2025 – Landgraf on Dance

22. December 202522. December 2025

“A Splendor for the Eyes”

“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.

Petipa’s librettist, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, set The Sleeping Beauty in France during the era of King Louis XIV, the time period of the second and third acts. Some productions indulge in lavish Louis XIV and Baroque décor, but the Australians’ set and costume designer, Gabriela Tylesova, cleverly balanced opulence with plain elegance. An empty front stage highlighted the king’s (guest artist, Adam Bull) golden Baroque desk (for which the extra-long, white quill was the icing on the cake). Low-keyed, red-and-golden tapestries served as a tasteful background for the court ladies’ lush, skipping skirts and the fairies’ colorful tutus. The hunting party rested at a clearing whose surrounding nature was so subtle that the hunters’ vanities looked especially out of place.
Later, when Prince Désiré (Chengwu Guo) searched for the sleeping Aurora (Benedicte Bemet), a pink light glowed inside her Fabergé egg-like bed, the magic of which was enhanced by the dark blue night. Splendor climaxed in Act III when Aurora and Prince Désiré got married and were crowned at a masked ball. Magnificent chandeliers, the golden rays of a huge sun symbol, and the shimmering shower of golden confetti added to a picture-book finale. It’s not for nothing that McAllister called his Sleeping Beauty the “ultimate dress-up party.”

Some details given by Hallberg and the live stream’s presenter, Livinia Nixon, during the intervals described the expense and time that went into the décor. Senior assistant stage manager, Ellen Castles, revealed that the entire set includes no fewer than 12,500 crystals; Natalie Way, head of wigs and makeup, oversaw the creation of one hundred or so wigs, of which the king’s hip-length Louis XIV version weighs six kilograms. Hand-sewing the three hundred costumes took the workshops one year. Given this effort, it was high time to revive this Sleeping Beauty.

McAllister’s choreography is based on Petipa’s, but shorter. It tells the story with refreshing clarity.

McAllister cut the promenades between scene changes, the transition between Act I and Act II, and many divertissements of the wedding party. Among the attending fairy tale figures in Act III were Cinderella (Riley Lapham) and Prince Charming (Luke Marchant), the White Cat (Serena Graham) and Puss in Boots (Drew Hedditch), and Red Riding Hood (Montana Rubin) and the Wolf (Hugo Dumapit), but none of them danced. The only pas de deux that McAllister kept was that of the Bluebird (Cameron Holmes) and Princess Florine (Yuumi Yamada). Although the series of jumps challenged Holmes’s stamina, he sailed through without fault. Yamada moved with the jerkiness of a sweet little bird enjoying flying.
Aurora’s fairy godmothers joined the wedding as well: the Fairy of Grace (Isobelle Dashwood)—the epitome of kindness and patience—the elvish Fairy of Joy (Aya Watanabe), the Fairy of Generosity (Mia Heathcote) who was either withdrawn in herself or in higher spheres, the quicksilver Canari Fairy (Samara Merrick) who fluttered and jumped like a chirpy bird, and the Fairy of Temperament (Larissa Kiyoto-Ward) whose snappy precision gave her a charming resoluteness.
All virtues combined in Rina Nemoto’s Lilac Fairy. Again, the wicked Carabosse (Katherine Sonnekus) wasn’t invited, though she was the Fairy of Wisdom (symbols represented each fairy at the christening; hers was an owl). Maybe she had fallen from grace like the archangel Lucifer?
Most impressive from Bemet’s Aurora was her embodiment of the music. It encapsulated her being. I’ve never seen an Aurora who visualized music in movement that sensitively. All the beauty inherent in Tchaikovsky’s score (which was superbly brought to life by Jonathan Lo and the Opera Australia Orchestra) became visible through her.

Once Guo’s Prince understood that his heart missed love, new energy infused his veins. He dashed through a series of jetés, soared high, landed with pinpoint precision, and prolonged clear-cut balances as if he were a statue. Bemet’s and Guo’s fish dives in the Grand Pas de Deux were spectacular, and their accentuation was in such harmony with the music that I wondered why other choreographers hadn’t come up with the same ideas.
Harrison Bradley as the Spanish Prince, Joseph Romancewicz as the English Prince, Davi Ramos as the Hungarian Prince, and Alain Juelg as the Swedish Prince portrayed Aurora’s four suitors.

