dance
Swan Lake, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sadler's WellsWednesday, 14 October 2015
Swan Lakes are not created equal. In fact they are not even created the same: ballet is the art form with the evanescent repertoire, in which First Folios – or any folios – are singularly scarce. Even with a classic as beloved as Swan Lake, there is no stable text apart from Ivanov's lakeside choreography for Act II and Tchaikovsky's score (though not even all of that). Read more... |
Raven Girl/Connectome, Royal BalletWednesday, 07 October 2015
Wayne McGregor wasn't anyone's idea of a ballet man when he was appointed choreographer in residence at the Royal Ballet in 2007. Before then, and since, his work has been abstract, spiky, verging on dysmorphic. His interest lay not in human stories but in the snap of synapses and the speed with which the brain can relay messages to a hyper-flexible body. Read more... |
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Prog 2, Peacock TheatreThursday, 24 September 2015
If the Trocks didn't exist, we would have to invent them. Every genre needs its loving parodists, treading the fine line between homage and dommage, and an art form as stylised and convention-governed as classical dance is riper for it than most - as evidenced by the continuing worldwide success of this all-male comedy troupe after more than 40 years. Read more... |
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Peacock TheatreThursday, 17 September 2015
If you don’t know the steps or the stars being semi-spoofed, will you laugh? Yes, though perhaps not as much as anticipated. The best parody needs to be as good as the original, and “the Trocks”, as Tory Dobrin's New York-based company has been known in its 40-plus years to date, take their Petipa and Ivanov very seriously. Read more... |
The King Who Invented Ballet, BBC FourMonday, 14 September 2015
Someone more unlike Louis XIV than David Bintley is hard to imagine. Read more... |
Lest We Forget, English National Ballet, Sadler's WellsWednesday, 09 September 2015
When English National Ballet premiered Lest We Forget in April last year, to enthusiastic reviews, they were ahead of the pack with First World War commemoration, and the ambitious modern programme was the first sign of Tamara Rojo's determination to make the company's repertoire more contemporary. Read more... |
McGregor/Spuck, Ballett Zürich, Edinburgh PlayhouseFriday, 28 August 2015
New Edinburgh Festival director Fergus Linehan has made it clear he wants to offer things people actually want to see. So including Wayne McGregor - prolific, popular, energetically self-promoting doyen of contemporary dance - in the dance programme for the first time makes plenty of sense. Read more... |
Seven, Ballett am Rhein/RSNO, Edinburgh PlayhouseFriday, 21 August 2015
When the Royal Opera House told Kenneth MacMillan that Mahler was unsuitable for ballet, he went – where else? – to Germany. Though the success of MacMillan's Lied von der Erde for Stuttgart Ballet led to its happy adoption into Royal Ballet repertoire, making ballet to Mahler still seems to draw German companies more than others – whether because the orchestras, audiences, or state subsidies are better, who knows? Read more... |
Lo Real, Israel Galván, Edinburgh Festival TheatreThursday, 20 August 2015
It is an axiom of Israel Galván criticism to say the Spaniard is wired differently. He's the "Bowie of flamenco" - leggy and intense, unpredictably sparky, intemittently brilliant, and sometimes incomprehensible. Read more... |
Swan Lake, St Petersburg Ballet Theatre, London ColiseumFriday, 14 August 2015
St Petersburg Ballet Theatre is a phenomenon of the new Russia: not anchored in centuries of history or state patronage like its neighbours the Mariinsky and the Mikhailovsky, but founded as a commercial venture in 1994 by Konstantin Tachkin, a wannabe impresario with no balletic training. Read more... |
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