Jane Howard

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Jane Howard

As the sun set on day three of Womadelaide, under the bat colony at Tainmuntilla (Botanic Park), the audience were in a trance. Brooklyn-based Colombian musician Ela Minus mixed her voice with synthesisers, prompting a roar from the crowd; strobe lighting pulsed over the moving mass of bodies. The surrounding pine trees somehow seemed to make the reverb echo even stronger, lifting us up through the canopy to the open stars above. Minus’ music is complex and expansive, pop music meets house.

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Jane Howard

I am a voracious reader, but it is easy to feel there are too many books in the world. How do you find the time to keep up with all those new releases? To say nothing of the overwhelm that comes from even stepping in a bookshop. There you’re faced with not only the latest titles but also the classics you’ve missed and the biographies you hadn’t heard of but find yourself drawn to. The library is the same – the masses of books too frequently inspires inertia.

Jan 1, 2025 | theguardian.com | Jane Howard

I am a bad runner. OK, maybe not “bad”. I get out there, I do it. But I am slow and plodding. I’ll bargain with myself to just run a short 3km. The farthest I have ever run is 6km – and it happened because I was heading to a pub at the other end. One of the things they try to sell you on when you start running is “runner’s high”: that magical sense of euphoria you get from really pushing your body.

Dec 26, 2024 | theguardian.com | Cassie Tongue |Alison Croggon |Tim Byrne |Jason Blake |Michael Sun |Walter Marsh | +6 more

Big Name, No BlanketsIlbijerri Theatre Company Sydney; Melbourne; Brisbane; Darwin; heading to Perth festival, 27 February – 1 MarchIt’s not often that a jukebox musical would make an end-of-year best theatre list, but Big Name, No Blankets – which tells the story of the iconic Warumpi Band – is no ordinary jukebox musical.

Sep 14, 2024 | theguardian.com | Jane Howard

The act two pas de deux between Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas (known familiarly as Boise) in Christopher Wheeldon’s new ballet Oscar deserves to take its place in the pantheon of great romantic balletic pairings. Theirs was a tumultuous relationship. Not only because Wilde was married. Not only because, at the time of their tryst, sex between men was illegal in England. It was a relationship marked by big personalities and artistic dreams.