
Australian Ballet – Murphy (Graeme Murphy tribute bill of 6 works) – Sydney
★★★✰✰ Within this potpourri of Graeme Murphy’s works, the highlight was “Grand”, a charming and poignant tribute he created in 2005 for his mother, a pianist, who died the previous year.

Ballet de Lorraine – Relache – St. Petersburg
★★★★★ Ballet de Lorraine have reconstructed Relâche, a fascinating work first performed by the Ballets Suédois in 1924-25. It had caused almost as great a scandal as the 1913 premiere of The Rite of Spring in the same Théâtre des Champs-Elysées…

Feature – Frederick Ashton’s choreography for Le Rossignol – a masterclass with Sir Anthony Dowell
The Metropolitan Opera in New York staged “Le Rossignol” in December 1981 as part of a programme commemorating the hundredth anniversary of Stravinsky’s birth… the producer was John Dexter. He told Ashton, back in London, that he could choreograph two dancers as the Nightingale and the Fisherman on stage, while the roles would be sung by opera singers in the orchestra pit…

Svetlana Zakharova – Amore: Francesca da Rimini, Rain before it Falls, Strokes Through the Tail – London
★★★✰✰ Happy for Zakharova who ultimately curated an interesting night, very happy to see her retinue of Bolshoi dancers and happy to see Donlon provide such final good cheer.

New Adventures – Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes – New York
★★★★✰ It’s always exciting to discover a new side of an artist. For this, and for an immensely entertaining show, we have to thank Matthew Bourne.

Patrick de Bana, Choreographer, on creativity and working with Svetlana Zakharova
“It’s like a game of tennis – I hit the ball and she returns it.”. Margaret Willis catches up with choreographer Patrick de Bana to talk about his choroegraphic life and latest project – contributing to Svetlana Zakharova’s show Amore – which tours to the UK in November.

New York City Ballet – Fall Gala: new work by Schumacher, Reisen, Lovette, Peck – New York
★★★✰✰ At New York City Ballet, the fall fashion gala has become a showcase for work by young choreographers. Each one is paired up with a fashion designer and voilà, it’s an event.

San Francisco Ballet – Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Prodigal Son, Diamonds – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ The soloists and principals of San Francisco Ballet brought unique interpretations to George Balanchine classics for the company’s fourth program of the season, a varied survey of Balanchine’s oeuvre.

Japan Society – 17th Contemporary Dance Showcase: Japan + East Asia – New York
★★★✰✰ Hosted by the Japan Society on the east side of midtown Manhattan, this year’s showcase concentrated on the theme of two: the dynamics of duos. Featuring works from Japan, Korea and Taiwan…

New Adventures – Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes – London
★★★✰✰ If you remember the 1948 film, the plot is easy to follow. If you don’t, and can’t pick up the references to ballets, a printed scenario would be helpful, as would job-descriptions of the characters…

Suzanne Farrell Ballet – Danses Concertantes, Gounod Symphony, Stars and Stripes – Washington
★★★★✰ Watching this immensely entertaining program one realizes that even a minor Balanchine ballet is still a great ballet.

Australian Ballet – Nijinsky – Melbourne
★★★✰✰ Even after his death, Vaslav Nijinsky suffered from the power and control of others…

Gauthier Dance – NIJINSKI – Stuttgart
★★★✰✰ NIJINSKI neatly lassos this altogether using Goecke’s avant garde movement style …to give the Stuttgart audience an abstract impression of Nijinsky’s life and contribution to Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.

American Ballet Theatre – The Golden Cockerel – New York
★★★★✰ American Ballet Theatre’s spring season has turned into a kind of voyage into the mind of Alexei Ratmansky, its choreographer-in-residence since 2009.