Renowned choreographer Justin Peck is back on our shores working with the Australian Ballet Company. He has brought with him the COPLAND DANCE EPISODES – a production that has never been performed outside of New York City – until now. It’s a fabulous show.
After the orchestral intro there was a robust round of applause for the Opera Australia orchestra led by chief conductor Jonathan Lo.
Meanwhile, the beautiful stage curtain, designed by Jeffrey Gibson – its vivid, impressive colours and shapes influenced by Gibson’s Choctaw- Cherokee heritage – opens to reveal a stunning montage of dancers, frozen in time, about to explode with contagious energy. Another round of applause.
Ellen Warren, a former New York ballet dancer, has designed the exquisite costumes. A simple ‘two piece, two tones, tights & tops’. The magical effect is the rainbow palette she uses where no two colours are the same. Each dancer has this creative mix of two colours – yellow and aqua matched extremely well.
The simple and effective set design by Jeffrey Gibson complements the wash of colour in the costumes. Lighting designer Brandon Stirling Baker enhances the ambience with his use of colour on the simple backdrop.
Peck has brought the four brilliant scores of the infamous composer, Aaron Copland to life with the Australian Ballet’s 30 talented dancers.
Copland’s pioneering achievement was to break free from European influence and champion American music.
His four scores used in the 73 minute ballet are: “Fanfare for the Common Man”, “Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo”, “Appalachian Spring” (which won Copland the Pulitzer Prize), and “Billy the Kid”.
Copland is famous for his swelling crescendos, his early Mexican influence and his experimentation with jazz from the 1920s. He mixed and reworked cowboy songs and folk tunes. He idealised frontier-era America. These influences can be seen with subtlety in Peck’s choreography.
There is a compelling energy coming from the dancing and music. ‘There are soloists, duets and trios’, as the synopsis states, ‘Episodes ebb and flow, two couples appear. One growing closer together, one falling further apart’.
COPLAND DANCE EPISODES is a treat for the senses. Definitely worth seeing and experiencing. It plays at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House until the 21st November, 2026.
Production photography by Kate Longley
