
Disney on Ice is standard July school holiday fare in Melbourne. Its content and quality remain fairly consistent from year to year and it still manages to bring in enthusiastic kids by the thousands.

Alienation opens strongly, with all four of the cast giving a bit of introduction to the subject matter, to the characters they’re playing, and to “themselves”.

Clad in heels, stockings, bodice and ropes, Jessamae St James makes her entrance with a very traditional sounding song, only she doesn't care about the weather, she just wants her leather.

Australian Dance Theatre’s reworking of Giselle, directed and conceived by Garry Stewart, is beautiful, frightening, manic, wild, driven, disturbed and powerful.

Room on the Broom, a story about a flighty witch, her sassy cat and the characters who hitch a ride with them, is currently at the beautiful National Theatre in St Kilda, where it has been playing to a packed house since opening day.

Brave New Word has made a debut with Body Language that wavers between harmonious and hamfisted.

Claire Edwardes is, of course, regarded as one of the most innovative and important percussionist of her generation. Her focus this particular evening was on marimba.