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He is also choreographing a new version of Firebird for the Queensland Ballet. Opening May 25th. So he is obviously a very busy guy.

I never saw Nureyev dance, although I am old enough to have had the possibility. Growing up in rural northern Tasmania in the 50s, I didn't come across much ballet, and it is a mystery to me as to why I persuaded my mother into driving me 20 miles every Saturday morning to the regional centre where there was a real ballet teacher. That lasted a year, and as a result I first formulated what has become my life-long attitude to my body - best described as 'armed neutrality' - I won't mess with you if you don't mess with me. Be that as it may, I was still interested in ballet, and one day in the mid -60s, television having finally arrived in northern Tasmania, I turned on our set to see figures from Greek Black-figure pottery dancing in two- dimensional glory. I was transfixed. I didn't know who they were or what they were doing (apart from dancing) but the memory of those dancing two-dimensional figures stayed with me. Life intervened and it didn't include ballet, and then suddenly, unexpectedly, amazingly, only a very few years ago, I fell in love with ballet all over again. And so I was doing my homework for the Australian Ballet's performance of Nijinsky (which was, in current parlance, awesome). As part of my preparation, I was trying to watch ballets associated with Nijinsky on youtube. I found a link to Joffrey Ballet's production of L'Apres-midi d'un Faune, with Nureyev, which looked worth watching, so I settled down to watch. And to my astonishment, there, on my screen, was my freize of dancing two dimensional ladies. And Nureyev - earthy, sexy, magical Nureyev. He gave my dancing freize a name and a place, and this was his gift to me. And for this I owe him a boundless debt of gratitude.

Just seen on another thread that Hallberg is still out. Seldom read casting threads as I won't see any of them. Here's hoping for August, and perhaps the wizardry of the Australian Ballet's physio team.

I was also disapointed that the article said nothing about his recent injury. I understand he was scheculed to dance with RB at the end of March. Anyone know if that happened? Whatever, I've bought a ticket for Melbourne, 31st August, and bask in the knowledge that I'm helping keep Qantas solvent. This ballet lark is going to bankrupt me 😊

Thanks: will do

How about two similar accounts of the journey from great poverty to stardom: Carlos Acosta's No Way Home a nd Li Cunxin's Mao's Last Dancer. And David Hallberg's recent A Body of Work. BTW, has anyone heard how he is going?

An advantage of coming rather late to a thread is that you can see what everyone else has said, or not. And maybe I flipped through rather quickly, but nobody seems to have mentioned the version Nureyev made with the Australian Ballet in 1970 (I think). Definitive version? I don’t know, but it is close to my heart as it played a central role in turning me on to ballet. I've described elsewhere the horror that La Bayadere's orientalist excesses inspired in me as a naive audience member. My elderly mother, however, had desperately wanted to see the production, but her health would not allow it. To make up, I bought her two DVDs. One was a Kirov production of Swan Lake. This was not a success. My mother decided that the prince was both sulky and stupid ... anybody could see the Odette and Odile were different people, and as for Odette, well, why didn't she DO something. The second was the Nuteyev Australian Ballet Don Quixote. From the moment Lucette Aldous came thrusting through the crowd and leapt into the square in Act 1, Mum was captivated. So was I. Lucette Aldous may not be as technically proficient as many ballerinas since, but her elan and the verve and joi de vivre of the corps de ballet was wonderful. And one more thing. In productions I have seen since, Don Quixote is often a confused and bumbling figure. Robert Helpman's Don Quixote may have been confused, he may have been beset by demons, but he was utterly and completely dignified. So keep your eye out for the DVD: the film has been restored and the costumes are marvelous. All this and Nureyev as well.

