Lee Christofis

Lee Christofis reviews 'Robert Helpmann: A rare sense of the theatre' by Kathrine Sorley Walker

March 2010, no. 319 • 01 March 2010

Last year marked the centenary of Robert Helpmann’s birth. Apart from a tribute at the Helpmann Awards ceremony – the ‘Bobbies’ – in July 2009, no Australian performing arts company celebrated the anniversary of this polymorphous artist and early advocate for a national artistic life created by Australians, not by northern-hemisphere exporters. Two new books and a vibrant touring exhibit ... (read more)

Two Feet (Adelaide Festival)

ABR Arts • 04 March 2019

This year’s Adelaide Festival opening night was one for standing ovations, and the revival of Meryl Tankard’s Two Feet, danced by internationally acclaimed Russian ballerina Natalia Osipova, certainly earned one. Commissioned for World Expo 88 by former festival director Anthony Steel, Two Feet launched the festival’s dance element in great style. Two Feet, one of Tankard’s most personal d ... (read more)

Giselle (Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company)

ABR Arts • 20 November 2018

What a luxury it is to have seen the ballet company of La Scala, Milan, on its first visit to Australia. An ensemble of sixty-six dancers, it has become, under the artistic direction of Frédéric Olivieri, a prized instrument of Italian culture. Established in 1788, it engaged with a new wave of contemporary choreographers and styles in the 1960s. Today, it tours globally with a repertoire drawn ... (read more)

Spartacus (The Australian Ballet)

ABR Arts • 20 September 2018

An impassioned ovation greeted the exceptional, all-giving dancers of The Australian Ballet and musicians of Orchestra Victoria at the packed première of the company’s new production of Spartacus. The familiarity of the story of oppressed slaves and gladiators fighting the Roman Republic for freedom during the Third Servile War (73–71 BCE) – popularised by Howard Fast’s 1951 novel and Sta ... (read more)

Le Dernier Appel (Marrugeku Dance Theatre)

ABR Arts • 17 August 2018

Repetitive cycles of alienation, frustration, sorrow, and humiliation in the face of political injustice over decades find powerful expression in Le Dernier Appel (The Last Cry), the latest interrogation by Marrugeku Dance Theatre of the deleterious effects of colonisation on the indigenous peoples of Australia and her neighbours. Commissioned by Carriageworks (Sydney), the Centre Culturel Tjibaou ... (read more)

La Bayadère (Queensland Ballet)

ABR Arts • 09 April 2018

Marius Petipa’s ballet La Bayadère (The Temple Dancer), written in 1877, could be seen as the grandparent of Bollywood musicals. It has all the ingredients: Solor, a prince who loves Nikiya, a low-caste temple dancer; a conniving Brahmin high priest who lusts after her; Solor’s father, who has promised him to another man’s daughter, Gamzatti; a treacherous maid who kills Nikiya by way of a ... (read more)

Xenos (Adelaide Festival)

ABR Arts • 27 March 2018

Last year, Akram Khan, England’s leading Asian dancer–choreographer, stunned the dance world community when he announced he would stop performing in 2018 and that his last show would be Xenos, meaning ‘foreigner’ or ‘stranger’. It premièred at the Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, on 21 February, and reached Australia for the closing days of the Adelaide Festival. Khan’s imminent de ... (read more)

Murphy (The Australian Ballet)

ABR Arts • 19 March 2018

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Graeme Murphy’s career as a dancer and choreographer, which began at The Australian Ballet in 1968. He has often returned to create new ballets on the company – during his thirty-one years as artistic director of Sydney Dance Company from 1976 to 2006, and more recently. His lasting successes at The Australian Ballet comprise Nutcracker – Clara’s ... (read more)

The Piano: The Ballet (Royal New Zealand Ballet)

ABR Arts • 27 February 2018

The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s world première of The Piano: The Ballet, inspired by Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning film The Piano (1993), began the company’s program for 2018. It is the second ballet on the subject by Jiří and Otto Bubeníček, former and highly decorated principal dancers at Hamburg Ballet. Their first was a one-act work for Ballet Dortmund in 2014. Its success encouraged ... (read more)

Milky Way – Ballet at the Quarry (West Australian Ballet)

ABR Arts • 15 February 2018

Ballet at the Quarry, West Australian Ballet’s summer season, is eagerly anticipated by dance aficionados and the wider public alike, and this year’s program has drawn full houses and standing ovations. The Milky Way of the season’s title represents one of the most significant moves that Aurelian Scannella, the company’s artistic director, has made since arriving in Perth five years ago. T ... (read more)