fri 11/04/2025

dance

Balanchine's Jewels, Royal Ballet

Hanna Weibye

Balanchine's Jewels is catnip to dedicated ballet lovers.

Read more...

Pina Bausch's Rite of Spring, English National Ballet, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye

Is English National Ballet's current predilection for acquiring European repertoire some kind of anti-Brexit statement, or just smart brand positioning?

Read more...

Crystal Pite, Flight Pattern, Royal Ballet

Hanna Weibye

Can thirty minutes of contemporary ballet say something meaningful about the modern refugee crisis? It has been the surprise of the season to find myself asking this question not once, but twice, at the Royal Ballet.

Read more...

Project Polunin, Sadler's Wells

Katie Colombus

This is the comeback after the comeback-that-never-was. It's the anticipated full stage ballet after the hugely popular Youtube video. It's the press waiting to see if ballet's bad boy will do something wild. It's the fans waiting to see if Sergei Polunin really will be the second coming (he's often hailed as the modern day Nureyev). Pamela Anderson is in the audience.

Read more...

Tree of Codes, Wayne McGregor, Sadler's Wells

Katie Colombus

Tree of Codes is a work made from a work made from a work.

Read more...

FLA.CO.MEN, Israel Galván, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye

Before this Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival-opening performance of Israel Galván's show FLA.CO.MEN, my guest wanted to know what the show would be like.

Read more...

Masurca Fogo, Pina Bausch, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch are at an interesting juncture. Eight years after their eponymous founder died, and over 40 since she took over at Wuppertal, the troupe is reaching a point when, even if Bausch were alive, it would be facing change, as the older dancers in the company - many of whom have been there since the beginning - enter their late 60s.

Read more...

Giselle, English National Ballet, London Coliseum

Hanna Weibye

In the annals of ballet directors, always searching for the perfect balance between heritage programming and new work, there can rarely have been a double whammy so successful.

Read more...

Best of 2016: Dance & Ballet

Hanna Weibye

The criteria used by theartsdesk's critics in selecting pieces for this list are simple, but demanding: did a piece or a programme stir and shake us? Did it move us, and make us still - weeks or months afterwards - think, yes, I'd go see that again in a heartbeat?

Read more...

Strictly Come Dancing 2016 Final, BBC One

Jasper Rees

What is light entertainment for? It won’t save the world or heal the sick or bring warring factions to the negotiating table. It’s teeth and smiles and bread and circuses on a Saturday night and it shouldn’t have to bear any greater weight. The Generation Game was never required to offer vital balm during the Three-Day Week. Barrymore didn’t nurse us all through Black Wednesday and Britain’s exit from the ERM.

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...

Kraggerud, Irish Chamber Orchestra, RIAM Dublin review - sto...

A lot hung upon the delivery last night of Henning Kraggerud, whom I last witnessed leading performances of Strauss’s Metamorphosen and...

theartsdesk on Vinyl: Record Store Day Special 2025

Record Store Day 2025 is tomorrow (Saturday 12th April 2025)! At theartsdesk on Vinyl we’ve been sent a selection of exclusive...

Sad Book, Hackney Empire review - What we feel, what we show...

Who goes to the theatre to feel sad? That is, knowing full well that they won’t be going home with a skip in their step. Many people, it would...

Small, Hallé, Wong, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - re...

Kahchun Wong returned to the symphony with which he made his first big impression conducting the Hallé – and made a big impression with it again...

The Amateur review - revenge of the nerd

In a world of macho super-achievers like Jack Reacher and Ethan Hunt, maybe it’s time to hear it for the nerdy guys. The Amateur (based...

Holy Cow review - perfectly pitched coming-of-age tale in ru...

Director Louise Courvoisier has put herself firmly on the film map with this story of young Totone and his little sister, carving out a...

Album: Joe Lovano - Homage

Tenor titan Joe Lovano is thrilled by how Homage has turned out. He actually told me so himself in person a few weeks ago, and his new...

LSO, Noseda, Barbican review - Half Six shake-up

Tired after a hard day at the office? You might think you need a Classic FM-style warm bath, but the blast of Prokofiev’s Second Symphony, one of...

Album: Bon Iver - SABLE ƒABLE

With a sound that's instantly recognisable, Justin Vernon – known as Bon Iver - continues to astonish. Purveyor of wonder, sculptor of enchanting...