contemporary dance
Tribe//Still I Rise, Brighton Festival 2019 review - an evening of poetic movementWednesday, 22 May 2019
Maya Angelou’s iconic poem Still I Rise is a good starting point for many things in life. But it’s a particularly good beginning for a piece of contemporary dance choreography, and Victoria Fox has done a great job of bringing the poet’s words to... Read more... |
Gravity & Other Myths: Backbone, Brighton Festival 2019 review - eyeboggling and very human circus showSunday, 19 May 2019
Shows by Gravity & Other Myths fall into the realm of “contemporary circus”. It’s an off-putting moniker, bringing to mind a performance where there’s no clowning but quite possibly much “thought-provoking” interpretive dance. The decade-old... Read more... |
British Paraorchestra: The Nature of Why, Brighton Festival 2019 review - it's a happening!Tuesday, 07 May 2019
The Nature of Why is not so much a concert as a multi-discipline happening. To assess it is to relate a human experience rather than just an aesthetic appreciation of the new orchestral work by Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory which is at its heart. On the... Read more... |
10 Questions for Brighton Festival CEO Andrew CombenThursday, 28 March 2019
The Brighton Festival begins in May. Since 2014 theartsdesk has had a media partnership with this lively, multi-faceted event which takes place over three weeks. This year the Guest Director is the Malian musician Rokia Traoré, who inhabits a... Read more... |
Bon Voyage, Bob, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Sadler's Wells review - interminable ennuiTuesday, 26 February 2019
It's a decade since Pina Bausch sadly died, and during that time her company has kept her memory alive by revisiting her amazingly rich legacy. Inevitably, though, the time would come for them to embark on a new phase; but how? The unique mix of... Read more... |
Brighton Festival 2019 launches with Guest Director Rokia TraoréWednesday, 13 February 2019
The striking cover for the Brighton Festival 2019 programme shouts out loud who this year’s Guest Director is. Silhouetted in flowers, in stunning artwork by Simon Prades, is the unmistakeable profile of Malian musician Rokia Traoré. Taking place... Read more... |
theartsdesk at bOing! International Family Festival - the best of European children's theatreTuesday, 28 August 2018
Theatre for children can often be dismissed – a box to tick for parents who want to keep up with cultural practices; a job for actors who haven't quite made it in the mainstream; theatre that mums and dads want to see that works for their little... Read more... |
Hofesh Shechter Company: Grand Finale, Brighton Festival review - politics, percussion and powerful choreographyTuesday, 08 May 2018
There is a sense of loyalty from the Brighton audience awaiting Hofesh Shechter’s new work. They have seen his company here in 2009, for the Brighton Festival commission of The Art of Not Looking Back, and the infamous Political Mother premiered... Read more... |
Tacita Dean: Portrait, National Portrait Gallery / Still Life, National Gallery review - film as a fine artFriday, 16 March 2018
Sometimes you come across an artwork that changes the way you see the world. Tacita Dean’s film portrait of the American choreographer Merce Cunningham (main picture) is one such encounter. Occupying a whole room at the National Portrait... Read more... |
Macbeth, Wilton's Music Hall review - incisive and thrilling dance theatreThursday, 01 March 2018
There’s more than a touch of vaunting ambition in the idea of turning the Scottish Play into dance theatre. Without spoken text, named scenes or even a printed synopsis, it falls to choreography and direction to speak for them all. Thus the most... Read more... |
Best of 2017: DanceSaturday, 30 December 2017
With forelock-tugging celebrations of a choreographer who died 25 years ago and a summer visit by the Mariinsky the highest-profile events in the calendar, 2017 may not be remembered as a vintage year for British dance. But there were striking... Read more... |
Cinderella, Sadler's Wells review - Matthew Bourne puts Cinderella through the BlitzThursday, 21 December 2017
Even if Matthew Bourne were never to choreograph another step, he could fill theatres in perpetuity by rotating old stock. Cinderella, made in 1997, was the follow-up to his break-out hit Swan Lake but, never quite happy with it, he reworked it in... Read more... |
