ballet
On Their Toes!, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham HippodromeWednesday, 16 June 2010Hans van Manen does basic instincts in ballet better than anyone alive. The Dutch choreographer, nearly 78 and far too little exposed in Britain, is a near-contemporary of Kenneth MacMillan, another specialist in sexual relations, but where... Read more... |
Swan Lake, ENB, Royal Albert HallWednesday, 09 June 2010Within two bars of the overture starting, the first flashes could be seen. English National Ballet’s arena Swan Lake at the Albert Hall - they make no bones about it now - is intended for people who rarely go to the ballet. Actually it is in many... Read more... |
Michael Clark Company, Come, Been and Gone, BarbicanTuesday, 08 June 2010A second coming for Michael Clark's recent Barbican commission Come, Been, Gone. Eight months after the London premiere (on which I opined unenthusiastically below last October), he has added another 20 minutes of choreography, they said, with new... Read more... |
Christopher Wheeldon premiere, New York City BalletSunday, 30 May 2010What is going on at New York City Ballet, home of the abstract, neo-classical, pared-down, no-scenery, no-story, nothing-extraneous aesthetic that George Balanchine made into an artistic religion? So far, three out of the four pieces commissioned... Read more... |
Wayne McGregor & Alexei Ratmansky premieres, New York City BalletSunday, 16 May 2010In the New York City Ballet’s grand tradition of ambitious festivals of new work, its current offering, Architecture of Dance, is a big, ambitious deal: seven new ballets; four of them to commissioned scores; five sporting sets by the famed... Read more... |
Production Gallery: The Royal Ballet's Asphodel MeadowsFriday, 07 May 2010Johan Persson took the photographs for The Royal Ballet's world premiere of Liam Scarlett's Asphodel Meadows, which opened on 5 May 2010. Read theartsdesk's review of the ballet here.The music is Francis Poulenc's 1932 Concerto for Two Pianos;... Read more... |
Ballet biography wins top theatre book prizeWednesday, 28 April 2010The Society for Theatre Research’s book of the year award has been won by ballet critic Jann Parry for Different Drummer, her biography of the Royal Ballet choreographer Kenneth MacMillan. The book was chosen this morning in a tight finish at the... Read more... |
Classical Music CDs Round-Up 7Saturday, 24 April 2010This month’s eclectic selection of new releases includes offbeat performances of Berlioz and Mahler, a neglected masterpiece by Swiss composer Frank Martin, Bach performed in two contrasting styles, Schubert piano music, a Roussel symphony and an... Read more... |
La Fille Mal Gardée, Royal BalletWednesday, 21 April 2010If you're going to dance before the future King of England, and your company bears his family's crest, you'd better dance well. No one could really be in any doubt that the Royal Ballet would put on a grand show with its new revival of Frederick... Read more... |
The Sleeping Beauty, Birmingham Royal Ballet, London ColiseumTuesday, 20 April 2010Good dancing - never mind great dancing - calls for an investment of imagination in every point of the foot, every raise of the arm. Why otherwise do the constant drill of turning out the leg, stretching the instep, taking fifth position, if the... Read more... |
Magia de la Danza, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, London ColiseumTuesday, 06 April 2010“It’ll be tricky to write about,” said the man next to me last night, a Cubaphile. “It's the good, the bad and the awful.” The Cubans’ second programme, The Magic of Dance, is an old-fashioned warhorse of showstoppers from the classics, a tapas bar... Read more... |
Swan Lake, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, London ColiseumWednesday, 31 March 2010In the Cuban National Ballet’s Swan Lake fourth act, the corps of swans do a curious, aggressive attacking run you don’t see in any other production - they lower their heads and charge at Prince Siegfried, with hands fluttering angrily behind them,... Read more... |