Well, yes, it's La Bayadere, but not as you know it. Not, that is, if you have in mind Makarova's production for American Ballet, which has been presented by many companies internationally since then. The Australian Ballet is one such company, and their production of La Bayadere was the first in a series of steps that resulted in my present obsession with ballet. At the time however, I sat throughout the evening in horror. 'Haven't these people read Edward Said' was all I could think of. 'Don’t they know about Orientalism?' Greg Horsman (previosly ballet master, Northern Ballet, then ENB, now Ballet Master at QB) has significantly reduced the spectre of Orientalism in his reworking of the story. The time is early nineteenth century and Solor is son of the Rajah of Cooch Behar, a kingdom that has been locked in battle with the British. Peace is agreed, to be sealed by the marriage of Solor to the Governor General's daughter, Edith. Gamzatti is nowhere to be seen. Of course, Solor ia actually deeply in love with Nikiya and is horrified by his father's order. He consents, however, believing that he and Nikiya can elope. At their engagement party however, Nikiya, unaware of what is afoot, comes to dance, and, unable to resist, Solor embraces her. Confronted by her fiance's real affections, Edith stabs Nikiya to death. The following scene, the kingdom of the shades, is pretty much straight Makarova/Petipa, and leads into the wedding celebrations, where Solor, drunk on wine (and opium) collapses and is taken to his room. Edith tries to seduce him, and on being rebuffed, screams that she is responsible for Nikiya's death. In a blind rage, Solor strangles her and is in turn shot by British soldiers, falling through a window to his death. Obviously, with such a radical remaking of the story, there is a great deal of new choreography, and Greg Horsman has done a good job of integrating the original and the new. Principals Victor Estevez and Laura Hidalgo as Solor and Nikiya imbued their roles with tenderness, lyricism and passion. The role of Edith was the disappointment of the evening. Lucy Green is in general a fine dancer, but this time she had a petulant, self-centred brat to present, more suited to one of the ugly sisters in Cinderella than to an avatar of the aristocratic Gamzatti. The highlight of the performance, the kingdom of the shades was reasonably well done, though the staging, with the shades passing in front of a glorious yellow full moon, was wonderful. The music, under the direction og Nigel Gaynor, was outstanding, the score being extensively re-arranged and attempts made to in incorporate some aspects of Indian music, especially in the Prologue. Overall, a successful production.

I understood that there were 2 dancers from POB, but given the lack of a cast list or program, I could be wrong. Downloads on the Festival website don't cut it for me. And you are right about the theatre!

Not sure if a report on Wayne Macgregor when he's wearing his modern dance hat is allowed, but the moderators will delete this if it's not suitable, so here goes. WM's latest (well, latest for Oz anyway) offering is Tree of Codes with dancers from his own company plus two from POB. No cast list so I can't give any names. Technically amazing ... 75 minutes of frenetic action, and professionally impressive -it was 43 degrees outside. Of course, we were in a deliciously air-conditioned building, but still ... . Music -James xx - who I gather is very much the thing - but a bit too monotonous for me. Staging (lighting doesn't cover it) initially arresting. The dancers are backed by a huge mirror so single dancers are doubled, two become four and so on. Later a second mirror is added, so that dancers in front of the first mirror continue to be doubled, but those between the first and second mirrors appear to dance at the head of an infinite line of dancers stretching into the distance. Arresting at first. My personal favourite came right at the beginning with the stage in darkness. The dancers have lights attached to their costumes, so it looks like clouds of cogniscent fireflies coming together and breaking apart. One critic wrote that, technically stunning as the work was, it lacked heart, and I went along fully expecting to disagree. But it does. Finally I could not see what McGregor was trying to say. Maybe it was about the now. Each movement totally complete in itself, before being swept away by the next. If so, it was not enough. .

This is not a comment on tutu style, which is, I confess, not a topic I have paid much attention to. But it is about tutus and deserves a wider audience. It's Brisbane in the middle of last year, and the Royal Ballet is coming. So I am at the box office sorting out a minor problem and having an animated conversation with the one of the box office ladies, who is as excited as I am about the visit. Next to us, a couple of women perhaps in their 60s sound extremely suspicious about the information they are getting from another box office attendant. Suddenly one of them taps me on the shoulder. Her eyes fixed on a poster of Steve Macrae and Natalia Osipova in a particularly impossible position, she demands, 'Is this a modern ballet?' in tones that suggest no expectation of an acceptable answer. 'Yes', I say. 'It's a modern ballet'. Her worst fears confirmed, she asks, 'What about tutus?' 'No tutus,' I say, trying to suppress a vision of Virginia Woolf in any kind of tutu. "No tutus?' Her voice goes up a least two octaves. She turns to her companion, and in a voice redolent of horror and disapproval, repeats, 'No tutus'. With one accord they turn and leave the theatre. What kind of ballet is it that doesn't have tutus? The visit gave me a magical 10 days, but this little vignette holds a small but treasured place in my memory.

