What a powerhouse of a show this is. The music, the moves and magnitude of it all were certainly not lost on me. The setting is the rehearsal room in the lead up to Michael Jackson’s Dangerous world tour, which kicked off in June 1992 and finished in November 1993. Michael Jackson (Ilario Grant), ever…
What was it that first divided the world? Could the answer to that question be attributed to the parable as outlined in the Book of Genesis, whereby people simply couldn’t understand each other? I ask because while sitting, watching Gapu Ŋupan unfold, I thought how nice it would be if the world’s 8.2 billion inhabitants,…
As the countdown to Christmas fast approaches, Queensland Ballet’s stunning presentation of The Nutcracker has arrived to unwrap the festive season in style. Queensland Ballet has been dazzling audiences with this iconic festive staple by Ben Stevenson OBE since 2013, featuring all the beloved characters alongside Tchaikovsky’s timeless score. Set on Christmas Eve, The Nutcracker…
Perhaps the most anticipated opening of Queensland Ballet’s 2024 season, Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon was sold out before the curtain even went up. It is fantastic news for the arts in Brisbane, and well-deserved, as this production delivered everything a theatre-going fashionista could dream of. The ballet is a co-production between…
What you read into and see in dance is very much about interpretation. Here is a piece where the mood is constantly shifting. What starts out as beautiful, gentle, caring and nurturing, turns into something frenetic and disturbing. So, what is at play? Why do we transition from calm to calamitous? Needs, wants and desires…
An esoteric work for selective tastes, as far as I could make out An Organised Odyssey is about finding one’s true voice. According to Greek mythology, Scylla is a legendary, man-eating monster. She lives on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite her counterpart, sea-swallowing monster Charybdis. Ancient Greek poet Homer described Scylla…
Bangarra Dance Theatre’s world premiere work Horizon shines on the main stage as their first cross-cultural collaboration, and its national tour has arrived in Brisbane where it is showing as part of Clancestry, a celebration of identity and connection providing a platform for established and emerging First Nations artists to share their stories, perspectives and…
SIX sizzles and girl power rules. It is a high-octane musical in every sense of those words. I speak of talent, production values, choreography, sound and lighting – the complete package. The concept is pitting the wives of King Henry VIII against each other in a show of strength about who was the most hard…
Queensland Ballet’s annual Bespoke program is a triple bill of brand-new contemporary work that includes Katina Olsen’s gundirgan, wise woman, Milena Sidorova’s Birds of Paradise and Jack Lister’s Papillon. Now in its seventh year, Bespoke is an exhilarating opportunity to see elite ballet dancers perform in dynamic, contemporary settings, and the 2024 season did not…
Just in time for the school holidays, Cinderella has arrived, beautifully presented by Queensland Ballet as part of their My First Ballet series. A charming, all-ages adaptation by Matthew Lawrence, Cinderella was first performed in Brisbane in 2013 and has been adapted with permission by Ben Stevenson OBE. As one of the world’s most beloved…
