How Rocky girl danced her way to the top of the ballet world

Her husband may be the author of a best selling memoir that was turned into a movie, but Mary Li also has an incredible story to tell.

Mary Li’s charming memoir is just one of the terrific books nominated this year for The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year. Mary’s Last Dance is a heartwarming read, a story of how a girl from Rocky worked her way to the top of the ballet world.

Mary Li is ballet mistress at Queensland Ballet and is married to the company’s artistic director Li Cunxin who wrote the best-selling memoir Mao’s Last Dancer.

After Li’s book, people wanted to know Mary’s story but it took her a while.

The list of books nominated this year is impressive and of course it would have to include Trent Dalton’s All Our Shimmering Skies(HarperCollins)which is on the list of fiction titles nominated.

Voting closes 5pm on August 16. slq.qld.gov.au/peoples-choice

Dancer and author Mary Li. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

HUGH SHERIDAN TO THE RESCUE

Despite the recent lockdown, Brisbane Festival is forging ahead in September. Artistic director Louise Bezzina says the festival team is committed to delivering a Brightly Brisbane program of events to fill the city with art, music and joy from September 3 to 25.

“We’ve been here before, and we’ll do it again,” Bezzina says.

“We are in the business of bringing joy to Brisbane and we will present a Covid-safe program. There will be some cancellations and changes to the program in response to border closures, however once again our local artists will shine.”

David Campbell was supposed to be a headline act on opening night but no one will complain that he has been replaced with Hugh Sheridan LIVE! on Friday, September 3 in the South Bank Piazza, BOQ Festival Garden, with tickets on sale for that show on Friday.

Sheridan is already in Brisbane filming and is good to go.

Sheridan has become a household name, charming fans on stage and screen year after year with a smooth voice, toe-tapping tunes and powerhouse performances.

This is the essential show for Hugh Sheridan fans and fans of jazz, swing, blues and pop. And it’s backed by a full band.

There are more additions to the program including Cover Up on September 21 and 22, featuring Briefs Factory, and Betty Smokes & The Forgetaboudits.

Then Collision from September 17-23 at The Warehouse, Northshore Hamilton.

Tickets on sale now.

brisbanefestival.com.au

Yaron Lifschitz, artistic director of Circa with acrobats Jarrod Takle, Keaton Hentoff-Killian, Piri Goodman, and Jessica Connell. Picture: Nigel Hallett

ARTIST FOR WHOM THE TUBULAR BELLS TOLL

Oh, to be in England, now that Circa’s there ... with apologies to Robert Browning.

Brisbane’s acclaimed circus company’s major Brisbane Festival event, Silver Circus, may have been a victim of the pandemic but the company may have something else up their sleeve for us and we wait to hear about that. But right now they are wowing them in London with the world premiere of a newly staged version of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells: Live in Concert at London’s Festival Hall where Circa is performing the new show until Sunday.

Circa’s artistic director Yaron Lifschitz is in the British capital with 10 Circa acrobats interpreting Oldfield’s 1973 multi-instrumentalist progressive rock masterpiece backed by a live band.

When Lifschitz told me about this a few months ago I thought he might be a bit mad. Tubular Bells is impossible to dance to, let alone do acrobatics to. But Lifschitz is something of a genius and if anyone can do it he can.

“I got a call from London asking if I’d be interested and I said – sign me up,” he told me. “Tubular Bells has moved and inspired so many people. It’s such a great piece.”

Lifschitz describes the music as “both epic and intimate – a transcendent experience that is accessible to anyone”.

“In Circa’s production we take great acrobatics, striking visuals and blend them with the wonderful musicians to bring a physical dimension to the show,” he says. “It is both the Tubular Bells you know and love and something fresh.”

Lifschitz worked with musical director Robin Smith who has collaborated with Oldfield for decades, including memorable performances at Edinburgh Castle in 1992 and at the London 2012 Olympics.

We hope like hell Lifschitz will bring this production home to Brisbane. It’s just one of 12 new works the company has created since January 2020, defying the pandemic.

Circa’s executive director Shaun Comerford says “the past 18 months has brought out the absolute best in Circa’’.

circa.org.au

Tim Fairfax, pastoralist and philanthropist with his wife Gina Fairfax. Picture: Britta Campion / The Australian

NEW ROLE FOR FAIRFAX

Respected Queensland pastoralist, philanthropist and businessman Tim Fairfax AC is the new patron of the Actors’ and Entertainers’ Benevolent Fund Queensland (ABF QLD). Fairfax and his wife Gina Fairfax are stalwarts of the arts in Queensland and much admired. Queensland’s oldest registered charity for performing arts professionals announced Fairfax’s appointment, replacing Tony Gould AM, founding director of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and the Brisbane Festival, who died last year.

Fairfax – founder of the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation – says he is honoured to support “this important Queensland charity” and one that has really stepped up to help during the pandemic.

“I am aware that the arts are so often overlooked, and the talented and passionate people who work in the world of theatre, dance, music, film often face challenging circumstances,” Fairfax says.

EMERGING LOGAN ARTIST

Queensland has always punched above its weight in the world of Indigenous art and Queenslanders have won the major prize at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in the past. This year Western Australian artist Timo Hogan took out the top gong, the coveted Telstra Art Award, which was announced on Friday in Darwin.

The Telstra Emerging Artist Award was won by Logan artist Kyra Mancktelow.

Kyra Mancktelow. Picture: Supplied

Judges say her “haunting and ghostly work Moongalba 11 exploits the medium of printmaking, textiles and etching to communicate a deeply painful and dark chapter of Australian history … Kyra’s powerful and evocative work is a moving tribute to many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families … torn apart by missionaries during the 19th century”.

Mancktelow is a Quandamooka, Nughi woman of Moorgumpin (Moreton Island).

natsiaa.com.au