At least there are some memorable performances to recall from 2021: at the beginning of the year none of us had any idea when we might sit in a theatre and watch live dance again...
Tag - Ballet Black
★★★★✰ Ballet Black’s 20-year-long diversity mission still feels urgent, and its latest double bill is an impressive reminder of the sort of talent and vision that could otherwise go overlooked.
Jann Parry with some thoughts on the Darcey Bussell gala to raise funds for British Ballet and featuring Ballet Black, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, New Adventures, Northern Ballet, Rambert2, Scottish Ballet and The Royal Ballet.
We talk to Darcey Bussell about her upcoming British Ballet Charity Gala which takes place on the 3 June at the Royal Albert Hall and features an amazing array of dance talent from Ballet Black, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, New Adventures, Northern Ballet, Rambert, Scottish Ballet and The Royal Ballet...
★★★★✰ Despite Covid-19 English National Ballet still ran their unique Emerging Dancer Competition and streamed the night in full to fans. The 2020 winner is Ivana Bueno - "Very evidently a talent to watch", says Jann Parry.
Lynette Halewood with some reflections on London dance performances over the last year - the good and the less good...
Birmingham Royal Ballet ★★★✰✰ & Ballet Black ★★★★★ The Suit rewards multiple viewings and it thoroughly merited the opportunity of the bigger platform...
★★★★★ Scottish Ballet has a major critical hit on their hands - this is compelling 21st century watching. It was the premiere you want to see, but so very often don't, with everybody, but everybody, at the top of their game...
★★★★✰ Merging these two works onto the same bill created a powerful double-header of impressive and arresting dance theatre.
★★★★✰ It's the company's 50th Anniversary season and rather than start it, as you might expect, in Glasgow or Edinburgh, they opened in Scotland's most northerly city, Inverness, with a special premiere and a full-on party for all.
Sophie Laplane, former company dancer, is now a Scottish Ballet Artist in Residence and her first main stage commission opens the companies 2019 season in Inverness on the 28 March, before touring to Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. We catch up with her about the new work and what else she is up to...
★★★✰✰ It's the spring and Ballet Black has just premiered its latest triple bill. It included new works by Sophie Laplane and Mthuthuzeli November, the former engagingly light and the latter movingly heartfelt...
★★★✰✰ Where the ballet takes off is when there are only two or three major characters on stage and then Marston clearly shows intentions and emotions and the dancing becomes rich and telling, clever and gorgeous.
Marston has been working at Northern Ballet creating Victoria for the company (premiere this month) and we wanted to find out more, also catch up on other commissions and discuss just how she works creatively and manages to juggle it all so effortlessly…
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
Semperoper Ballett Dresden were another new visitor in the summer, with a programme of Forsythe works, some not seen here before. But Forsythe is a theme this year in himself.
The Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle is pleased to announce the nominations for the 19th National Dance Awards…
★★★✰✰ Bouder's pick-up ensemble of eight, which she refers to as an arts collaborative, reflects her ideals. It is racially diverse; the choreographers include both men and women. Not all the choreographers are white. This should be par for the course, but it’s not.
For the first time, English National Ballet's competition for its junior members was held in the capacious London Coliseum, where the company has been performing The Sleeping Beauty...
★★★★✰ All credit to Viviana Durante (supported by Royal Ballet, Ballet Black and Scottish Ballet dancers) for contributing to the 25th anniversary of Kenneth MacMillan's death with recreations of his early work.