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…
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…
A much-loved classic with a fresh update and uniquely Australian twist, Queensland Ballet’s season of Coppélia is a charming presentation that will appeal to all ages. Choreographed by QB’s Associate Artistic Director, Greg Horsman, after Arthur Saint-Léon and Marius Petipa, this updated version is a co-production with West Australian Ballet and was first performed in…
Queensland Ballet’s 2024 season has kicked off with Shakespeare’s whimsical masterpiece A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an enchanting tale of love, magic, mischief and mayhem. A co-production with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream was first performed in 2015 in Wellington and has since toured China and Australia. The late Liam Scarlett’s choreography…
The Australian premiere of Johan Inger’s comic, romantic dance theatre piece I New Then, set to songs by Van Morrison, is superb. I was delighted to experience it for a second time in a few days when watching DanceX Part II. It opened the program, just as it had DanceX Part I. Inger, a Swedish choreographer, danced with…
The Queensland Ballet’s Dangerous Liaisons is not only a world premiere but it is also an amazing blockbuster of a show. The whole production just blew me away. It was the ballet’s premiere season and yet the choreography, the costumes and the music, made me feel I was watching an ageless classic. It was genius on…
Back when I was reviewing for Brisbane’s Spectrum radio show I created the “Scottie” Awards. They were based entirely on my taste in entertainment and collated basically as a tribute the people who gave me a lot of pleasure and whose work I admire. This year I have decided to revive this annual event. So…
I have rarely seen an audience stunned into silent stillness as the audience was during The Firebird. It was one of the most astonishing ballets I’ve ever seen. The 55 minute long production was just mesmerising; it pulsated with emotion, character, amazing choreography from Liam Scarlett, and some brilliant interpretation from the dancers. And of…
There was no heavy drama in La Fille mal Gardee; just two hours of fun, gorgeous pastel-shaded 1950s costumes designed by Lexi de Silva, and some really different dance. Add on three separate sets, each a fabulous creation from Richard Roberts and a lively, happy score and you had a ballet that saw the audience…
