Prism
Glass Pieces by Jerome Robbins
Seven Days by Stephanie Lake
Blake Works V (The Barre Project) by William Forsythe
The Australian Ballet
Thursday 25th of September 2025
The Regent Theatre, Naarm / Melbourne
The Australia Ballet’s triple-bill “Prism” presents the two exciting Australian premieres, Glass Pieces by Jerome Robbins and Blake Works V (The Barre Project) by William Forsythe, as well as the world premiere of Seven Days by the company’s Resident Choreographer Stephanie Lake.
Glass Pieces
Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces is a blissful cornucopia of light, sound, and idiosyncratic movement. Bringing together the celebrated American choreographer’s modern movement language with the atmospheric score of minimalist composer Phillip Glass, Glass Pieces typifies the avant-garde elegance of the late 20th century New York ballet scene. Premiered by the New York City Ballet in 1983, Glass Pieces developed out of the score for Glass’ opera Akhnaten, a project for which Robbins was initially brought on as choreographer. Although Robbins pulled out of the project, his early graph paper sketches for the opera became the genesis for Glass Pieces, seen in the distinctive set design of large white backdrop covered in a graph grid.
In front of this bright canvas, the dancers of the Australian Ballet brought Robbins’ choreography to life with passion and panache. Corps de ballet inundated the stage with colour as dancers swirled across, joining for moments of tight choreography before breaking off in bursts of abstract form. The Principal Couple pas de deux, danced to perfection by Robyn Hendricks and Maxim Zenim, was everything an abstract neo-classical pas de deux should be - fluid, haunting, and moving. Elongated intertwining sequences saw the pair become one, with breaks in form emerging organically. Against the stark architecture of the corps de ballet, this duet felt like the animation of a Kandinsky composition, and Hendricks’ unwavering grace in tackling deep extensions and exaggerated counterpoints revealed a Principal Artist at the peak of her powers. The pas de six couples, comprising Isobelle Dashwood, Brodie James, Katherine Sonnekus, Cameron Holmes, Rina Nemoto, and Harrison Bradley exuded charm as they zipped across the stage, floated into breathy lifts and then darted away almost before you could register.
The magic of Glass Pieces lies in its interfacing of angular structures with free-flowing fluidity. Prosaic and gutsy movements contrast with languid poetry and penetrating expressivity. This synthesis creates real response to Glass’ score, with the sonic elements of beat and harmony rendered in form. Interrupting clean classical shapes are motifs evoking the ritualistic, though contained within the abstract sparseness distinctive of modern American ballet. The Australian Ballet’s restaging of this piece of iconic dance history did not disappoint, and it is a coup that Hallberg has brought this work down under.
Seven Days
The second work on the bill was the highly-anticipated world-premiere of Seven Days, the latest work by Australian contemporary choreographer Stephanie Lake. Only in her second year as the company’s Resident Choreographer, Lake’s career has moved from strength to strength, and she is quickly establishing herself as a formidable choreographer with a refreshingly capacious vision. Lake has made her name creating physical and ambitious contemporary dance works, such as Colossus (2018), made on over 50 dancers, and Manifesto (2022), made for 9 dancers and 9 drummers. She continued this approach with her first work for the Australian Ballet, Circle Electric (2024), which featured over 50 company dancers and a contemporary orchestral score composed by Lake’s long-time musical collaborator Robin Fox. Seven Days, however, presents a new approach. In this work, Lake has slimmed her cast down to just seven company dancers and takes Bach’s iconic Goldberg Variations as the basis for the score, reinterpreted by Peter Brikmanic. Choreographically, Lake’s dynamic movement language is still intact, but Seven Days presents a departure from the signature elements of size and sound we have come to associate with Lake’s oeuvre.
The cast for Seven Days comprised Adam Elmes, Benjamin Garrett, Lilla Harvey, Callum Linnane, Samara Merrick, Elijah Trevitt, and Yaru Xu, all of whom were fiercely technical and attacked Lake’s contemporary lexicon with total abandon. Rippling canon work was precise and oscillations from fluid to aggressive movements were handled with finesse. A series of duos between several of the male-presenting artists were particularly electrifying, moving quickly between qualities of chaos and control to grapple with forms that extended beyond classical architecture. Lake’s interweaving of theatricality in facial expression and bodily sonics throughout the work offered moments of comic relief and it was exciting to see the dancers embody the drama with conviction, whilst never straying from skillful execution of physical demands.
Coming from the world of contemporary dance, Lake’s appointment to Resident Choreographer means access to more resources, more dancers, and mainstage billings with more visibility. However, it also means working with a crop of artists with a different skill set, and translating her voice to a different movement language. Whilst Seven Days was an exciting showcase of the Australian Ballet’s contemporary dance chops, with Lake’s foray into the classical ballet world, more attention to the intervention she intends to make into classical tradition is needed. Disruption of the classical is no easy task. New choreographies are, in a sense, actively proposing new directions for the evolution of the discipline. An art form as steeped in history as ballet is often resistant to change - interventions that propose new ways of moving or making performance must truly create a rupture that compels a break with tradition out of sheer excitement for the new. Seven Days undoubtedly showed that the dancers of the Australian Ballet can dance - Lake’s next point of inquiry should be to ask why they dance, through interrogating what her choreographic vision brings about that we haven’t already seen. It will be exciting to watch how Lake, one of Australia’s most energetic and versatile contemporary choreographers, evolves with the support of the Australian Ballet.
Blake Works V (The Barre Project)
The third work on the bill was Blake Works V (The Barre Project) by acclaimed American choreographer William Forsythe. Blake Works V is a development of Forsythe’s collaboration with musician James Blake, Blake Works (2016), which was created for the Paris Opera Ballet. Pairing sleek classical ballet, Forsythe’s experimental form, and Blake’s synthetic techno pop, Blake Works went absolutely viral in the ballet world. Blake Works V sees the continuation of this format with a marked distinction - having been developed during pandemic lockdowns via Zoom, the work takes place within a smaller spatial demarcation, uses a smaller cast, and emphasises the frontality that characterises creation via screen. During lockdown, scenes of ballerinas in their loungerooms taking barre for the camera proliferated the dance landscape. Thus, Forsythe centres the barre as the central set and movement motif.
Obscured by dark lighting and costuming, the cast of ten dancers were free to focus on the radical technicality and dynamism of Forsythe’s choreography. Twisting and turning with cool apathy, the dancers utilised the ballet barre as both support and movement partner, revealing the pyrotechnic potential of the battu, the tombé, the pas de bourée. Principal artist Benedicte Bemet shone with crisp footwork and energetic precision, finding near impossible moments to elongate extensions and equilibriums just that inch further. The same can be said of Principal Brett Chynowyth, who devoured the stage with incisive brisés and bidirectional forms. Soloist Isobelle Dashwood was made for Forsythe work, and the pas de deux between her and Principal Callum Linnane hit the sweet spot between sexy and systematic - like watching someone nail a tongue twister.
Though Forsythe’s compositional choice in tethering choreography to the barre reduced opportunities for grandiose physical climax, the effectiveness of the Blake Works tried-and-test format is so undeniable it’s almost frustrating - very little happens, and yet these lithe shadows combine with Blake’s heady beats to produce an immaterial impulse that’s difficult to not get swept up in. Blake Works V is perhaps not the most exciting work in the Forsythe canon, but nonetheless, to see the Australian Ballet dancers thrive in this idiosyncratic choreography is hopefully an indication that Australian audiences will get to see more of Forsythe’s influential work on stage in years to come.
-Belle Beasley