Dance
Jewels, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Opera HouseTuesday, 13 August 2013
The Bolshoi’s summer season in London has so far been straight-down-the-line trad: Swan Lake as an opener, Bayadère, Sleeping Beauty. Now, however, with Balanchine’s Jewels, they’ve at least dipped a pointe shoe into the 20th century, if rather... Read more... |
The Sleeping Beauty, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Opera HouseTuesday, 06 August 2013
The Bolshoi Theatre reopened in late autumn 2011 after a problematic six-year refurbishment said to have cost a tidy billion dollars, many times its original estimate thanks to corruption - it needed a corker of a ballet premiere to pop the eyes of... Read more... |
La Bayadère, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Opera HouseSunday, 04 August 2013
It’s unspeakably bad for so many reasons that the injured Bolshoi Ballet director Sergei Filin cannot be in London to see his company perform, and one is that he can’t see his protegée Olga Smirnova revealing herself to us as destined to be one of... Read more... |
Carlos Acosta, Classical Selection, London ColiseumWednesday, 31 July 2013
The mighty adorable Carlos Acosta is at the London Coliseum this week in all his might and all his adorableness - four times, you may like to know, he appears without his shirt on. This is relevant, because it’s not the preening bare-... Read more... |
Swan Lake, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Opera HouseTuesday, 30 July 2013
Everyone must be wishing the Bolshoi Ballet a swift return to company health after the tragic events of this year, as well as a return to physical health by their horribly injured artistic director - in the circumstances it’s heroic that they have... Read more... |
Petrushka/ Song of a Wayfarer/ Raymonda, English National Ballet, London ColiseumFriday, 26 July 2013
A magical folktale, a male duet, a classical jewel-box - programmes like this should be a rich part of the warp and weft of a ballet company, a night of rich interest and variety, stimulating dancers with challenges to their grace and storytelling... Read more... |
Prom 17: Antonio Márquez Company, BBC Philharmonic, MenaFriday, 26 July 2013
JThis year’s Proms have been accompanied by an unusual choral drone, a monotony of voices whinging about the prodigious heat at the Albert Hall. For one night only no one was complaining as the temperature gauge went up to something like 111. You’ve... Read more... |
Opinion: Ballet's Stars are RevoltingMonday, 15 July 2013
Are we seeing a breakdown in the ballet company system? Where the brightest stars used to twinkle in the great companies, all is changing. Alina Cojocaru, the great Royal Ballet ballerina, has announced today she's joining English National Ballet -... Read more... |
Quimeras, Paco Peña and Dance CompaniesSunday, 14 July 2013
Happy truisms first: Paco Peña is still the greatest of flamenco guitarists, he works with a consummate team of regulars in the most vibrant of dance-art and he keeps it fresh by scouring the world for different players or ensembles to complement... Read more... |
Coppélia, Stanislavsky Ballet, London ColiseumFriday, 12 July 2013
When a person is happy in his work, he does his best. So best ignore what Sergei Polunin says on the page of a newspaper and look at what he does on stage. Now there’s a happy boy. Polunin is the one reason to see the Stanislavsky Ballet at the... Read more... |
Bolshoi storms continue with loss of chief execTuesday, 09 July 2013
Just a fortnight before Russia's great Bolshoi Ballet lands in London for its splendid summer tour, it has now added a lost chief executive to its tally of a blinded ballet director, an arrested dancer, and a sacked star.The Russian press reports... Read more... |
Performers: A Season in PhotographsSaturday, 06 July 2013
A stage performance in any art form communicates through sound and motion. A photographer's task is to capture the dramatic experience in the silence and stillness of the 2D image. In the worlds of ballet and opera, none does it with more commitment... Read more... |
