★★★★☆ A poignant triple bill to commemorate the ANZAC centenary.

Playhouse Theatre, QPAC
August 4, 2016

Queensland Ballet’s latest mainstage production, Lest We Forget, is a powerful mixed bill featuring works from renowned choreographers Ma Cong, Natalie Weir and Paul Taylor. Beginning each performance with a minute’s silence, all three pieces explore themes of love and loss in wartime, from those who served and those who were left behind. 

Lest We Forget opened with Ma Cong’s In The Best Moments, a contemporary work in three movements set to Philip Glass’s The Hours Suite. Intentionally created without a clear narrative, the piece was very much open to interpretation but each movement had a sense of emotion and movement distinct from the others. Cong’s choreography ranged from incredibly acrobatic to very subtle, working beautifully with the music. Cong made effective use of canons and repeated movement, but the overall effect would have been more striking if the dancers had been perfectly in time – one of the soloist couples in particular was often half a beat off. The piece was heavily lift-based and physical, particularly for the principal couples of each movement. Although the lifts were gasp-inducing and beautifully executed, they were...