dance
Swan Lake, Royal Ballet review - grand, eloquent, superbFriday, 08 March 2024
In uncertain times like these, the single thing that every flagship ballet company needs is a convincing iteration of a 19th-century blockbuster. New works are all very well and necessary, but they don’t have the pulling power of Swan Lake, or the staying power. Read more... |
Dance for Ukraine Gala, London Palladium review - a second rich helping of international dancersTuesday, 20 February 2024
It’s tempting to see the second gala created by Ukrainian-born Ivan Putrov as a reflection of the shift in Ukraine’s fortunes since his first one in March 2022. Somehow, just weeks after Ukraine was invaded, Putrov and his fellow student in Kyiv, Alina Cojocaru, brought the world’s finest principals to the London Coliseum for a show-stopping gala that was as moving as it was finely executed. Read more... |
Nelken: A Piece by Pina Bausch, Sadler's Wells review - welcome return for an indelible classicThursday, 15 February 2024
Perhaps the most memorable of the stage designs Peter Pabst created for Pina Bausch is back in London after nearly 20 years: a sea of erect pink silk carnations, the Nelken of the title. It’s canonical that there are 8,000 of them, but only the backstage team know the truth of that. Read more... |
Dark With Excessive Bright, Royal Ballet review - a close encounter with dancers stripped bareWednesday, 14 February 2024
The word “immersive” is overused. When an immersive experience can be anything from a foreign language course to a trip down the Amazon on a headset, what might immersive dance involve? Not watching from a plush-covered seat, probably, and the dance not happening on a stage. Read more... |
La Strada, Sadler's Wells review - a long and bumpy roadThursday, 01 February 2024
Federico Fellini’s 1954 classic La Strada ought to be a gift to a choreographer. The film has pathos, good and evil, a bewitchingly gamine heroine, and incidental music by the great Nino Rota, a composer who can find melancholy in the music of carnival and joy in a tragic trumpet solo – a composer who makes you think “Italy” in every phrase. Read more... |
Manon, Royal Ballet review - a glorious half-century revival of a modern classicTuesday, 23 January 2024
It’s 50 years since the first, damning reviews of Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet Manon declared it to be too long and lumbered with terrible music. One of them also said that the title role was an appalling waste of the ballerina who, in the title role, was reduced to “a nasty little diamond-digger”. Read more... |
Giselle, English National Ballet, Coliseum review - if you go down to the woods today, beware of the WilisTuesday, 16 January 2024
We’re used to the idea of 19th century ballets being updated, but the Giselle currently presented by English National Ballet takes it the other way. Read more... |
Best of 2023: DanceTuesday, 02 January 2024
Dance lovers have had a better time of it this year as the performance sector starts to find its feet again. In the wake of a general cull of independent dance companies, 2023 has seen signs of fresh growth. Read more... |
Edward Scissorhands, Sadler's Wells review - a true Christmas treat, witty and beguilingTuesday, 19 December 2023
The story of Edward Scissorhands may not seem an obvious Christmas subject, but it couldn’t be a more overt call for goodwill to all men. And there’s a hint of The Nutcracker about Matthew Bourne’s dance version, too. Read more... |
Nutcracker, Tuff Nutt Jazz Club, Royal Festival Hall review - a fresh, compelling, adult take on a festive favouriteWednesday, 13 December 2023
Intimacy isn’t everything, but there’s nothing like seeing dance live and up close. A good seat in a large theatre will give you the whole stage picture but lose the detail. Lost too will be that quasi-visceral connection with the movement. Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Primal Scream, O2 Academy, Birmingham review - from anthems...
Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes may have been steering the good ship Primal Scream for some 40 years but, on the evidence of this week’s visit to...
theartsdesk on Vinyl 89: Wilco, Decius, Hot 8 Brass Band, He...
VINYL OF THE MONTH
Rattle Encircle (Upset! The Rhythm)
...
Marcus Brigstocke, Touring review - modern manhood laid bare
The title of Marcus Brigstocke’s latest show, Vitruvian Mango, is, like the man himself, rather clever. He appears on stage...
Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of...
Patrick McGilligan’s biography of Woody Allen weighs in at...
Album: Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong
Black Country, New Road’s Forever Howlong is an ambitious reinvention that both captivates and, at times, frustrates. Following Isaac...
Peter Grimes, Welsh National Opera review - febrile energy a...
Emotions run high at WNO these days. When the company’s co-...
An Evening with Joan Armatrading, Cadogan Hall review - tho...
I can’t hear Joan Armatrading without being instantly transported back to Liverpool, and my student digs just around the corner from Penny Lane. I...
Frang, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - every beauty revealed
When Vladimir Jurowski returns to what used to be “his” London Philharmonic Orchestra, you’d better jump. I would have done on Wednesday had I...
Kenny Garrett, Ronnie Scott's review - a mixed bag
The sax-player Kenny Garrett established a reputation as one of Miles Davis’s band in the Amandla (1989) period. He was also a member of...