Russian Ballet Icons Gala 2018 – London
★★★✰✰ This year’s Russian Ballet gala was ostensibly in honour of the 200th anniversary of Marius Petipa’s birth. Any choreography attributed to him was mostly a long way ‘after Petipa’, but it’s always fun to see excellent Russian dancers deliver pas de deux from Don Quixote, Swan Lake and Le Corsaire.
Yacobson Ballet – Don Quixote – St. Petersburg
★★★★✰ Kobborg has deconstructed the work; mixing up the narrative’s building blocks before reassembling them in a masterpiece of balance that remains recognisably traditional but is also refreshingly new.
Memorable Performances of 2017 – London
Head and shoulders above other new work this year was Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern for the Royal Ballet…
Royal Danish Ballet – Raymonda – Copenhagen
★★★✰✰ All up, I think this production demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of “Raymonda” as a ballet. It certainly is a fabulous looking (and listening) calling card which might tour well…
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance – Bayadère: The Ninth Life – London
★★✰✰✰ …an intriguing idea inflated into unwieldy modern dance-theatre.
Mariinsky Ballet – La Bayadere – London
★★★★✰ From the moment Kimin Kim enters with a flourish as Solor in Act I of La Bayadère, we know we’re in for a treat.
Mariinsky Ballet – Carmen Suite, Infra, Grand Pas from Paquita – London
★★★✰✰ When Maya Plisetskaya commissioned a Carmen-based ballet from Alberto Alonso, co-founder of the National Ballet of Cuba, she wanted to shake up Soviet ballet conventions…
Mariinsky Ballet – Don Quixote – London
★★★★✰ Tereshkina and Kim match well physically and temperamentally. She has a lovely high-flying arabesque line and a wide range of slow and fast turns, small and expansive movements.
American Ballet Theatre – Tchaikovsky Spectacular bills – New York
★★★✰✰ Ratmansky’s Souvenir d’un Lieu Cher turned out to be a mysterious little ballet, a double pas de deux that captures, …the complex history of a quartet of characters.
San Francisco Ballet and School – Student Showcase, Promotions and Company Joiners
San Francisco exists in its own world, out here on the distant West Coast. The San Francisco Ballet, though, just became more global than ever, with new 2017-18 members joining from around the world. The company school, which presented its annual Student Showcase 31 May through 2 June at YBCA Theater, draws international students as well…
American Ballet Theatre – Whipped Cream – New York
★★★★✰ Alexei Ratmansky’s new ballet for ABT, Whipped Cream, is like a Viennese confection: so layered and airy that it takes a moment to fully take in the flavor of its many ingredients.
American Ballet Theatre – Don Quixote – New York
★★★★✰ Don Q is pure entertainment, the kind of extroverted spectacle that the ballet is so very good at.
Russian Ballet Icons Gala – In the steps of the Ballets Russes – London
★★★★✰ The long gala (three and a half hours with one interval) was well organised, with no speeches and no protracted curtain calls.
Memorable Performances of 2016 – London
Lynette Halewood with her personal selection of London dance memories from the past year…
Macedonian Ballet – Cleopatra in rehearsal – Skopje
How do you review a world premiere that you have spent seven hours flying to, and then find that it has been postponed until you are back home after another eight hours of travel?
Jerome Bel – Gala – London
★★★★✰ Jérôme Bel’s Gala turns the performer/spectator dynamic and the act of performance itself, inside-out…
Interview – Gary Harris on life and setting Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia for the Royal Ballet
Gary Harris has had one of the most varied ballet careers you can get… dancer, teacher, ballet master, artistic director, designer and notator. Now he’s working with the Royal Ballet to bring back Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia – Jann Parry went for a chat.
The Washington Ballet – 40th Anniversary Celebration – Washington
★★★✰✰ “Hi! I am Julie Kent, artistic director of the Washington Ballet.” Looking ravishing in her long strapless slivery-white gown, her hair immaculately styled, the new director of the Washington Ballet introduced herself to the audience of the fully-packed Eisenhower Theater…
Carlos Acosta – The Classical Farewell – London
★★★★✰ “Thank you, Carlos,” boomed one audience member as Acosta ended his performance by changing out of his dance gear, sitting meditatively on stage…
