★★★✰✰ Both are bold, engaging commissions – always welcome from a regional UK dance troupe.
Author - Sara Veale
★★✰✰✰ The show – an art installation and dance performance at once – makes heavy use of digital technology, with a range of lighting and visual illusions designed by Johnston, plus a thudding soundtrack from Canadian composer Tim Hecker.
★★★✰✰ M¡longa has a lot of spirit to offer when it lets the dance take the lead.
★★★★✰ The magic in this production isn’t simply its bewitching ambience but also its harnessing of centuries-old themes in a way that resonates today.
★★★★✰ The Little Match Girl is small-scale, but it’s pretty spectacular all the same – a sweet and witty alternative to the typical Christmas family fare.
★★✰✰✰ American Man, sets racism and sexism in its sights – “somewhat contradictory” subjects for Patel, he noted in his follow-up talk...
★★★✰✰ This hour-long work ...poses in its opening lines the following question: “Why is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the world changing for the better?”
★★★★✰ It’d be a misnomer to call the evening a dance show – I was hoping Wang Ramirez would have more stage time than they did ...but it was a cohesive production in any case, with some bracing, if fleeting, choreography on offer.
★★★★✰ ...the event is less about showing off the talents of dancers and their teachers than celebrating their hard work and dedication.
Interview - Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang are about to collaborate with composer, and Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist, Nitin Sawhney at the Royal Albert Hall. We wanted to know more about the dynamic and well connected pair...
★★★★✰ ...an excellent reminder of how enduring Orwell’s work is, and how powerful a channel ballet can be for complex human emotions like distrust and defeat.
★★★★✰ Hofesh Shechter created Political Mother in 2010 as a rebuke to totalitarianism and oppressive propaganda.
★★★★✰ Winks, finger wags, flamboyant leaps in a criminally short leather skirt – Carlos Acosta gives the people what they want in this winsome bill, a mix of variations he’s assembled to mark his retirement after more than 25 years on stage.
★★★✰✰ Alongside her work as a dancer and choreographer, Eliceche is a political activist and a student of critical theory, both of which influence her approach to dance.
★★★★✰ On show were three contemporary pieces: a rep work by rehearsal director Lee Johnson, a selection of Alexander Ekman’s Tuplet (originally choreographed for Cedar Lake Dance Company), and the premiere of new artistic director Caroline Finn’s first piece for NDCWales.
★★★★✰ I’ve long admired Ballet Black’s efforts to make ballet a more accessible art form to both dancers and audiences who’ve historically been excluded from it.
★★★✰✰ If the thought of getting out of your chair during a performance alarms you, Pepa Ubera’s The Palest Light is not the show for you.
★★★✰✰ The action is arranged around a meta-narrative: the emotional breakdown of the trilogy’s fictitious stage director (Marc Stevenson) as he tries to write its first piece while dealing with the aftermath of his wife’s murder.
★★★★✰ 2016 marks the tenth annual “Sadler’s Wells Sampled,” a January taster of the London dance house’s upcoming season.
Richard Alston Dance Company Espresso Vivace, Mazur, Burning, Brisk Singing London, Richmond Theatre 19 November 2015 www.richardalstondance.com Petite though it is, Richmond Theatre doesn’t proffer much of a sense of intimacy: its ornate décor and opera house stage design give it a grand feel, whereas The Place – Richard Alston Dance Company’s home turf – is a far simpler, tighter space, with...