Drew Hedditch – Landgraf on Dance

“The Sleeping Beauty”
The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House/Joan Sutherland Theatre
Sydney, Australia
December 16, 2025 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

According to the Australian Ballet’s artistic director, David Hallberg, The Sleeping Beauty is “a splendor for the eyes.” The production, which originated ten years ago under the directorship of Hallberg’s predecessor, David McAllister (who also contributed choreography based on Petipa’s original), is more; it is food for the soul.

As if zooming in on the painting of a distant palace projected on the curtain, the first scene showed the royal writing cabinet, where the whimsical Catalabutte (Jarryd Madden) omitted Carabosse from the list of invitees to Princess Aurora’s christening party. The curve of the painting’s frame recurred in the shape of the banisters that led down to the royal hall. Jon Buswell’s lighting increased the impression of paintings in motion. Continue reading ““A Splendor for the Eyes””

“The Nutcracker”
The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House/Joan Sutherland Theatre
Sydney, Australia
December 12, 2024 (live stream)

This year, getting in a happy Christmas mood isn’t easy in my home country, Germany. We’re in troubled waters, and prospects for the new year are dismal. Even our major ballet stages abandoned a festive program. The State Ballet Berlin scheduled Christian Spuck’s Bovary and Swan Lake for the holiday season; the Bavarian State Ballet is presenting a mixed bill (Duato/Skeels/Eyal) and Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet. At least audiences in Stuttgart, Hamburg, and Dresden can attend performances of The Nutcracker, but Stuttgart’s rendering is screwed up, and Dresden’s is saccharine. The bright spot is Hamburg Ballet, which kept Neumeier’s much-lauded version in its repertory.

The Australian Ballet’s live stream of The Nutcracker was therefore a welcome addition, especially as the company presented Peter Wright’s traditional version, which was staged for the Royal Ballet in 1984 and later adapted for Birmingham Royal Ballet. Continue reading “Comforting”