HEARTFELT MOMENTS

DANCE

11 Mar

Recently landed: Heartfelt Moments

Gracia’s written response to The Australian Ballets’s Signature Works, especially for Fjord Review.

Subscribe to and support Fjord Review.

The Australian Ballet’s Signature Works, as a whole, is a compact and varied celebration of dance in the moment. Just as dancers are attuned to each moment, the Signature Works line up asks the audience to be present. Listening, as dancers do to their bodies, the audience is asked to read the dance, feel what it evokes within them, and carry forth this attention and questioning: what is being seen, what are they doing, what are we celebrating? Prowess, artistry, and a “sense of these beautiful dancers performing exactly as they are now,” such things spring from a supportive foundation, where ‘where have we come from?’ answers ‘where are we going?’

And as such Jeremy Hargreaves and Amy Ronnfeldt hover before me like two dimorphic insects, in The Moment by Yuiko Masukawa. In costumes designed by Ailsa Woodyard, a transparent skirt of Ronnfeldt reads like wings, fluttering, as Hargreaves raises her lightly overhead. Just as a pas de deux requires one dancer to be in tune with another, moving in relation, connected, if not always physically, but emotionally, Masukawa seems to be inviting the audience to do the same. “To be in a moment with the dancers,”[i] sharing what they are feeling. Set to Caroline Shaw’s Plan & Elevation, Masukawa picks up this thread and weaves it further, bringing the warmth and individuality of each dancer forward. Meshing classical with contemporary, past with present, the flickering lines within both the music and unfurling upon stage read heartfelt.

[i] “Being part of this program, alongside choreographers whose work I have admired for so many years, makes the experience even more meaningful. Because this opportunity holds such significance for me, I felt a strong desire … to be fully present in every moment of the process.” Yuiko Masukawa quoted by Heather Bloom, ‘Every Second Counts’, 20th February, 2026, The Australian Ballet blog, https://australianballet.com.au/blog/every-second-counts, accessed 2nd March, 2026.