dance

Le Corsaire, English National Ballet, Milton Keynes Theatre

Hanna Weibye Friday, 18 October 2013

It’s been a good year for the colourful side of classical ballet in England. Anyone who thought the 19th-century greats were all about swans, sylphs and wilis, ghostly in clouds of white tulle, will have reconsidered after seeing two productions of La Bayadère (idols in India) and two of Don Quixote (castanets in Castile), both of which are not so much spectral as full spectrum.

The Sleeping Beauty, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sadler’s Wells

Judith Flanders Friday, 18 October 2013

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Sometimes, of course, it’s even better to be both. And Birmingham Royal Ballet, in their all-too-brief London season, have been both lucky and good. Lucky, because they have Peter Wright’s little jewel of a production to dance; and good because, well, they’re good in it.

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Bintley Triple Bill, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sadler’s Wells

Judith Flanders Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Is David Bintley the one that got away, the wrong turning the Royal Ballet took in the early 1990s? I have long thought so, and watching their current triple bill, the feeling only grows. Bintley trained at the Royal Ballet School, graduated into Sadler’s Wells (now Birmingham Royal Ballet), and became house choreographer for the Royal in 1985.

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Atomos, Wayne McGregor|Random Dance, Sadler's Wells Theatre

Hanna Weibye Thursday, 10 October 2013

Some choreographers get turned on by stories; others by music; yet others by the unpredictable magic of rehearsal room chemistry between dancers. Wayne McGregor, the shaven-headed, lanky, black clad superstar of British contemporary ballet, apparently needs a few research scientists, and a question philosophers have been trying to answer for three thousand years: what is a body?

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The Culture Show: Sylvie Guillem - Force of Nature, BBC Two

Ismene Brown Thursday, 10 October 2013

The ballerina Sylvie Guillem was always out on a limb, even when she was the classical star at the Royal Ballet in the '90s and early '00s. She was French, she was tall, she was unbelievably flexible, she was staggeringly charismatic, and she had no fear of setting her terms and saying “non” if they didn’t suit.

Don Quixote, Royal Ballet

Judith Flanders Tuesday, 01 October 2013

The opening night of the autumn season brings a gala first night, Carlos Acosta’s staging of Petipa’s Hispano-Russo-Austro-Hungarische castanet-fest, Don Quixote, with starry leads (Marianela Nuñez and Acosta himself), a very obviously expensive new production courtesy of West End musical designer Tim Hatley (Shrek and Spamalot), and an amped-up re-orchestrated score...

Triple Bill, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Sadler's Wells

Katie Colombus Saturday, 28 September 2013

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet are a lot like the city they hail from. Like New York, they are bold, zingy, multicultural and they move with an irrepressible energy.

Dracula, Mark Bruce Company, Tobacco Factory, Bristol

mark Kidel Saturday, 28 September 2013

The rich cocktail of sex, bestiality and possession that lies at the heart of the vampire myth is a perennial crowd-pleaser, a surefire frightener set in an all-too-familiar discomfort zone. Mark Bruce’s rich and reference-laden take on Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic presents a Transylvanian count who is both Everyman and Other.

Thinking With the Body, Wellcome Collection

Sarah Kent Thursday, 19 September 2013

While the main gallery is closed for renovation, the Wellcome Collection has taken the opportunity to mount a fascinating upstairs show exploring the way choreographer Wayne McGregor collaborates with scientists.

Flamenco: Gypsy Soul, BBC Four

Ismene Brown Monday, 26 August 2013

Here's an association test - what's next in the sequence: flamenco, gypsy, soul? Yes, you win the free tourist trip to Andalucía along with writer Elizabeth Kinder, with whom you will almost certainly enjoy weak sangria and tapas while stumbling amusingly in bad Spanish, and you won't be troubled by a single unfamiliar thought about this alluring form of dance, music and poetic song.