Links:		Website of the Australian Ballet
		David Hallberg and David McAllister in conversation: The Sleeping Beauty
		Mia Heathcote and Sharni Spencer on The Sleeping Beauty
		Rina Nemoto as the Lilac Fairy
		Three words to describe The Sleeping Beauty
Photos:	1.	Benedicte Bemet (Princess Aurora) and ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	2.	Ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	3.	Katherine Sonnekus (Carabosse) and ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	4.	Katherine Sonnekus (Carabosse), “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	5.	Hugo Dumapit and Drew Hedditch (Hunting Party), “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	6.	Rina Nemoto (Lilac Fairy), Benedicte Bemet (Princess Aurora) and ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	7.	Katherine Sonnekus (Carabosse), “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	8.	Yuumi Yamada (Princess Florine), “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	9.	Larissa Kiyoto-Ward (Fairy of Temperament), “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	10.	Mia Heathcote (Fairy of Generosity), Larissa Kiyoto-Ward (Fairy of Temperament), Rina Nemoto (Lilac Fairy), Samara Merrick (Canari Fairy), Aya Watanabe (Fairy of Joy), and Isobelle Dashwood (Fairy of Grace); “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	11.	Benedicte Bemet (Princess Aurora) and ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	12.	Adam Bull (The King), Jillian Revie (The Queen), and ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	13.	Chengwu Guo (Prince Désiré), Benedicte Bemet (Princess Aurora), and ensemble; “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
	14.	Ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025
		all photos © Daniel Boud
Editing:		Kayla Kauffman

12. December 202522. December 2025

Lasting Icons

“Two Annas”
MuzArts
Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre
St. Petersburg, Russia
December 2025 (video)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

The production company MuzArts, founded in 2014 to showcase the Bolshoi Ballet’s prima ballerina, Svetlana Zakharova, has grown into a vital force of Russia’s ballet scene. Their recent production, Two Annas, was supported by the Diaghilev P.S. International Festival of Arts, a prominent, intercultural, cross-genre event that has been held in St. Petersburg since 2009. Two Annas premiered at St. Petersburg’s Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre this February and received its Moscow premiere at the Maly Theatre. Thanks to the MuzArts’s director, Yuri Baranov, I was able to watch a video of the production. Continue reading “Lasting Icons”

2. December 202512. December 2025

Adventurous

“Peter Pan”
Vienna State Ballet & Volksoper Wien
Volksoper Wien
Vienna, Austria
November 22, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Vienna’s Volksoper buzzed with excitement shortly before the performance of Vesna Orlić’s dance adaptation of Peter Pan. The great many children in the auditorium fell into eager silence when a rousing fanfare opened the ballet.

Orlić, leading ballet master of the Volksoper ensemble, began choreographing in 2006. For her 2019 Peter Pan, she was justifiably awarded Austria’s music theater prize. The production, which is based on James Matthew Barrie’s 1911 novel Peter and Wendy (known as Peter Pan), is witty, gripping, and great entertainment for the young and the old. I don’t know why the company’s former artistic director, Martin Schläpfer, shelved it. His successor, Alessandra Ferri, instantly decided on a revival. Continue reading “Adventurous”

26. November 20252. December 2025

Mockery

“Die Fledermaus” (“The Bat”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
November 21, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

For Johann Strauss II’s bicentennial, the Vienna State Ballet revived Roland Petit’s 1979 ballet adaptation of Strauss’s famous operetta, Die Fledermaus (The Bat). It’s accompanied by a “best of” selection of compositions by Johann Strauss II, his father, Johann Strauss I, and his brother, Josef. The score’s oomph and gaiety are infectious. Strauss’ music, particularly the Viennese waltzes (of which Die Fledermaus has plenty), is part of the DNA of the Vienna State Opera’s orchestra, and under Luciano Di Martino’s baton, it fizzed like champagne. Melodies rose boisterously to a tipping point, balanced provocatively on the edge, and rippled down with relish as if on a rollercoaster ride. Continue reading “Mockery”

14. November 202526. November 2025

Applied Faith

“Romeo and Juliet”
Hungarian National Ballet
Hungarian State Opera
Budapest, Hungary
November 8-9, 2025 (evening performance and matinee)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Most ballet companies have a version of Romeo and Juliet. The Hungarian National Ballet’s version, by László Seregi (1929-2012), has been on the program regularly since its premiere in 1985. A crowd puller, the opera house was sold out at both performances I watched.

Seregi’s name is well known to Hungarian ballet lovers. Initially trained as a folk dancer, he joined the opera’s corps de ballet when it was short on artists during the 1956 revolution. In 1977, he became the company’s director but, feeling burdened by his duties, suffered from an enduring artistic crisis. Continue reading “Applied Faith”

27. October 202514. November 2025

Reborn

“Callirhoe”
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
October 19, 2025 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

The title of Martin Schläpfer’s farewell choreography, Pathétique, summarized the condition of the Vienna State Ballet he left behind after five years as its artistic director. His successor, Alessandra Ferri, restructured the company. Some dancers left, and others joined, some of whom were returnees. Last weekend, she presented the first premiere under her reign, Alexei Ratmansky’s Callirhoe (which he choreographed for ABT in 2020 under the title Of Love and Rage). It felt like the rebirth of the company. I cannot remember when I last saw the Vienna State Ballet perform with such force. Congratulations! Continue reading “Reborn”

21. October 202527. October 2025

Watered Down

“Le Corsaire”
Korean National Ballet
Forum Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg, Germany
October 18, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Last weekend, the Korean National Ballet presented Le Corsaire at the Forum Ludwigsburg. The tour stopped at Suejin Kang’s, the company’s artistic director, former home in the Stuttgart region, where she is a cherished former principal of Stuttgart Ballet. The senior guard of Stuttgart’s ballet circle therefore flocked to the performance as if it were a family gathering.

