Natalia Osipova centrestage at Adelaide Festival
The Adelaide Festival has announced three Australian exclusives for its 2019 program, four of them dance.
The centrepiece is the internationally renown ballerina Natalia Osipova, Russian-born but now a principal with the Royal Ballet in England. She is performing in the acclaimed solo work Two Feet, originally created and performed by Meryl Tankard as a solo for the World Expo in 1988 and recreated now especially for Osipova. This solo is a tour de force in which Tankard merges her own experience as a child growing up in Australia with the Russian dancer Olga Spessivtzeva, who was driven insane by perfectionism. Olga’s preoccupation with the role of Giselle led her to become, like her character, a prisoner of the dance.
Also featuring in the festival is the German company Semperoper Ballett, which is coming to Australia for the first time with a production of Carmen by Johan Inger. While dancing at the Netherlands Dance Theater in the 90s, Swedish-born Inger’s choreographic talent came to the attention of Jirí Kylián and soon he was collecting a series of prestigious awards. His Carmen is a contemporary take on the classic story. Created for Madrid’s Compañía Nacional de Danza to the familiar Bizet/Shchedrin score (with additional music by Marc Álvarez)), this ballet won the 2016 Prix Benois de la Danse.
8 – 10 March 2019
See a trailer here.
In another Adelaide exclusive, the popular Hofesh Shechter from Israel is bringing his Grand Finale, which pits his company of extraordinary dancers and an onstage live band against a gathering wave of percussive sound and ever-encroaching darkness. The work is described as: "Fierce and anguished on one level, its moments of irony, of suspended rapture and raging defiance infuse it with a thrilling, unstoppable energy".
15 – 17 March 2019
See a trailer here.
And last but not least, from Argentina comes Un Poyo Rojo choreographed by Alfonso Barón and Luciano Rosso, whose skills span contemporary dance, martial arts, classical ballet, commercial street moves and more.
This is a duo "set in a sweat infused locker room two macho blokes in tiny shorts compete in a game of one-upmanship, guaranteed laughs".
28 Feb-5 Mar 2019
See a trailer here.
More info:here.