Lyric Theatre, QPAC, American Ballet Theatre

September 5, 2014

Following rave reviews of their debut performance of Swan Lake, the American Ballet Theatre continued their winning streak with Three Masterpieces, a triple bill of ballets created specifically for the company over the course of their history and performed for the first time in Australia as part of the QPAC International Series. MP Ian Walker described Three Masterpieces as “70 years of history played out before us,” with all scores skilfully performed by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

Bach Partita is a busy, fast-paced contemporary ballet, choreographed for the American Ballet Theatre by Twyla Tharp in 1983 and performed to Bach’s Partita No 2 in D minor for solo violin. A highlight of this ballet were the many complex lifts and dives, several of which drew gasps from the audience. The female dancers displayed incredible strength en pointe, particularly the three lead ballerinas – Gillian Murphy, Stella Abrera and Misty Copeland.

Copeland made her debut last week as the first African-American dancer to perform the dual role of Odette and Odile in Swan Lake in the history of the American Ballet Theatre, and she certainly lived up...