sun 10/12/2023

Dance reviews, news & interviews

The Dante Project, Royal Ballet review - brave but flawed take on the Divine Comedy returns

David Nice

Singular in its variousness, this is a three-act ballet that need some unpicking. No wonder those hooked on first acquaintance in 2021, like theartsdesk’s dance critic Jenny Gilbert, have been back to see it more than once.

The Limit, Linbury Theatre review - a dance-theatre romcom that lacks both rom and com

Jenny Gilbert

Imagine a world in which speech has a daily legal limit. Not a limit on what you say, but how many words it takes to say it. Now imagine how such a scenario might work as dance.

Anemoi / The Cellist, Royal Ballet review - a...

Jenny Gilbert

Double bills at the ballet don’t often come as neatly gift-wrapped. Each of the works in question was made just before or during lockdown, arriving...

Song of Songs, Pam Tanowitz/David Lang, Barbican...

Jenny Gilbert

On the whole the Bible is not big on sex and sensuality, with the exception of one very short book in the Old Testament. The Song of Solomon – aka...

First Person: Pulitzer Prize winning composer...

David Lang

I wouldn’t say that I am super religious, but I am definitely religion-curious. It is a big part of my family background, and, to be honest, a big...

Don Quixote, Royal Ballet review - crazy Russian-Spanish romcom, brilliant dancing

Jenny Gilbert

Carlos Acosta's hugely entertaining production launches the season with gusto

Ballet Nights, Lanterns Studio Theatre review - dance gets its own cabaret season

Jenny Gilbert

A compered gala packed with fine and varied items, but the idea still needs tweaking

Black Sabbath: The Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham Hippodrome review - two very different art forms merge

Guy Oddy

Carlos Acosta creates shining gold from heavy metal and ballet

Ailey 2, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury review - young, black and fabulous

Jenny Gilbert

The younger sibling of the Alvin Ailey family visits for the first time in 12 years

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Sadler's Wells review - exhilarating display of a full deck of dance styles

Helen Hawkins

From stately to sexy, these fabulously physical dancers engage every emotion

Matthew Bourne's Romeo + Juliet, Sadler's Wells review - exhilarating dancing, inventive moves

Helen Hawkins

New Adventures creates lovers with tender appeal for a younger generation

Jewels, The Australian Ballet, Royal Opera House review - a sparkling parade of great dancing

Helen Hawkins

David Hallberg's Australians are pitch perfect in Balanchine's masterpiece

Carlos at 50, Royal Opera House review - lovingly designed gala from a still impressive star

Helen Hawkins

The Cuban dancer is a living tribute to the power of the arts

theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival - invisible cities and possible dreams

David Nice

Teatro delle Albe's Don Quixote drama rivals Riccardo Muti's Paths of Friendship concert

Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras, Sadler's Wells - a roaring start to the Flamenco Festival

Jenny Gilbert

The reigning queen of zapateado shows us her soul

Untitled, 2023 / Corybantic Games / Anastasia Act III, Royal Ballet review - a magnificent end to the season

Jenny Gilbert

There's grist and glory in this triple bill, and a career-high for Wayne McGregor

Requiem, Opera North review - partnership and diversity

Robert Beale

Choral-orchestral performance meets contemporary dance in cross-cultural fusion

Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT1), Sadler's Wells review - an extinction rebellion in dance

Jenny Gilbert

A rare visit from Europe's No.1 contemporary troupe makes a powerful eco-protest

Hunting legendary treasure with ballet's Indiana Jones - Pierre Lacotte 1932-2023

Ismene Brown

The prolific recreator of early ballets has died, leaving a lively argument

Jungle Book reimagined, Sadler's Wells review - a doomy revision of the Kipling stories

Helen Hawkins

Akram Khan repurposes the classic as a futuristic eco-disaster saga

Cinderella, Royal Ballet review - the first British ballet learns the language of flowers

Jenny Gilbert

Plant life blooms everywhere you look in Frederick Ashton's earliest full-evening ballet

Tom Dale Company, The Place review - immersive and genre-busting

Jenny Gilbert

Dazzling, ingenious, thought provoking - a big thumbs-up to the digital revolution

'You want to cry from loving to do it so much' - Lynn Seymour 1939-2023

Ismene Brown

Remembering the unique ballerina who injected me with her poison

Turn It Out with Tiler Peck, Sadler's Wells review - America's ballet wonder-woman raises the barre

Jenny Gilbert

On her UK solo debut, New York City Ballet’s queen of speed gives audiences a wild ride

Woolf Works, Royal Ballet review - Wayne McGregor's modern classic impresses all over again

