contemporary ballet
Draft Works, Royal Ballet, Linbury StudioWednesday, 25 January 2012
A few years ago, the word was that a new choreographer was showing interesting things. His name was Liam Scarlett, and although he was very young, some work that had been seen in a workshop was looking promising. It was not long before “promising”... Read more... |
theartsdesk Debate: Dance's Question TimeMonday, 07 November 2011
What lies ahead for dance as arts spending cuts bite? Can it survive the withdrawal of public funds that support dancers' training, choreographers' creativity, employment costs and health care? Is protest necessary? A panel of the British dance... Read more... |
Limen/Marguerite & Armand/Requiem, Royal BalletMonday, 10 October 2011
The cool physical activity of McGregor’s Limen, the crimson passions of Ashton’s Marguerite and Armand, the symbolic sculpture of MacMillan’s Requiem - the weekend's new triple bill at Covent Garden shows three faces of British ballet-making over... Read more... |
La La La Human Steps, New Work, Sadler's WellsThursday, 29 September 2011
The first half-hour of Edouard Lock’s nameless new piece is some of the most thrilling dance imaginable; dynamic, mercurial, as men and women convulsed with frenzy fight each other in stark spotlights in the dark. They’re dressed in black, so that... Read more... |
Sylvie Guillem, 6000 Miles Away, Sadler's Wells TheatreThursday, 07 July 2011
Sylvie Guillem is back, chicken-skinny, middle-aged, dressed like a dowd. Did I just write that? And let’s add: as swift as mercury, as exact as a feather, as light as the sun, and as eternal in intelligent beauty as Nefertiti. In contemporary dance... Read more... |
Scènes de Ballet/ Voluntaries/ The Rite of Spring, Royal BalletSaturday, 28 May 2011
Programming a mixed bill is a very delicate art, and what seems like an interesting mix to one person might appear to be an entirely random series of choices to another. The Royal’s new triple is the perfect example. The music – Stravinsky, Poulenc... Read more... |
Stephen Petronio Company, Barbican TheatreWednesday, 06 October 2010
Nico Muhly at the piano, Stephen Petronio in a false beard, a storm-at-sea theme derived from The Tempest - how hip is that? I Drink the Air Before Me, a new work for the Stephen Petronio Company as the opening night of this year’s Dance Umbrella (... Read more... |
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Prog 1, Sadler's WellsWednesday, 15 September 2010
Alvin Ailey dancers have been dancing about survival, grit, positivity and joy in the Lord for half a century now, and even though the parents of last night’s dancers may not have been born when Ailey did the unthinkable and launched a black dance... Read more... |
Q&A Special: Choreographer Slava SamodurovSaturday, 17 July 2010
Choreography is a mystery art. How it happens - or indeed what happens - is as elusive to define as pinning down a brainstorm. There is no solid stuff, no rules, no pre-formed maxims, everything moves; the choreographer goes into a studio, finds... Read more... |
Michael Clark Company, Come, Been and Gone, BarbicanTuesday, 08 June 2010
A second coming for Michael Clark's recent Barbican commission Come, Been, Gone. Eight months after the London premiere (on which I opined unenthusiastically below last October), he has added another 20 minutes of choreography, they said, with new... Read more... |
Chroma/ Tryst/ Symphony in C, Royal BalletMonday, 31 May 2010
A Balanchine on a mixed bill is a reminder of what a choreographer should desire to offer his audience: a specific new experience of art each time, not a repeated thumbprint in every ballet. Balanchine grew up in a borderless theatre country... 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... |
