ballet
The Composer and the Water-Nymph: Hans Werner Henze's OndineWednesday, 31 October 2012
Hans Werner Henze, the composer who died on Saturday aged 86, wrote the music for one of Margot Fonteyn's signature ballets, Ondine, a ballet about an inhuman spirit who longs to be joined to a man - but when she does, he must die. It might almost... Read more... |
Swan Lake, Royal BalletThursday, 11 October 2012
The Royal Ballet’s autumn season began on Monday, but this was the eagerly awaited Swan Lake. Natalia Osipova, ex-Bolshoi, now principal with American Ballet Theater and the Mikhailovsky in St Petersburg, was making her debut as a guest with the... Read more... |
Love Tomorrow, Raindance Film FestivalMonday, 08 October 2012
For Darcey Bussell it’s Baryshnikov in The Turning Point; for Carlos Acosta it’s The Red Shoes. No one at last week's starry premiere of Love Tomorrow at the Raindance Film Festival, when I asked them for their favourite dance film, mentioned Black... Read more... |
San Francisco Ballet, Balanchine/ Liang/ Wheeldon, Sadler's Wells TheatreSunday, 16 September 2012
It's been eight years since San Francisco Ballet were last here, charming us with their finesse and their smiles - welcome back. They offer a boost of spirit to the gloomsters of ballet over here. This small city which punches many times above its... Read more... |
Draft Works, Royal Ballet, Linbury StudioWednesday, 25 January 2012
A few years ago, the word was that a new choreographer was showing interesting things. His name was Liam Scarlett, and although he was very young, some work that had been seen in a workshop was looking promising. It was not long before “promising”... Read more... |
Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker!, New Adventures, Sadler's Wells TheatreThursday, 15 December 2011
Here’s a mindboggling statistic. By my calculation, some 330,000 seats are going to be offered for sale in London and Birmingham for just one ballet this Christmas - that’s live seats, not counting the three (yes, three) cinema screenings of foreign... Read more... |
DVDs for Christmas: DanceTuesday, 13 December 2011
Ballet has had a difficult relationship with filming for a long time, not only as regards permissions and copyrights from all the people involved, but also in how to frame and light for film a spectacle and action conceived and judged for the stage... Read more... |
You Can't Take It With You, Royal Exchange, ManchesterTuesday, 13 December 2011
Oh, the joys of eccentricity. Welcome to the Vanderhof family of misfits. The head of the household, Grandpa Martin, refuses to pay any taxes, preferring to keep snakes on a hatstand. Good for frightening off the tax inspector, who unexpectedly... Read more... |
Christmas Dance on Cinema, TV & RadioMonday, 12 December 2011
No more is dance the preserve of the few sitting in the theatre - larger companies are leaping hungrily for TV and now cinema screens, having found various ways around the longstanding obstacle of copyright. The BBC is experimenting with live 3D... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Director Ken Russell, 1927-2011Monday, 28 November 2011
In 2006 the thatched house in Lymington on the Hampshire coast which had been the home of Ken Russell (b 1927) for 30 years burned down. All of the director’s original film scripts, including Women in Love, The Devils and Tommy, were destroyed. So... Read more... |
Q&A Special: Ballerina Sylvie GuillemWednesday, 28 September 2011
The star ballerina Sylvie Guillem was rehearsing in London when she heard about the cataclysmic Japanese earthquake last spring, and the devastating tsunami in its aftermath. It was an apocalyptic blow that she felt personally. Since her first visit... Read more... |
Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement, Royal AcademyTuesday, 20 September 2011
A beguiling shadow play greets and enchants on arrival: the silhouettes of three ballerinas, each performing an arabesque, are cast upon the wall as you enter. The effect, as their softly delineated forms dip and slowly rotate, is mesmerising. It’s... Read more... |
