dance

Bamboo Blues, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Barbican Theatre

Sarah Kent Saturday, 23 June 2012

Premiered in 2007, Bamboo Blues was generated by a visit to Kolkata; and with the simplest of means, designer Peter Pabst conjures the vast landscapes of India.

Der Fensterputzer, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Sadler’s Wells

Judith Flanders Tuesday, 19 June 2012

It may be that designer Peter Pabst is the unsung hero of Tanztheater Wuppertal’s “World Cities” extravaganza. When the lights go down at Sadler’s Wells for Der Fensterputzer (The Window-washer), the stage is dominated by a vast mountain of glowing red flowers, over four metres high, nine metres across, looming out of a modernistic black-box stage. It is a moment of pure, surging drama.

Ten Chi, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Barbican Theatre

Ismene Brown Monday, 18 June 2012

The Japanese dance public is overwhelmingly female, so it’s not surprising that Pina Bausch’s paean to Saitama, Ten Chi, is so girly.

South Bank Show: The Male Dancer, Sky Arts 1

Ismene Brown Monday, 18 June 2012

Male dancers are a puzzle to British audiences, where they are an uncomplicated, taken-for-granted treasure in Latin or Slav countries. I point this out gratuitously, as it's a point that wasn't touched upon by Melvyn Bragg's film about three iconic men of ballet, Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Carlos Acosta.

...Como El Musguito..., Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Sadler's Wells

Sarah Kent Wednesday, 13 June 2012

If you are tired of life, tired of London, or even tired of love, muster the remaining fibres of your frazzled being and do whatever it takes to get tickets for ...como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si... or any of the other performances in the Pina Bausch "World Cities" retrospective on at Sadler’s Wells and the Barbican over the next four weeks.

Nur Du, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Barbican Theatre

Ismene Brown Monday, 11 June 2012

Many people will be having their first taste of the late Pina Bausch’s dance-theatre in this copious London retrospective of 10 of her “World City” productions; others will have bought into several of the series, possibly by now wondering how many hours they can take of her barbed view of men and women. For all of us, reading programme notes is beside the point; the background you need is what’s inside you, your memories, your songs, your susceptibilities.

Viktor, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Sadler's Wells

Ismene Brown Thursday, 07 June 2012

It stymies any tourist to sum up for others what they saw abroad. Still more challenging, to create (or recreate) for theatre as a choreographer something more than superficial, more than clichéd about Italy, Japan, Los Angeles, Istanbul, these most clichéd of cultures.

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The Prince of the Pagodas, The Royal Ballet

Ismene Brown Sunday, 03 June 2012

As Mrs Thatcher used to say, don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions. Solutions have been flung with a will at the problem ballet of Kenneth MacMillan’s last years, his orientalist fairytale The Prince of the Pagodas - the Royal Ballet’s retiring director Monica Mason revived it last night as one of her last presentations, determined that a new generation should have the chance to love it.

Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures, Richmond Theatre

Ismene Brown Saturday, 02 June 2012

Matthew Bourne’s charm is a rare and cheering thing in the world of dance - a night out with three of his earliest works, Spitfire, Town & Country and The Infernal Galop, is akin to sitting down to watch Father Ted or Dad’s Army. It’s clever, often witty, always gay, and kind.

Ballo della Regina/ La Sylphide, Royal Ballet

Judith Flanders Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Ballo della Regina is a strange piece, for many reasons. A piece of minor Balanchine, it was created late in life for a dancer he clearly admired but who was not core to his vision. Strangest of all, he used music by Verdi, a composer whose music he had only choreographed to in his very early days as a journeyman opera-house ballet-master, when he did not get to choose.