The Koreans’ Le Corsaire premiered in 2020 and is by Jungbin Song, a soloist of the company who began choreographing in 2016. He kept some of Petipa’s signature choreography (such as the tender pas de deux of Medora and Conrad in Act II; the pas de trois of Medora, Conrad, and Ali; and the Grand Pas de Trois des Odalisques) but rewrote the plot significantly. Continue reading “Watered Down”

5. August 202525. August 2025

The Art of Embarrassing Oneself

“Stravinsky in Paris” (“Farewell in Paris”/“Le Sacre du Printemps”)
State Ballet of the Gärtnerplatztheater, Munich
Forum Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg, Germany
July 30, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Since 1932, the city of Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg has hosted an annual summer festival featuring various cultural genres. Many events are held at the Ludwigsburg Palace, a vast complex that served as the Duke of Württemberg’s residence after its completion in 1733. Munich’s State Ballet of the Gärtnerplatztheater, whose Stravinsky in Paris marked the festival’s final dance event, performed at the Ludwigsburg Forum near the palace. Last October, the Gärtnerplatztheater showed Troja (“Troy”) by the Greek-born Andonis Foniadakis on its tour to Ludwigsburg. Its display of sexist abuse was annoying. As the press praised Stravinsky in Paris as a “confetti rocket,” I was curious about its “sophisticated dance and music.”
Stravinsky in Paris, a co-production of the Gärtenerplatztheater and the Ludwigsburg Festival, recently premiered in Munich. The double bill combines Jeroen Verbruggen’s Farewell in Paris and Marco Goecke’s Le Sacre du Printemps.
The nonchalant steps of the straw-hatted men who opened Farewell to Paris seemed inspired by a blend of Broadway style and Parisian savoir vivre. In their pale pink of their blazers and pants, they seemed to belong in a little girl’s dream (costumes by Emmanuel Maria). Continue reading “The Art of Embarrassing Oneself”

27. July 20255. August 2025

Something Is Going On

“Twilight”/“Bronia”
Les Ballets de Monte Carlo
Salle Garnier Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Monte Carlo, Monaco
July 18, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo closed the season with two new creations: Twilight by Lukáš Timulak and Bronia by Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa. So far, all productions I’ve seen in Monaco have been performed at the Grimaldi Forum, a modern glass and steel complex whose Salle des Princes lies below sea level. The new double bill was, however, presented at the Salle Garnier at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, which is next door to the famous casino. A miniature replica of the Paris Opera, the Salle Garnier is a red and gold Italian theater built in the Second Empire style. It was here that Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes took up residence in 1911. Until the First World War, Diaghilev’s company rehearsed, prepared new productions, and stored sets and props in Monte-Carlo. On April 9, 1911, the Ballets Russes gave its first performance, which featured Scheherazade and Giselle. On April 19th, Nijinsky and Karsavina gave their debut in Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose. This history was significant in the context of the recent premiere. Continue reading “Something Is Going On”

22. July 202527. July 2025

“We Need Him”

“Diaghilev”
Dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre (New Stage)
Moscow, Russia
June 24, 2025 (video)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

The man in need whom Sergei Lifar wrote about in 1939 was Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), impresario of the Ballets Russes and a revolutionist of ballet. Diaghilev’s burning passion to discover and promote creative beauty is unequaled. He shaped the perception of Russian culture in the West and, like a virus, changed the DNA of twentieth-century art. Without him, Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina, Ida Rubinstein, Feodor Chaliapin, and Igor Stravinsky wouldn’t have become known to the world, and the careers of choreographers, such as Michel Fokine, Bronislava Nijinska, Léonide Massine, and George Balanchine, might have taken another path. Ten years after Diaghilev’s death, no one had filled the void he had left behind.

