FLYING COLOURS
Recently landed: Flying Colours
Gracia’s written response to The Australian Ballet’s Copland Dance Episodes, especially for Fjord Review.
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Upon arrival, colour greets me, and how. A wall of colour and pattern by Jeffrey Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, it is joyous and intriguing, loaded and bright. Snaking up the two sides, in blue lettering, all caps, a tantalising premise: “The only way out is through.”[i]
Hinting at the motion to come, a raft of orange triangles skitters across forest green. Where they meet a rosy pink, they bounce back in the direction they came, and conversely become lighter green on forest green. The optical illusion of these squadrons of kaleidoscopic triangles, on the drop curtain, refers to Gibson’s own practice, his Chocktaw and Cherokee heritage, Indigenous traditions, and his response to the familiar and patriotic music of Aaron Copland. It is also, fittingly, a happy note to sound on the opening night of the Australian Ballet’s premiere of Justin Peck’s Copland Dance Episodes, and the company’s farewell to the Regent Theatre before returning home to Arts Centre Melbourne at the end of the year. This is unmistakably a celebration. An invitation, as the synopsis encourages, to “shake off the cobwebs. Take your marks,” the only way is through the colour wheel.[ii]
[i] “The narrative of my work, which has always been my drive, is my want to find unexpected places where I can mark presence and existence... When I started looking at Aaron Copland, these particular scores, the Americana, I thought, ‘I could twist this in so many ways. The time period of the ’30s and ’40s was not a good time for native people.” Jeffrey Gibson interviewed, ‘New York City Ballet Takes a Modern Turn’, Jenna Adrian-Diaz, 26th January, 2023, Surface, https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/justin-peck-copland-dance-episodes-new-york-city-ballet, accessed 24th June, 2026.
[ii] Copland Dance Episodes, The Australian Ballet Melbourne program 2026, p. 16.
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8th of July, 2026
Artists of The Australian Ballet in Copland Dance Episodes by Justin Peck (image credit: Kate Longley)
