By Deborah Jones David Hallberg serenely slid to the floor, legs immaculately split, then turned to the audience in the Sydney Opera House. “Ouch,” he said. The moment was pure Kunstkamer, the work that lured Hallberg back to the stage after a two-year absence. Originally made for Nederlands Dans Theater in 2019, it’s a huge,
By Deborah Jones The Australian Ballet’s Celebration Gala at the Sydney Opera House was greeted with unbridled enthusiasm by an audience starved for dance. End-of-year Sydney performances of Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet and Ratmansky’s Harlequinade had been cancelled, a big blow to the company following the wipe-out of its earlier programming in Melbourne, where it
By Rhys Ryan One year after Lucas Jervies’ gladiatorial epic Spartacus, audiences of the Australian Ballet were again thrust into the wonders of the ancient world. This time, brutality and hypermasculinity were replaced with an intricate plot of heroism and triumph in the company’s co-production with Houston Ballet, Sylvia, which had its Australian premiere at