The Masters Series

Following on from their sizzling Dangerous Liasons in March, Queensland Ballet are now showing off the skill of the corps in a triple bill of ballets: two classics and one premiere. Although they’re aesthetically different, the non-narrative works dealt in intricate geometric patterns which created mood, beauty, and drama.

When the curtain rose on George Balanchine’s Serenade there was an audible collective gasp from the audience as they witnessed a tableau of 17 stationary women, dressed in white tulle calf-length dresses holding a pose with their right arm raised. It was the beginning of an extraordinary ballet that originally premiered in 1933 and was devised as a study in stagecraft for Balanchine’s students at the newly formed School of American Ballet. Showcasing the female corps in a series of beautifully executed spins and arabesques, the iconic piece is deceptively simple, yet incredibly difficult to perform. Serena Green was an elegant Dark Angel, Neneka Yoshida brought joy to the Russian Girl, whilst Mia Heathcote and Zhi Fang’s Waltz Pas de Deux shimmered with romance and allure delineated by the perfect musical accompaniment of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.

Kylian’s Soldier’s Mass was a corrosive and critical expose of the horrors of war and as performed by the male corps a dynamic evocation of loss and futility. Dressed in stylised khaki outfits, these conscripts moved en-masse to music by Czechoslovakian composer Bohuslav Martinu (who created the work in exile from the Nazis in 1939), sometimes adding their voices to the bombastic musical mix. It was austere but brave and searing.

Trey McIntyre’s new work took a series of fifties recordings by American jazz counter-tenor Jimmy Scott and paired QB principals in a succession of duets and ensembles that encompassed all forms of love and yearning. Yanela Pinera and Jack Lister entwined suggestively in “This Love of Mine,” Laura Hildago and Samuel Packer added frissons of sensuality to the standard “Unchained Melody,” but it was the coupling of David Power and D’Arcy Brazier in “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” that was the emotional highpoint of the evening. In dark suits sans shirts their athleticism and brilliant unison work elevated the sequence to exceptional.

Peter Pinne       

Images: Serenade and Soldier's Mass. Photographer: Darren Thomas