

For those of you who have followed my news flashes about the drought, I spent last week in far western New South Wales. Flat, flat, flat. Yellow, yellow, yellow. Dry, dry, dry. Even the Old Man Salt Bushes are dying. What else can I say? Poor fellow, my country. But turning to The Australian Ballet's first offering of the year: Verve, a program of three short ballets all by TAB's resident choreographers. First up was Stephen Baynes' Constant Variants. Stephen Baynes has been resident choreographer with TAB since 1995, and Constant Variants was great. Reasonably conventional, but great. Music, setting, lighting and dance worked wonderfully together. Setting was dominated by a number of huge right angles, picture frame corners lit in golds, ambers and greys. The dancers themselves were meagerly lit, yellow light that left part of each dancer in darkness. Music -Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme, which set the stage for the variations in the dance. Main event of the evening was Alice Topp's Aurum. Alice Topp is TAB's most recently appointed choreographer (last year) and a Choryphee with the company. Aurum was extraordinary. The work is inspired by kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold lacquer. Breakage thus becomes an acknowledged part of the history of the object. Aurum asks us to celebrate our imperfections and discover beauty in our brokeness. As Leonard Cohen says, "There's a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." The vocabulary of movement was far more ground-breaking than was the case in Stephen Baynes' work. Really exciting. Very simple stage dominated by a backdrop reminiscent of cracks in ceramic, cracks which are suddenly and unexpectedly illuminated in gold at the end of the first movement. Interesting work with shadows. At one point the dancers' huge shadows shrink as they approach the back of the stage. Then the dancers move in one direction while their shadows move off-stage. Sounds 'cheap thrills', but it works! Final work of the evening was Tim Harbour's Filigree and Shadow, and I have to confess that I did not warm to this work. Frantic music and movement. The governing metaphor was explained as that of birds in a cyclone. Apparently, such birds fly above the maelstrom below, and, while they may be blown hundreds of kilometers off course, they survive the experience. To my mind, that leaves them in the middle of the Pacific with no land in any direction for hundreds of kilometers. A wonderful and engrossing evening, but when I got home I found an email from TAB thanking me for attending and offering half-price tickets if I wanted to go again. Did I?! But no tutus and no nice ballerinas, so audiences must be down. Aaaaaggghh!

The Australian Ballet's Melbourne year had been scheduled to start with a new Graeme Murphy, The Happy Prince, but due to Mr Murphy's health that has been postponed. Instead, they brushed up the Ratmansky Cinderella that closed 2018 in Sydney. Our subscription night was last Friday (22 March) and we saw Ako Kondo and her husband Chengwu Guo as Cinderella and the Prince. Having last seen the now-retired Leanne Stojmenov with Alexander Campbell in those roles, I was distinctly underwhelmed by Kondo and Guo. I hadn't seen them dance together for a couple of years and they have improved as a partnership but despite their individual general excellence and their real-world marriage, it's not a partnership I will rush to see again. Far more engaging were the Terrible Trio of Stepmother (Dana Stephensen), Skinny Stepsister (Ingrid Gow in the role she created) and Dumpy Stepsister (Jill Ogai). They work brilliantly together, and Ogai and Stephensen are now even better matches for Gow than they were in December. I still laugh every time Gow lifts her skirt, exposing her French knickers, as she carefully grounds (grinds?) her pointe shoe before pirouetting. I still find the Planets (instead of fairies etc) unattractive and confusing as a concept, as certainly do all the children I've seen and heard at performances of this production. Even mental repetition of the old mnemonic doesn't help me identify them all correctly - I found out last Friday the one I thought was Mars was in fact Uranus! The Prince's tour of the world only really works with a dancer who can engage the audience with his acting. In the hands of Guo it was just...blah. I also find the quartet of Prince's Friends seems to have degenerated into slapstick and sloppy dancing, very rough around the edges, which it certainly wasn't intended to be. I would have enjoyed the opportunity to see Sharni Spencer (who made an excellent début In December) with Brett Chynoweth, but was unable to afford an extra ticket, the only available ones being $274 for not-great seats at a Saturday matinée. Overall, the good bits balanced out the weak bits but it'll be a while and I'll check the casting carefully before I see this production again.