At the start of this thread, somebody asked of David Hallberg, 'He's still dancing, right?'. Well no, at the time he wasn't, but he is now. Two years off with a debilitating foot injury, the last year in intensive physio/rehab with the Australian Ballet and a return to the stage as Franz in Coppelia last week: December 13 to be precise. He talks about the experience in the AB's Ballet Blog - Behind Ballet. It was a wonderful come-back and real Christmas present (for us!).

I seem to be in a decided minority in that I can't stand the ballet, although in general I love Ashton's work. Maybe because panto dames never caught on in Straya. And I find that my aversion to the impossibly nostalgic setting and some of the characterisation gets in the way of my appreciation of the dancing. Unfortunately, Queensland Ballet is presenting it next year. One less opportunity to go to Brisbane.

As most of the readers of Balletcoforum are unlikely to have had the opportunity to see the Queensland Ballet’s production of Liam Scarlett’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, I thought people might be interested in a report, especially given the immanent premiere of his Frankenstein with the RB. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was a project jointly sponsored by the Queensland Ballet and the Royal New Zealand Ballet, initiated while Ethan Steifel was artistic director of the RNB. For two small ballet companies to have secured the services of one of the hottest names in choreography in recent years is testament to the foresight of Ethan Steifel, and continues the trajectory that Queensland Ballet has been on since Li Cunxin (Mao’s Last Dancer; that Li Cunxin) took on the role of Artistic Director in 2012. I saw the ballet halfway through its run in Queensland. Magical is a word that gets thrown around a lot, especially with regard to Midsummer Night’s Dream, but this production really is magical. Set designer Tracy Grant Lord presents a forest of multiple levels, so Oberon surveys happenings in his domain from on high, and Puck is discovered an eyrie stage right. And this forest is no tame European knoll. Think Avatar’s Pandora, all phosphorescent purples, mauves and greens, with slender white blooms framing the action like candles. While the story remains faithful to the broad trajectory of Shakespeare’s play, the scenario has been updated. The whole back-story – Athens, Theseus, tyrannical father, wedding festivities - has gone. In their place a group of explorers (lovers and mechanicals together), complete with tents and butterfly nets, blunder about in the forest. The changeling boy is a young man (surely not more than three years old!) in a blue onesie clutching a stuffed horse and played with great aplomb by Fin McCarthy. Victor Estevez is an imperious Oberon, with Lauren Hildalgo his equally self-willed Queen, although their squabble over the changeling boy brings them both momentarily down to the all too human level. Their fairy entourage is delightful, skimming across the stage with rapid footwork, but with expressive use of upper body creating an appealing vulnerability, more bumblebee than butterfly. I found the lovers less appealing. Lots of slapstick, and, and this really is a gripe, I thought we were beyond having a plain girl in thick black-rimmed glasses (Clare Morehen’s Helena) desperately pursuing a man who is not interested (Demetrius, danced by Vito Bernasconi). Bottom (Rian Thompson), on the other hand, was definitely cute, and his pas de deux with Titania was curiously innocent – a beautiful counterpoint to the deliciously sensuous closing pas de deux as Oberon and Titania are reconciled (and the changeling boy is lead off stage, to be, as we are informed in the program notes, returned from whence he came). Puck (Camillo Ramos) gets everything wrong with huge enthusiasm and equal bemusement when mayhem ensues. Overall, definitely an amusing plus (in spite of plain girls in black-rimmed glasses) and I look forward to QB’s next presentation.