by Martin Wechsler, Director of Programming

Australia – Part 1

Australia is far. Really far. But it’s nice to be back for a visit downunder.

As one of the inaugural “Dance Down Under Ambassadors,” an appointment I received from the Australia Council, the government department responsible for exporting arts and culture, I am supposed to advocate on behalf of Australian dance companies and help promote them in the United States. I’ve done my fair share of advocating, and continue to do so. We’ve also presented a fair number of Australian companies at The Joyce and Joyce SoHo, and provided a commissioning grant to the Australian Dance Theatre to financially support the creation of their new work, G which is having its “work in progress world premiere” as part of the Adelaide Festival, the main reason for my trip.

On my way to Adelaide, I spent a day in Sydney, where I had meetings with representatives of the Sydney Dance Company–Meryl Tankard was busily creating a new work. I also took time to meet with Rebecca Matthews, at the Sydney Opera House, and Sue Spence and Joseph Alessi from the Australia Council.

The next day I headed down to Adelaide, which is in the middle of a heat wave – temperatures are reaching over 100 degrees daily. I attended the premiere of Sacred Monsters, a duet by Akram Khan and Sylvie Guillem. Akram is a London-based artist, of Bengali descent, trained in the traditional Indian form of Kathak. His company appeared at The Joyce in 2003. Sylvie is a classical ballet dancer, trained at the Paris Opera Ballet, and currently a guest principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London. They are both extraordinary performers, with very different backgrounds, yet they managed to put together an evening that was beautiful and compelling. It’s a shame that there are no plans for the work to come to New York, but New Yorkers will have the opportunity to see two other works by Akram Kahn when they tour to City Center in April. Zero Degrees, Akram’s collaboration with Belgian dance theatre creator Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and Akram’s latest work, Bahok, made in collaboration with the National Ballet of China.