Bruce Marriott is editor of DanceTabs
Under are the articles written for DanceTabs. Reviews on Balletco
English National Ballet – Giselle – London
★★★✰✰ Elisa Badenes and Cesar Corrales delivered a good professional show, if it was not the runaway success I had perhaps hoped for.
Scottish Ballet – Hansel and Gretel – Glasgow
★★★★✰ …a great communal effort by the whole company and one that stretches out to embrace kids in the cities it plays to – showing new generations how relevant and effortlessly entertaining ballet can be.
ZooNation – The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party – London
★★★★✰ ZooNation’s “The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” has come a long way as a thoughtful Royal Opera House alternative to the Royal Ballet’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.
Umanoove / Didy Veldman – The Happiness Project – Bracknell
★★★✰✰ Veldman sure knows how to pick all the right ingredients for a dance show – but they really need presenting in a less cryptic way than they are here. But do go to see great contemporary dancers and a great violinist strut their stuff and enjoy it for that…
5 Questions to Didy Veldman – on forming and touring her new company, Umanoove
Choreographer Didy Veldman has just formed her own company – Umanoove – and is off touring her latest work, called “The Happiness Project”. Time for a brief 5 questions interview we thought…
Michael Clark Company – to a simple, rock ‘n’ roll… song – London
★★★★✰ Whenever I see Michael Clark’s company I usually come away energised and uplifted. Nobody fuses ballet to a youthful modern world like Clark does or reminds you that it’s a tough technique that’s been around a long time.
Scottish Ballet – Emergence, Sibilo, Drawn to Drone – Glasgow
★★★★★ It’s perhaps a term too often used, but “It doesn’t get better than this” is what came immediately to mind at the end.
Birmingham Royal Ballet – The Tempest (premiere) – Birmingham
★★★✰✰ In a nutshell Bintley’s Tempest is a visual triumph but feels slight choreographically and you’d be well advised to mug up on the story before seeing it.
English National Ballet – Giselle (Khan premiere) – Manchester
★★★✰✰ As UK ballet commissions go, it’s probably the most anticipated of the season and really a career defining decision by Tamara Rojo. This is the way dance moves forward, by the art talking creative risk and if it’s not the full ten tenths yet, then it’s another solid step along the way…
5 Questions to Sophie Laplane on her latest work for Scottish Ballet – Sibilo
Scottish Ballet’s Autumn 2016 double bill features a world premiere, “Sibilo”, by company dancer and choreographer Sophie Laplane – her first main stage commission. So what does “Sibilo” mean? – read on to find out that and more…
Tao Ye – Artistic Director of TAO Dance Theater
Beijing based TAO Dance Theater are returning to London in early October with a double bill including their latest work “8”. A company with a very different perspective on dance performance we wanted to know more from their director – Tao Ye.
Rosie Kay Dance Company – Double Points: K, Motel – Birmingham
★★★★✰ Motel is a gem… An award-winning company in great creative form.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater – Programme C – London
★★★★✰ I saw Programme C at Sadler’s Wells and like practically everybody else, have to rave about the dancers.
Kamala Devam Company – Ankusha and Other Mysteries – London
★★★✰✰ All up, I much liked the dance I saw for being so fluid, boldly physical and yet also sensual and beautifully rendered. There’s a quiet strength to all of it.
Dane Hurst and Company at Dulwich Picture Gallery – Exodus – London
★★★★✰ “I’m utterly seduced by the richness of dance and dancers moving with passion and meaning so close too.”
Dane Hurst – Choreographer, dancer and artistic director talking about Exodus, his latest Dulwich Picture Gallery show
Last year Dane Hurst conjured a magical night of dance at Dulwich Picture Gallery as a response to one of their exhibitions. Well he’s back, this year responding to Winifred Knights “The Deluge” with a night of dance called Exodus. We talk to him…
St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre with Irina Kolesnikova – Her Name Was Carmen – London
★★✰✰✰ Carmen ought to be an amazing role for a ballerina, up there with Swan Lake for presenting an opportunity to show lots of different characters in one…
Scottish Ballet – Emergence, MC 14/22 (Ceci est mon corps) – Edinburgh
★★★★✰ Outside London Scottish Ballet’s sense of adventure makes them the UK company to watch…
Clemmie Sveaas – Dancer and New Movement Collective collaborator on their new ‘Collapse – a period drama’
5 questions interview with Clemmie Sveaas, the very-much-in-demand freelance dancer who is also a member of the highly respected New Movement Collective. The Collective are about to premiere their latest site-specific work and we wanted to know more…
Australian Ballet – Swan Lake – London
★★★✰✰ Australian Ballet (AB) must surely be the only significant ballet company in the world with two Swan Lakes in their active repertoire. Strangely, the one we’ve seen before in Britain we have just been seeing again…
