British Liaisons

Overview

What has chess, immensely clever LOLs and a spectacular primal yet graceful consummation of the, er, physical passions? The affairs my  fifteen year old self imagined having with Jarvis Cocker and/or Alex James is one correct answer, but the rather more culturally significant one is British Liaisons of an entirely different kind, although both do refer back to youth. The Australian Ballet is revisiting its cultural beginnings this April, paying tribute in a triple bill of classical works from both the 20th and current centuries.

First up is Checkmate, a balletic battle of pieces on a chequerboard stage choreographed by Ninette de Valois in 1937, followed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan's virtuosic rigour-and-wit Concerto of 1966, and finally Christopher Wheeldon's 2005 After The Rain, a super-hot romance. It's an historical survey and also a stylistic and thematic one that'll show off the company as well as the material.