The Australian Ballet's 2019 season has undergone a revision. It was announced today (on Facebook and Instagram) that due to "unexpected health concerns of choreographer Graeme Murphy" the anticipated The Happy Prince would be postponed into 2020. Céline Gittens, Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal, is guesting with the company in the Wheeldon Alice as the Queen of Hearts; she is currently in Melbourne but no announcement has been made as to whether she is performing in Brisbane or Melbourne. 2019 now looks like this: Brisbane 25 Feb - 2 Mar: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Wheeldon) Melbourne 9-28 Mar: Cinderella (Ratmansky) - replaces The Happy Prince Sydney 5-25 Apr: Verve mixed bill - Constant Variants (Baynes), Aurum (Topp), Filigree and Shadow (Harbour) Sydney 1-18 May: Giselle (Gielgud after everybody else) - replaces The Happy Prince Melbourne 8-22 Jun: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Wheeldon) Melbourne 27 Jun - 6 Jul: Les Ballets de Monte Carlo with Lac (Maillot) while Australian Ballet is in Paris Melbourne 31 Aug - 10 Sep: Sylvia (Welch) Melbourne 17-28 Sep: The Nutcracker (Wright) minus Hans-Peter Adelaide 8-12 Oct: The Nutcracker (Wright) minus Hans-Peter Sydney 8-23 Nov: Sylvia (Welch) Sydney 30 Nov - 18 Dec: The Nutcracker (Wright) minus Hans-Peter

Opening this thread in hopes of reports from @jmb, @DD Driver and @Bluebird before I make it to Sydney! Alexander Campbell is dancing the Prince to Leanne Stojmenov's Cinderella on 12 and 14 December, otherwise only Ty King-Wall and Chengwu Guo, just two of six male TAB principals (one doesn't do it, two injured, one in Birmingham with BRB) and a wealth of talent from the middle ranks ie soloists Brodie James, Cristiano Martino and Marcus Morelli, and coryphée Callum Linnane. In the Cinderella role are both Stojmenov and Lana Jones in their final performances before retiring, also Ako Kondo and Robyn Hendricks, plus senior artists Dimity Azoury and Jade Wood, and soloist Sharni Spencer - I think her debut main stage principal role. Opening night was last Friday, after which Wood was announced as winner of this year's Ballet Dancer Award. Room for at least one promotion...but it won't be the night I'm there as I'm supposed to have Stojmenov and Campbell.

When I found out that TAB was presenting a new version of Spartacus in 2018, I was not amused. Just what ballet needs right now: another gendered production with strong men performing unbelievable leaps while their female counterparts twirl decoratively with or without tutus. I was wrong. Lucas Jervies, the choreographer, states firmly (and accurately) in an interesting article in the Guardian (I've put the web address below), that gender did not feature at all in the choreography. Rather, he was exploring ways of making the Roman experience accessible to a contemporary audience. I found the work profoundly disturbing, and given the terrible nature of the story, and its resonances with the contemporary world (making the world of Rome accessible to audiences today), that's not surprising. But I'm not sure if I liked it or not. Things I really liked: the relationship between Spartacus and his wife, Flavia - an equal, caring, passionate relationship. The chemistry between Kevin Jackson (Spartacus) and Robyn Hendricks (Flavia) was palpable, as seen in a couple of beautiful pdd, tender, gentle and yearning. This relationship was contrasted with that between Crassus, the Roman general (Ty King-Wall), a man with no redeeming features, and his wife Tertulia (Amy Harris, who was made a principal at the end of the show). A much more conventional relationship: dominant man, submissive wife. It was this contrast that for me constituted the axis of the work. The fight scenes: beautifully choreographed. The costumes and sets (Jerome Kaplan), simple, stark, stripped back. The lighting (Benjamine Cisterne), evocative. And finally, the symbol of (Roman) victorious power - a clenched fist with the first digit raised heavenward. Very obvious, but strangly compelling, and giving the dancers an immediately comprehensible oppositional gesture as they struck down the raised finger again and again. This symbol dominates the first scene, a victory parade of captured prisoners, lead by lines of red flags flouished in unison: all too reminiscent of Hitler's celebrations, not to mention rallies in the Cultural Revolution. Things I did not like: Act 2 was set in Crassus's villa. A little too Satyricon for me. I lie. It was far too Satyricon for me. I felt the fell hand of Hollywood in the potrayal, and for me the imperative of story-telling overwhelmed the demands of ballet. A pity also that the debauched excesses of some of the later emperors have come to characterise the whole Roman era, including that of the late republic. Thanks, Hollywood. On re-reading this, it looks as if the reasons for liking the ballet, and seeing it again, far outweigh the reasons for not liking it, and from the balletic point of view, that is true. But I found the parallels with today's world (which were lightly drawn and which were probably mainly in my head), were strong enough to leave me feeling profoundly uncomfortable. So I'm not sure whether I will see it again when it comes to Sydney. *http://www.theguardian.com/the-australian-ballet-reimagined/2018/jul/05/casting-off-the-shackles-of-traditional-ballet