Birmingham Royal Ballet
The King Who Invented Ballet, BBC FourMonday, 14 September 2015
Someone more unlike Louis XIV than David Bintley is hard to imagine. The latter comes across on TV as the most pleasant, unthreatening, mild-mannered of Everymen; unthinkable that he would order the massacre of Protestants or proclaim, “l’État, c’... Read more... |
We Made It: Ballet costumier Anna WillettsMonday, 31 August 2015
This year Birmingham Royal Ballet celebrates 25 years in the city, during which time the company has presented more than 130 different ballets. Over the years, Birmingham Royal Ballet has worked with some of the biggest names in theatrical design,... Read more... |
10 Questions for Pianist Leif Ove AndsnesMonday, 20 July 2015
Though perhaps not quite the "long strange trip" once hymned by the Grateful Dead, Leif Ove Andsnes's Beethoven Journey has been a marathon undertaking. It has spanned four years, during which the Norwegian pianist and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra... Read more... |
Serenade/Carmina Burana, Birmingham Royal Ballet, London ColiseumFriday, 20 March 2015
Serenade seems to be one of George Balanchine’s most evanescent works, a floating, delicate skein of movement that is over almost before it begins, leaving nothing but memory behind. In reality, it is tough as old boots, a warrior of a ballet, one... Read more... |
Shadows of War, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sadler's WellsSaturday, 18 October 2014
Another week, another war commemorative; it’s the story of all the arts in 2014. But – because you can always rely on David Bintley and Birmingham Royal Ballet to be different – last night’s programme at Sadler’s was overshadowed by the Second World... Read more... |
Les Rendezvous/Dante Sonata/Façade, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham HippodromeSunday, 08 June 2014
“The touch is light. We like it so,” wrote Ninette de Valois in one of her later poems. You didn’t know the founder of the Royal Ballet wrote poetry? Don’t worry, you’re not missing much – except the occasional phrase which can serve as an epigraph... Read more... |
Concert Dansé, Symphony Hall, BirminghamMonday, 05 May 2014
On the back wall of Birmingham Symphony Hall’s great oval space, two musicians are poised on a glass balcony that gives the illusion of not being there at all. A small square of warm light picks them out, vivid against the hall’s darkness. So framed... Read more... |
Quatrain/Kin./Les Rendezvous, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Crescent TheatreSunday, 27 April 2014
It is proof, as if more were needed, of how very right-on Birmingham Royal Ballet’s director David Bintley is, that he chose to open the International Dance Festival currently taking place in that city with two specially commissioned ballets... Read more... |
The Prince of the Pagodas, Birmingham Royal Ballet, London ColiseumThursday, 27 March 2014
When three good choreographers can’t get a ballet right, there must be something wrong with either the story or the music. In the case of the Prince of the Pagodas (a Poirot mystery waiting to be written, that, but I digress), it’s hardly the music... Read more... |
BBC Ballet SeasonMonday, 10 March 2014
There’s been reasonable diversity in the ballet shown on the BBC in recent years – from full-length broadcasts of Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty and The Red Shoes to the compelling 2011 fly-on-the-wall The Agony and the Ecstasy. That’s why it was... Read more... |
TV Preview: BBC Ballet SeasonSaturday, 01 March 2014
Do four programmes constitute a season? Let's not quibble too much; though brief, the ballet season airing on BBC2 and BBC4 this week has some appealing offerings. Judging from the strong focus on famous names (Fonteyn, Bussell) and the best... Read more... |
The Sleeping Beauty, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sadler’s WellsFriday, 18 October 2013
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Sometimes, of course, it’s even better to be both. And Birmingham Royal Ballet, in their all-too-brief London season, have been both lucky and good. Lucky, because they have Peter Wright’s little jewel of... Read more... |
