Gillian Lynne has made Helpmann and Benthall's wartime collaboration into a gutsy dramatic ballet, probably with more choreography than Helpmann attempted.
Tag - Benjamin Britten
It may be his name only on the posters, but Richard Alston firmly shares the limelight with Martin Lawrance in this quadruple bill, which sees the premiere of Lawrance’s new work, Burning, placed alongside three of Alston’s own pieces.
Both as a tribute to Ashton and as a coming-out party, it’s hard to imagine how the festival could have gone better. The ballets are in good hands.
In his programme note, Bintley claims to have foregone sexual romance in favour of ‘something more mystical and subtle’, connected with Japanese veneration of its Imperial family. It doesn’t resonate in this royal kingdom.
One of Bintley’s other notable commitments as Director is the rapid development of young dancers. For a graduating dance student, hungry for big roles, BRB is the company to aim for....
Bintley has created a solidly entertaining family work that never bores but never soars to another emotional level, either...
Lynette Halewood with her personal selection of London dance memories this last year...
Phoenix Dance Theatre are part way through their Autumn "Particle Velocity" tour - Paul Arrowsmith caught up with them in London at their Royal Opera House Linbury performances...
Richard Alston's devotion to Britten's music goes back 50 years, and for his programme at the Barbican Theatre he's made two new works to be shown alongside two from an earlier stage in his career.
ABT's run of Les Sylphides this season are different - after research, the company, under their musical director Ormsby Wilkins, have rediscovered a 1941 orchestration by Benjamin Britten. Marina Harss reveals all in conversation with Wilkins...
It’s good to see the company perform Sylphides again after a hiatus of eight years. The style hasn’t eroded. ...The dancers believe in it.
The performance was sold out and very warmly applauded and I hope the Festival authorities will take notice, and schedule a similar programme in future years.
2013 is the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth and Kim Brandstrup is part of the celebrations with important works at the Aldeburgh Festival (with the Royal Ballet) and in London (for ENO). Jane Simpson catches up with him...
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.
...it’s remarkable how satisfying the old-fashioned virtues of structure and form can be.
Waltz is about big ideas in 'Continu' but if you don't pick up on them there is not a lot of choreography to keep you going.
Sometimes the second time is the charm. This seems to be especially true when it comes to new ballets by Alexei Ratmansky. Often, they’re not easy to take in on first viewing, indigestible as an over-rich meal. But then, something in us changes, our eye evolves.
Barry Wordsworth conducted the trimmed and re-ordered score as though it were great ballet music. If only.
Taking notes at a performance by Richard Alston's dancers is - for me, at least - a pointless occupation. Descriptive words and points of reference fly past in an unending stream, like Canada Geese migrating for the winter: start writing and you are never likely to stop!