Dance
KnowBody, Sadler's WellsSaturday, 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... Read more... |
Sampling the Myth, Royal BalletMonday, 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... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2014: Circa, BeyondThursday, 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... Read more... |
Patrias, Paco Peña Flamenco Company, Edinburgh PlayhouseThursday, 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... Read more... |
Sweet Mambo, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Edinburgh PlayhouseSunday, 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. To see it filled... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2014: MurleyDanceThursday, 21 August 2014
MurleyDance is something of an oddity in the world of small independent dance companies, in that it proudly wears pointe shoes. Yes, this is – according to its own publicity - the only professional classical ballet company attending the Fringe, and... Read more... |
Gnosis, Akram Khan, King's Theatre, EdinburghWednesday, 20 August 2014
In keeping with the trends of recent years, the Edinburgh International Festival is showcasing a small but eclectic dance programme, light on classical ballet and heavy on contemporary, international and fusion. After choreographer Mark Baldwin’s... Read more... |
Cinderella, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera HouseMonday, 18 August 2014
It sure feels like longer than three weeks since the Mariinsky rolled into town – at least if you’re one of London’s ballet fans. Non-balletomanes might be wondering whether the feverish intensity with which the company’s doings are followed, its... Read more... |
Firebird/ Marguerite and Armand/ Concerto DSCH, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera HouseTuesday, 12 August 2014
This was the most eagerly anticipated programme of the Mariinsky visit - something old, something borrowed and something new. The old, that colourful fairytale of Stravinsky’s lush, melodious youth, The Firebird; the new, a recent acquisition by the... Read more... |
Apollo/ A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera HouseMonday, 11 August 2014
The ballerina claque wars that generally accompany visits here by the Mariinsky Ballet are raging particularly feverishly this year, but it all falls silent when Uliana Lopatkina makes one of her increasingly rare appearances. So much noise is... Read more... |
Solo for Two, Osipova/Vasiliev, London ColiseumThursday, 07 August 2014
Mounting a contemporary dance show together doesn’t seem like the best way to get over your ex, even if you are (or rather, were) ballet’s most fabulously marketable couple. But whatever their real-life relationship, audiences will always be keen –... Read more... |
Swan Lake, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera HouseSunday, 03 August 2014
For a dance company, the always delicate balance between preserving your heritage and creating an exciting future becomes especially hard to negotiate when you are the most venerable institution in your field. The Mariinsky Ballet, now on tour in... Read more... |
