★★★★☆ The ballet superstar’s farewell tour offers an understated exit from the stage.

Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House
19 August, 2015

“If you love her, let her go,” so the saying goes, and now after 35 years in the spotlight, Sylvie Guillem, perhaps the most astoundingly talented dancer in living memory, revered and adored the world over, is taking her final bows. After a stellar career which has redefined the art-form one final globe-trotting tour marks her farewell, but rather than going out with a supernova, this star has created a show that is more about personal poignancy than physical pyrotechnics. Perhaps some may feel cheated by this understated exit, but what this show lacks in chutzpah its makes up for in sincerity. In typical fashion, Life in Progress isn’t about self-celebration or aggrandisement, nor is it about sappy sentimentality or nostalgia. In its own quietly beautiful, stubbornly uncompromising, surprisingly modest way it is the very essence of Guillem the person, as well as Guillem the dancer.

That’s not to say there isn’t much to marvel at though. She began her career as a dance prodigy, entering the Paris Ballet at 16 before being...