dance
Maddaddam, Royal Ballet review - superb dancing in a confusing frameSaturday, 16 November 2024
Valiant souls who have recently read the Margaret Atwood trilogy on which this new Wayne McGregor piece for the Royal Ballet is based will be at home with its time-shifting eco-sci-fi narrative. The rest of us, not so much. Read more... |
Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring/common ground[s], Sadler’s Wells review - raw and devastatingSaturday, 09 November 2024
It takes a lot to make an audience not want to head to the bar at the interval. But the preparation of the stage floor for The Rite of Spring in the version by Pina Bausch is a piece of theatre in itself, and many at Sadler’s Wells couldn’t tear themselves away. Read more... |
Legacy, Linbury Theatre review - an exceptional display of black dance prowessSaturday, 02 November 2024
In the foyer of the Linbury Theatre is an exhibition which gives a very upbeat account of the presence of black dancers in British ballet. Photographs dating back to the 1950s, 60s and 70s show practitioners of extraordinary physicality and verve, with wide, confident smiles. Read more... |
Encounters, Royal Ballet review - exciting mixed bill with a gem of a premiereThursday, 24 October 2024
In 2022, the American choreographer Pam Tanowitz made a duet on Royal Ballet principals William Bracewell and Anna Rose O’Sullivan, which they performed at the company’s Diamond Celebration. That piece has now evolved into a true gem. Read more... |
National Ballet of Canada, Sadler's Wells review - see this, and know what dance can doSaturday, 05 October 2024
What to expect of the National Ballet of Canada since its last London visit 11 years ago? Dance with an eco-message, a world-peace message, or more visible diversity on stage? Read more... |
Nobodaddy, Teaċ Daṁsa, Dublin Theatre Festival review - supernatural song and dance odysseyThursday, 03 October 2024
Nobodaddy, taking its title from Blake’s violent dark-god “Father of Jealousy”, is much more than a dance piece, and Michael Keegan-Dolan, whose company was formerly known as Fabulous Beast, is more than just a choreographer, with unique takes on the total work of art already to his credit. Read more... |
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Royal Ballet review - big, bold and ultimately brashWednesday, 02 October 2024
In many ways Lewis Carroll’s 1865 compendium of literary nonsense is ideal material for ballet. We all like a story we can hum, even if we’re hazy on the details. And this story, with its topsy-turvy logic and anthropomorphic creatures, is stuffed with quirky detail, much of it surely never intended to go anywhere but over the heads of its original child readers. Read more... |
Resurgence, London City Ballet, Sadler’s Wells review - the phoenix rises yet againThursday, 19 September 2024
You need to be fairly long in the tooth to feel nostalgia for the heyday of London City Ballet. The group was set up in 1978 by the late Harold King to tour a large and varied classical repertoire at home and abroad. Princess Diana, its patron, befriended the company, supporting its work both publicly and privately. Read more... |
The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, ZooNation, Linbury Theatre review - a joyous celebration of differentnessTuesday, 10 September 2024
The Mad Hatter gets it about right when he tells Alice: “You’re entirely bonkers… but all the best people are.” Kate Prince takes this line and runs with it in her riotous but surprisingly sweet and often moving hip hop take on Lewis Carroll’s 1865 book, a production now enjoying a 10th anniversary revival, coinciding with a revival of Christopher Wheeldon’s three-act Alice ballet in the Covent Garden main house. Read more... |
Ballet Nights #006, Cadogan Hall review - a mixed bag of excellenceSaturday, 07 September 2024
It’s exactly a year since Ballet Nights, the self-styled taster platform for dance, started offering chirpily compered evenings of ballet and contemporary at venues where you'd least expect to find them. A first anniversary is already an achievement; to have arrived there bigger and better more so. Read more... |
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