Tag Archive: Yuumi Yamada

Work Ethics

December 27, 2023 0 Comments

The Australian Ballet
Southbank/Victoria, Australia
December 2023

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2023 by Ilona Landgraf

It’s no secret that the country of Germany is in descent. Of the various aspects that add to the misery, one is that work has lost its intrinsic value in many classes of German society. Matters are different in the ballet world though. The Australian Ballet, for example, delivered high quality throughout the year. Earlier this December, the company’s artistic director, David Hallberg, honored the achievements of his dancers. In a sweeping series of promotions, sixteen dancers climbed the ranks. Their joy was infectious. Each promotee knows that a higher rank bestows higher expectations, and each one seemed to wholeheartedly embrace the new challenge.

The newest coryphées are Sara Andrlon, Saranja Crowe, Hugo Dumapit, Adam Elmes, Evie Ferris, Lilla Harvey, Larissa Kiyoto-Ward, and Montana Rubin.

(more…)

Refurbished

October 5, 2023 0 Comments

“Swan Lake”
The Australian Ballet
Arts Centre Melbourne / State Theatre
Melbourne, Australia
September 29, 2023 (livestream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2023 by Ilona Landgraf

1. B.Bemet (Odette), J.Caley (Prince Siegfried), and ensemble, “Swan Lake” by A.Woolliams after M.Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2023 © K.Longley The sixtieth anniversary season of the Australian Ballet called for the crème de la crème of classical ballet: “Swan Lake”. Of the several versions kept in the company’s archive, artistic director David Hallberg decided to reinvent Anne Woolliams’s 1977 rendition. Hallberg, for whom this project marked his debut as a director, commissioned a fresh look, but kept 95% of Woolliams’s choreography. The remaining parts were contributed not by himself (“I’m definitely not a choreographer”, he stated during last Friday’s livestream), but by the Australian choreographer Lucas Jervies.

Woolliams’s “Swan Lake” opens with a prologue, in which the malicious von Rothbart casts a spell over captivated maidens, transforming them into obedient swans. The following four acts are in line with the traditional libretto, but include some noteworthy details. At his birthday party, the prince doesn’t meet his potential fiancées face-to-face, but is confronted with a political choice between the crowns presented by ambassadors from Spain, Hungary, and Italy. The related princesses only attend the ball in Act III, where they lead their country’s delegation of folk dancers. (more…)

Cheers!

March 30, 2023

“Don Quixote”
The Australian Ballet
Arts Centre Melbourne / State Theatre
Melbourne, Australia
March 24, 2023 (livestream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2023 by Ilona Landgraf

1. C.Guo (Basilio), A.Kondo (Kitri), and ensemble, “Don Quixote” by R.Nureyev after M.Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2023 © R.LantryGood news from the Australian Ballet: livestreams of performances will be resumed! The first of these – Nureyev’s version of Petipa’s “Don Quixote” – was broadcast this weekend. The company celebrates its sixtieth anniversary this season, and perhaps that is why artistic director David Hallberg chose a special opener – special because this “Don Quixote” harks back to the one that Nureyev, together with Robert Helpmann (then artistic director of the Australian Ballet) adapted for the screen in 1973. It stars the Australian Ballet, with Helpmann in the title role and Nureyev as Basilio. Needless to say, the film became a hit. Hallberg decided to re-adapt the hit film for the theater stage with piercing exactitude, replicating its aesthetic as closely as possible. That’s why Richard Roberts’s set design (including Don Quixote’s knightly home, the port of Barcelona, some windmills in Castilla-La Mancha, Dulcinea’s garden, and a smoke-filled tavern) was based on Barry Kay’s original film set and why Kay’s gorgeous costumes were painstakingly reconstructed. I especially admired the traditional Spanish garb of the corps at the tavern. (more…)