A long-established dance writer, Jann Parry was dance critic for The Observer from 1983 to 2004 and wrote the award-winning biography of choreographer Kenneth MacMillan: 'Different Drummer', Faber and Faber, 2009. She has written for publications including The Spectator, The Listener, About the House (Royal Opera House magazine), Dance Now, Dance Magazine (USA), Stage Bill (USA) and Dancing Times. As a writer/producer she worked for the BBC World Service from 1970 to 1989, covering current affairs and the arts. As well as producing radio programmes she has contributed to television and radio documentaries about dance and dancers. She is married to Richard Kershaw and lives in London.
Under are the articles written for DanceTabs. Reviews on Balletco
Royal Ballet – Mayerling – London
Watson’s Rudolf is at the end of his tether: sex is a drug, suicide his only release. …This formidable cast will be seen in a live cinema screening from the Royal Opera House on 13 June.
English National Ballet – Ecstasy and Death bill – London
Rojo has declared that her ambition as artistic director of ENB is to make audiences hold their breath. I certainly did during Le Jeune Homme et la Mort…
National Ballet of Canada – Romeo and Juliet – London
The result is oddly old-fashioned – even more so than John Cranko’s version, which the Canadians had performed since 1964.
Peter Schaufuss Ballet – Midnight Express – London
Well, the set is spectacular, by the ever-resourceful Steven Scott. Perhaps Igor Zelensky and Sergei Polunin had simply seen stills of Peter Schaufuss’s Midnight Express when they agreed to appear in the ballet.
Nadia Nerina and Isabel Rawsthorne exhibitions at the Royal Opera House
Rawsthorne was painted by André Derain and Pablo Picasso, and later by Francis Bacon. She was the inspiration for Alberto Giacometti’s etiolated sculptures of walking figures…
Mikhailovsky Ballet – Laurencia with Osipova and Vasiliev – London
When the Mikhailovsky Ballet first brought this production to London in 2010, Laurencia seemed a creakily old-fashioned Soviet drambalet. Now, with Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev as the leads, it sparkles with fun, melodrama and commitment…
Mikhailovsky Ballet – Giselle with Osipova and Vasiliev – London
Osipova is tireless, impelled by a supernatural force until she fades away in a spine-tingling ending, a spirit no longer. Osipova’s Giselle has given every last atom of herself to Albrecht and to us, her witnesses.
Russian Ballet Icons – Nijinsky Gala – London
Though this year it was Nijinsky’s turn to be reclaimed as a Russian icon, the contents of the gala had little to do with him. Very probably the choice of items – mainly pas de deux – depended on which dancers were available to perform whatever was in their repertoire.
Royal Ballet – Apollo, 24 Preludes, Aeternum – London
This triple bill, with two world premieres, shows how ably choreographers 85 years apart can refresh the language of classical ballet without distorting it beyond recognition.
What do Lighting and Set Designers do?
Jann Parry reports on a recent workshop seminar where 4 lighting and set designers talked about what they do…
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch – Two Cigarettes in the Dark – London
Working backwards from the title song that ends Two Cigarettes in the Dark, it’s possible to discern a theme in Pina Bausch’s 1985 piece…
Hubert Essakow – Flow – London
Essakow has continued to evolve as a choreographer, thanks to his association with The Print Room. Its high standards of presentation attract first-rate collaborators and performers, and by including spoken and projected words, Flow attracts non-dance-specialist audiences.
Richard Alston Dance Company – Buzzing Round the Hunisuccle premiere and bill – London
Alston’s response to music is scrupulous, but Kondo’s percussive clatters, not dissimilar to John Cage’s prepared-piano poundings, takes some getting used to – for audiences, as for dancers.
Companhia de Danca Deborah Colker – Tatyana – London
By abstracting and generalising the emotions in Pushkin’s verse-novel, Colker has rendered her account of the story completely incoherent.
BalletBoyz: The Talent 2013 – Serpent, Fallen – London
Fallen, an exhilarating closer of the double bill, presents the company at its heart-stopping best.
The Royal Ballet – Onegin – London
Cojocaru is as great a dance-actress in the final scene as any I’ve been privileged to see – and that includes Lynn Seymour, Natalia Makarova and Ekaterina Maximova.
The Royal Ballet – Nutcracker live screening in cinemas – Everywhere
There were revelations on-screen, too. …How many first-time spectators spot that the Biedermeyer-period Christmas cake in the Act 1 party provides the marzipan-and-icing set for Act II?
Matthew Bourne / New Adventures – Sleeping Beauty – London
He knows he can’t surpass Petipa (or Ivanov for ‘Swan Lake’) – but he can tweak their scenarios into something uniquely his own. And he’s magnificently served by a cast of just 17, capable of switching roles at the twitch of a fairy’s wing.
Remembering Peter Darrell – Scotland’s Dance Pioneer (1929-1987)
As Clement Crisp wrote after Darrell’s death: ‘His ballets are true and fascinating mirrors of their age’. Timing a revival is always tricky. Would we want to see his Beatles ballet, Mods and Rockers (1963), again?
