Dance
Summary of main Arts Council winners and losersWednesday, 30 March 2011A sliderule of 11-15 per cent reductions in annual grants by 2015, compared with this year, has been applied to Britain's major orchestras, opera, dance, theatre and music organisations. One major gainer is London's Barbican Centre - one major loser... Read more... |
Dance landscape shrinks and shifts nationwide in Arts Council cutsWednesday, 30 March 2011The Arts Council’s rearrangement of the dance world by its handling of its 15 per cent subsidy cut shows no change in its persistence in choosing to prefer bureaucratic structures to talent. The 15 per cent cut has been handed straight over to all... Read more... |
Cinderella, Birmingham Royal Ballet, London ColiseumTuesday, 29 March 2011
Birmingham is the fount of beauty and magic when it comes to ballet design. Covent Garden - forget it, too much money, too little taste. What illustrates that truism is the comparison that can be made between the Royal Ballet’s cartoony Cinderella... Read more... |
Balletboyz, The Talent, Sadler’s WellsTuesday, 29 March 2011
Well, if you’re going to headline yourself in the title of your show "the talent", you’d better have some: audiences aren’t forgiving. William Trevitt and Michael Nunn, ex-Royal Ballet dancers headlining their own company for the last decade, have... Read more... |
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, TouringFriday, 25 March 2011
Les Grands Ballets Classiques de Stoke Poges are a company waiting to happen for most of us, but for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo a bitter rivalry must be endured - one of their ballerinas didn’t show up last night in High Wycombe, due... Read more... |
Birmingham Royal Ballet, 2011-12 SeasonThursday, 24 March 2011
Family-favourite storyballets dominate Birmingham Royal Ballet's 2011-12 season, as the company looks forward to a stringent year. Beauty and Beast, Hobson's Choice and Far From the Madding Crowd, three of director David Bintley's full-lengthers,... Read more... |
Swan Lake, English National Ballet, ColiseumWednesday, 23 March 2011
As everyone who has been watching Agony & Ecstasy: A Year with the English National Ballet on BBC Four now knows, Vadim Muntagirov, last night’s Prince Siegfried, and Daria Klimentová, his Odette/Odile, are the ultimate in ballet melodrama:... Read more... |
The Most Incredible Thing, Sadler's WellsWednesday, 23 March 2011
There was not likely to be much ballet here, despite the Pet Shop Boys’ proud use of the word to distinguish their substantial three-act score. This delivers a richly James Bond-ish ride through big pop tunes, opulent filmic moments and some nice... Read more... |
Q&A Special: Choreographer Javier de FrutosMonday, 21 March 2011
Born in Venezuela 48 years ago, de Frutos has never been the fairytale type, at least not overtly. His 20-year career of choreography has been a career of unstoppable fecundity, violent flamboyance, extreme, even grotesque exhibition, outrageous... Read more... |
Today ballerinas dance for Japanese tsunamiSunday, 20 March 2011The Royal Ballet’s sizeable Japanese contingent of dancers, headed by former principal ballerina Miyako Yoshida, are staging a concert performance of ballet at 4pm today in aid of the Japanese Tsunami Appeal. All tickets are £20, to pay in cash on... Read more... |
Ballet's Bad Girl Has a New SoundSaturday, 19 March 2011
Kenneth MacMillan’s dramatic ballet Manon was premiered in 1974 to a chorus of attacks on its tale of a “nasty little diamond-digger”, as one critic had it. Since then the slut who can’t help herself has risen to become one of the most coveted roles... Read more... |
Rhapsody/ Sensorium/ 'Still Life' at the Penguin Café, Royal BalletThursday, 17 March 2011
For those in the know, Sergei Polunin has been marked out as “the one to watch” from his schooldays. Since he won the Prix de Lausanne in 2006 and joined the Royal Ballet the following year, he has been “the next big thing”. Well, I’m here to tell... Read more... |
