ballet
Magia de la Danza, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, London ColiseumTuesday, 06 April 2010![]() “It’ll be tricky to write about,” said the man next to me last night, a Cubaphile. “It's the good, the bad and the awful.” The Cubans’ second programme, The Magic of Dance, is an old-fashioned warhorse of showstoppers from the classics, a tapas bar... Read more... |
Swan Lake, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, London ColiseumWednesday, 31 March 2010![]() In the Cuban National Ballet’s Swan Lake fourth act, the corps of swans do a curious, aggressive attacking run you don’t see in any other production - they lower their heads and charge at Prince Siegfried, with hands fluttering angrily behind them,... Read more... |
The ballerina who tweets while she dancesMonday, 29 March 2010How does a ballerina feel during Swan Lake? Find out instantaneously from the New York ballerina who tweets while she dances. Ashley Bouder is one of the most exciting dancers of the new generation over there - and new-generation she is.According to... Read more... |
Cinderella, English National Ballet, touringThursday, 25 March 2010![]() Was it with a hollow laugh that ENB programmed Cinderella for the election period - as a reminder that glittery fairy phaetons are in fact pumpkins with money? Was it a hint that ballet needs political fairy godmothers? With airwaves full of budget... Read more... |
Gang-Rape In Ballet: Thiago Soares and The Judas TreeSaturday, 20 March 2010![]() In a constantly challenging output of ballets, the remarkable choreographer Kenneth MacMillan produced nothing more upsetting than his last, The Judas Tree. Baldly, it portrays gang-rape, double murder and suicide among a nasty bunch of men on a... Read more... |
Birmingham Royal Ballet 1990-2010, Birmingham HippodromeTuesday, 09 March 2010![]() What should a choreographer set before a Prince for a Royal Gala performance when his finest hour is a portrayal of Royal buggery with a hot poker? Well, possibly (sotto voce) clogdancing cobblers and pegleg pirates might be found more suitable, and... Read more... |
Royals at Birmingham Royal BalletTuesday, 09 March 2010![]() Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will attend Birmingham Royal Ballet’s 20th anniversary gala tomorrow night celebrating two decades in Birmingham for the company which was once Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet. The Prince of Wales is... Read more... |
Christopher Wheeldon splits with his ballet companyTuesday, 23 February 2010![]() In a shock that will deeply upset US and UK ballet, leading young British choreographer Christopher Wheeldon has abandoned his own company, Morphoses, which he set up in the US less than three years ago as a rare example of a choreographer-led... Read more... |
As One/ Rushes/ Infra, Royal BalletSaturday, 20 February 2010![]() Someone sharp as a whip thought hard about the price-fun balance of the latest Royal Ballet triple bill. An accountant, probably. Deep inside the cloisters of the Royal Opera House, they said: “Now top price stalls are £97 each for Romeo and... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Part 2Sunday, 14 February 2010![]() On Tuesday Mikhail Baryshnikov, just turned 62, will dance again, an evergreen superstar as well as philanthropist. The occasion will be the opening of the Jerome Robbins Theater, his latest project in his Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York. In... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Part 1Sunday, 31 January 2010![]() The great dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov (b. 1948) marked his 62nd birthday last Wednesday. Even more than Nureyev, Baryshnikov entered the popular mind as something more than a matchless ballet dancer. With his popstar looks and magnetic attraction for... Read more... |
Romeo and Juliet, Royal BalletWednesday, 13 January 2010![]() There are times when critics sheathe their quill tips, others when they don’t. Rupert Pennefather, the tall blond Englishman who has been earnestly promoted by the Royal Ballet as hard as they can to be the next Jonathan Cope, has attracted some... Read more... |
