Fire & Shadow - featuring Claire Edwardes

By definition, a shadow exists only in reference to the light. This program explores the interplay of night and day, dancing with shimmering silhouettes.

A gem from Stravinsky's Neoclassical period, The Fairy's Kiss embodies the mischievous deceit of the spirits of folklore. This ethereal, shimmering soundscape mirrors the movement and vitality of the ballet dancers for whom it was commissioned.

Shadow is a mainstay of the Gothic; in Dances with devils, Iain Grandage responds to nineteenth-century Gothic short stories, where old world spectres disguise colonial fears of the Australian landscape, borne of ignorance and disconnection. It's a work of powerful opposites, an urgent, driving interplay between light and darkness, colour and rhythm.

In Greek mythology, Prometheus draws the ire of the gods by gifting fire to humanity. While the original myth is steeped in flickering shadows, Beethoven's Creatures of Prometheus is imbued with a hopeful sunlight. Heavily influenced by Enlightenment philosophy, Beethoven paints an image of the divine fire of the arts, inspiring and lifting humanity to great heights.