Entertainment

Dance

Stripped-down Swan fails to take wing

Melbourne Ballet Company's <i>Arche</I> is <i>Swan Lake</I> writ small.

The traditional Swan Lake is a huge production with dozens of dancers. Arche is the Melbourne Ballet Company's version of the Swan Lake story, danced by nine performers.

One dancer's story told beautifully through movement

Career spectrum: The Australian Ballet's Nutcracker - The Story of Clara, choreographed by Graeme Murphy.

This Nutcracker moves fluidly through time, as an elderly Clara remembers her youth as a young ballerina in Russia, the heartbreak of love lost on a battlefield, and her eventual, bewildered arrival in Australia.