Ninety-six years later, a new Diaghilev has yet to be found, but—as Russia and the West separated again—the need for a bridge-building spirit and culture that unites people across borders is more pressing than ever. That’s why Russia launched the cultural search festival We Need Diaghilev last year, which features various expositions, lectures, and performances at Russian and foreign venues. Continue reading ““We Need Him””

15. July 202522. July 2025

A Recap

“Malditos Benditos”
Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg
State Theater
Nuremberg, Germany
July 10, 2025

Malditos Benditos (“Damned Blessed Ones”) is Goyo Montero’s farewell piece to Nuremberg. After seventeen years as artistic director of the State Theater’s ballet company, the Spaniard will leave for the State Ballet Hanover this autumn to take up the reins Marco Goecke was forced to give up in 2023. Richard Siegal, director of the Cologne-based Ballet of Difference, will succeed Montero in Nuremberg and bring his dancers along. They will merge with their Nuremberg colleagues into the State Theater Nuremberg Ballet of Difference.
Malditos Benditos is the counterpart to Benditos Malditos, Montero’s first creation in Nuremberg in 2008. Many of the intervening twenty-five productions are reflected in Malditos Benditos. Applause blended into the medley of musical snippets and electronic noise as the black curtain rose. The black-suited dancers (costumes by Goyo Montero and Margaux Manns) bowed to the applause of an imaginary audience at the rear stage, framed by a bright red curtain. Continue reading “A Recap”

29. June 202515. July 2025

Too Bad

“Scheherazade”
Czech National Ballet
National Theatre
Prague, Czech Republic
June 21, 2025 (matinee)

To be upfront, Mauro Bigonzetti’s new Scheherazade for the Czech National Ballet is no asset to its repertory. Its choreography is meager and the plot thin; the characters lack depth, and the digital set design is unconvincing.
Bigonzetti takes up the narrative thread where Fokine’s 1910 Scheherazade for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes ends. Zobeida, the favorite but unfaithful wife of Shahryar, the king of Persia, had died. Enraged about womanhood in general, Shahryar took revenge by killing every woman he slept with the morning after their first night together. Scheherazade, the clever daughter of his vizier, put a stop to the slaughter. The tales she narrated to the king each night (collected in the Middle Eastern folk tale, One Thousand and One Nights) softened him.
Bigonzetti portrayed the women in line for Shahryar, among them Scheherazade (Nana Nakagawa), who was ready to sacrifice herself. Continue reading “Too Bad”

26. June 202529. June 2025

Eerie

“Valerie and Her Week of Wonders”
Laterna magika
The New Stage
Prague, Czech Republic
June 20, 2025

The Czech avant-garde author Vítězlav Nezval’s gothic novel, Valery and Her Week of Wonders, written in 1935 and published in 1945, has experienced a revival at home. It was first adapted for the stage in 1967, and a new production was shown in Prague only forty years later in 2008. In 2023, two Czech companies simultaneously presented stage versions of Valeria and Her Week of Wonders; the West Bohemian Theatre in Cheb (located between Karlovy Vary and the Czech/German border) and Laterna magika in Prague. I saw Laterna magika’s production.

The wonders that Nezval’s teenage heroine, Valerie, experiences during the span of one week are far from wonderful and are rather a sexually laden horror trip that torpedoes her into womanhood. Events unfold with a dream Valerie has on the night of her first menstruation. Only late in the novel does this dream verge into the realm of reality, which it soon forsakes for a Garden of Eden-like happy ending. Continue reading “Eerie”

18. June 202526. June 2025

Prix Benois Laureates 2025

Prix Benois de la Danse
Bolshoi Theatre (Historic Stage)
Moscow, Russia
June 17, 2025

Yesterday evening, the Prix Benois laureates were announced on the Bolshoi Theatre’s historic stage for the 33rd time.

Mthuthuzeli November won the prize for best choreography in absentia for Chapter Two, a creation for Cape Ballet Africa in South Africa. The Mariinsky Ballet’s Renata Shakirova won the best female dancer prize for her performance as Swanilda in Alexander Sergeev’s new Coppélia. Like last year, the prize for the best male dancer was awarded twice. Joshua Williams received the Prix Benois for his performance in November’s Chapter Two; Dmitry Smilevsky (Bolshoi Ballet) was awarded for his performances as Mercutio in Leonid Lavrovsky’s version of Romeo and Juliet and Prince Désiré in Yuri Grigorovich’s version of The Sleeping Beauty. Continue reading “Prix Benois Laureates 2025”

14. June 202518. June 2025

Dancer Nominees for the Prix Benois 2025

Prix Benois de la Danse
Bolshoi Theatre (Historic Stage)
Moscow, Russia
June 2025

As in 2024, the Prix Benois jury nominated thirteen dancers from eight companies for this season’s award. Of the six women and seven men, two dance in China, France, and South Africa; one dances in Kazakhstan; and six, Russia. Next Tuesday, the laureates will be announced at an award ceremony at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.

Here’s a short overview of the nominees in alphabetical order by company name: Continue reading “Dancer Nominees for the Prix Benois 2025”