Helen Hawkins

Alessandra Ferri returns as the moving focus of this powerful piece

The Sacrifice, Dada Masilo, Brighton Dome review - eye-popping dance from South Africa

Jenny Gilbert

The dance is riveting but the story is murky

Creature review - Asif Kapadia shines light on a dark dance piece

Helen Hawkins

The ballet has been transformed by a film version that gets up close and personal

Julie Cunningham & Co, Sadler's Wells review - a fine piece of work, with added spice

Jenny Gilbert

The other Cunningham stakes out their territory in contemporary dance, and the non-binary debate

Swan Lake, English National Ballet, Coliseum review - the story of a deluded prince

Jenny Gilbert

The corps de ballet take the laurels in Derek Deane's dependably fine production

Footnote: a brief history of dance in Britain

Britain's reputation as one of the world's great ballet nations has been swiftly won, as home-grown classical ballet started here only in the 1930s. Yet within 30 years the Royal Ballet was recognised as the equal of the greatest and oldest companies in France, Russia or Italy. Now the extraordinary range in British dance from classical ballet to contemporary dance-theatre, from experimental new choreography in small spaces to mass arena-ballet spectaculars, can't be matched in the US or Russia, where nothing like the Arts Council subsidy system exists to encourage new work.

Fonteyn_OndineWhile foreign stars have long been adored by British audiences, from Anna Pavlova and Rudolf Nureyev to Sylvie Guillem, the British ballet and dance movements were offspring of the movement towards a national subsidised theatre. This was first activated in the Thirties by Lilian Baylis and Ninette de Valois in a tie-up between the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells, and led to the founding of what became the Royal Ballet, English National Opera and the National Theatre. From 1926 Marie Rambert's Ballet Club operated out of the tiny Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill, a creative crucible producing early stars such as choreographer Frederick Ashton and ballerina Alicia Markova and which eventually grew into Ballet Rambert and today's Rambert Dance. From all these roots developed Sadlers Wells Theatre Ballet (now Birmingham Royal Ballet), London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), and Western Theatre Ballet which became Scottish Ballet.

Margot Fonteyn's dominance in the post-war ballet scene (pictured in Ashton's Ondine) and the granting of a Royal charter in 1956 to the Royal Ballet and its school brought the "English ballet" world renown, massively increased when Soviet star Rudolf Nureyev defected from the Kirov Ballet in 1961 and formed with Fonteyn the most iconic partnership in dance history.

The Sixties ballet boom was complemented by the introduction of American abstract modern dance to London, and a mushrooming of independent modern choreographers drawing on fashion and club music (Michael Clark), art and classical music (Richard Alston), movies (Matthew Bourne) and science (Wayne McGregor). Hip-hop, salsa and TV dance shows have recently given a dynamic new twist to contemporary dance. The Arts Desk offers the fastest overnight reviews and ticket booking links for last night's openings, as well as the most thoughtful close-up interviews with major creative figures and performers. Our critics include Ismene Brown, Judith Flanders, David Nice, Matt Wolf and James Woodall

Close Footnote

latest in today

I Fagiolini, Hollingworth, St Martin-in-the-Fields review -...

“Nobody likes a Messiah…”, deadpanned Robert Hollingworth, with the timing of a practised stand-up. After a pause, “…more than I do.” At...

Music Reissues Weekly: Chelsea - The Step-Forward Years

On 21 June 1977, listeners to John Peel’s radio show heard a song titled “Pretty Vacant.” It wasn’t a preview of the forthcoming Sex Pistols...

Please Don't Destroy: Treasure of Foggy Mountain review...

Despite an ominous title, there’s always fair weather in the debut comic adventure film featuring Please Don’t Destroy, a NYC sketch...

Wonka review - a confusingly mixed bag of bonbons

As the 117 minutes of Wonka tick by, the question it poses gains momentum: who is this film actually for? Children of all ages...

Smyrna review - Greece at twilight

The Smyrna Catastrophe of 1922, in which tens of thousands of Greeks and Armenians were slaughtered by Turkish soldiers, is a topical subject...

The Peasants review - earthbound animation

After a few years of cinema, the wow factor of seeing actual things moving about on a screen wore off a bit and showmen saw that jump cuts...

Mathias Énard: The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers'...

"Death, as a general statement, is so easy of utterance, of belief", wrote Amy Levy, "it is only when we come face to face with it that we find...

Album: Samara Joy - A Joyful Holiday

This six-track EP on Verve/UMG brings the breakthrough year of 2023 for Samara Joy to a neat close. In February she won two Grammys, as Best New...

Monica review - sombre American drama

There’s a rich seam of folk stories about changelings, infants snatched from home and replaced with a substitute child, to the horror and...

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters