dance

Modern Masters, English National Ballet, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye Thursday, 12 March 2015

Reviews of English National Ballet in which I rave about what Tamara Rojo is doing for the company are getting to be the norm round here.

Say Yes To Another Excess - TWERK, Sadler's Wells

Heidi Goldsmith Saturday, 07 March 2015

"The music will be loud," the slender usher warns on entry to altered natives' "Say Yes To Another Excess" – TWERK, as a Grime bassline shakes the flimsy theatre floor. She hands over a text-heavy programme and does not frisk me. This is no London Bridge warehouse, although bouncers giving out freesheets on the door could be a great way to get the middle classes down to a rave. For now regular Rinse FM DJs Skilliam and Elijah are coming to the ballet.

Nómada, Compañía Manuel Liñán, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye Monday, 02 March 2015

"Sprung from pure flamenco, Manuel Liñán exudes purity from himself and his dance - he is life, freshness and passion." Leaving aside the need for a better copywriter, or at least translator, what does this, the opening line of the flamenco performer's biography in the programme for the Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival, tell us about him? That he's not afraid of making big claims, certainly. That he may have a teeny bit of a god complex ("sprung from"?

Eva Yerbabuena/Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye Tuesday, 24 February 2015

The Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival is cunningly scheduled for that particularly dreary fortnight in late February when winter has been going on forever, spring is still just out of reach, and half term brings the dismal realisation that we're only just halfway through the school year and summer holidays are still at least five months away.

Swan Lake, Royal Ballet

David Nice Wednesday, 11 February 2015

Is there an art-form more tied to bad as well as good tradition than classical ballet? Yolanda Sonnabend’s unatmospherically if expensively kitsch designs for this Swan Lake wouldn’t have lasted more than a season or two in the worlds of theatre and opera, yet here they still are in Anthony Dowell’s soon-to-be-retired homage to Petipa and Ivanov, first seen in 1987 and due to take Swan Lake at Covent Garden past the 1000^th performance in the present run.

Comment

The Associates, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye Sunday, 08 February 2015

The Associates is not the title of a new Scandi crime drama, though in dance world terms we’re perhaps approaching that level of Event. Associates are what Sadler’s Wells, London’s dance powerhouse, calls the selected band of dancemakers it deems serioulsy interesting, and worth co-commissioning.

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One Flute Note/Body Not Fit for Purpose, Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye Tuesday, 03 February 2015

One of the dance world's better-kept secrets is the existence of a brilliantly inventive comic double-act consisting of two paunchy, balding 50-something men.

Onegin, Royal Ballet

Hanna Weibye Thursday, 29 January 2015

The habit among ballet critics of being simultaneously down on John Cranko's 1965 Onegin and up on Kenneth MacMillan's 1974 Manon is a curious one.

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Richard Alston Dance Company 20th Anniversary Performances, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye Tuesday, 27 January 2015

Testament to the work of Richard Alston Dance Company (RADC) over the 20 years since its foundation was not just the première-filled celebratory programme performed at Sadler's Wells last night, but the enthusiastic audience there to see it.

Young Men, BalletBoyz, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye Thursday, 15 January 2015

Having gathered an excellent cadre of dancers and forged them over years into a fine company (The Talent), the BalletBoyz Michael Nunn and William Trevitt – two of the most astute artists in dance – must have known they needed to go further, to tackle something bigger than the 20-minute abstract pieces that are the staple of contemporary mixed bills.