dance

Bosque Ardora, Rocío Molina, Barbican

Jenny Gilbert Friday, 17 October 2014

Thirty-year-old Rocío Molina has been rattling cages in the hide-bound world of flamenco. Back home in Spain, gloom-mongers are predicting she’ll bring down the art form with her brazen, off-the-leash excursions from its honoured tropes. Her shows are popular.

Lord of the Flies, Matthew Bourne's New Adventures, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye Friday, 10 October 2014

^{New Adventures, the name of Matthew Bourne's company, has a ruddy-cheeked, Boys’ Own ring to it that has – until now – been rather belied by his oeuvre, which includes a dance version of Edward Scissorhands, as well as dark retellings of all the traditional story ballets.}

Grupo Corpo, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye Thursday, 02 October 2014

Grupo Corpo means Body Group, and if that sounds like the name of a global exercise consortium, it’s because it should be.

Manon, Royal Ballet

Hanna Weibye Saturday, 27 September 2014

In a moment of wild fantasy, I thought I might try and write a whole review of Manon without mentioning sex. After all, there’s plenty of other stuff going on in Kenneth MacMillan’s tale, which last night at the Royal Opera House celebrated 40 years since its première. Inequalities of class, wealth and power are ever present, and in fact drive the story to its sticky (quite literally) conclusion in the Louisiana swamps.

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The Murmuring/ Metheus/ Mesmerics, BalletBoyz, Linbury Studio Theatre

Hanna Weibye Wednesday, 17 September 2014

The fabulous dancers known as BalletBoyz The Talent 2014 looked so at home in the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio Theatre last night that it was hard to believe they had never performed there before.

KnowBody, Sadler's Wells

Hanna Weibye Saturday, 13 September 2014

Who qualifies as an older dancer? Given that a professional dance career usually runs from about 17 to 35, anyone continuing to dance past 40 can expect comments on their age and speculation about when they'll stop – see Sylvie Guillem, Wendy Whelan, Leanne Benjamin, Carlos Acosta. People who are physically extraordinary and have interesting minds are worth watching at any age, but public performances by dancers over 50 are still very rare indeed. So hurrah for

Sampling the Myth, Royal Ballet

Hanna Weibye Monday, 08 September 2014

The Royal Opera House is on fire this month. Not literally (unless someone knocks over the flaming braziers outside) but with the varied illuminations of the Deloitte Ignite Festival, co-curated by the Royal Ballet and Minna Moore Ede of the National Gallery. The theme this year is Myth, and specifically Leda's rape by Zeus in swan form, and Prometheus's gift of fire to humanity.

Edinburgh Fringe 2014: Circa, Beyond

Hanna Weibye Thursday, 28 August 2014

Once, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was all about penniless students presenting avant-garde plays to audiences of three in church halls. These people still come, but now they compete for attention with professional production companies who, it’s to be supposed, make a decent whack of money from their three weeks in Scotland’s tourist-jammed capital.

Patrias, Paco Peña Flamenco Company, Edinburgh Playhouse

Hanna Weibye Thursday, 28 August 2014

Dance as an art form doesn’t have a great track record in social and historical commentary. The endless grey areas, not to mention the complicated details, of history really require words to do them justice. Flamenco, of course, has words, but it’s still a highly emotive art form, one you might think unlikely to produce a subtle take on the theme of homeland.

Sweet Mambo, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Edinburgh Playhouse

Hanna Weibye Sunday, 24 August 2014

The Edinburgh Playhouse is the largest UK theatre regularly used for dance. The stalls alone seat more than the total capacity of Sadler’s Wells, and the two circles combined seat even more again, for a maximum audience of 3,059.