Northern Ballet – The Great Gatsby – London
The ballet succeeds most in its incidental scenes – though everything is presented fortissimo. Most clever is the way in which Nixon depicts Myrtle and George Wilson …The performances of Benjamin Mitchell and Victoria Sibson were the strongest of the evening.
Christopher Wheeldon – Choreographer
Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is currently at the San Francisco Ballet preparing for the American premiere of his Cinderella. He has a rehearsal in forty-five minutes so we quickly set off to discuss his latest full-length ballet and many other things…
Nadia Nerina and Isabel Rawsthorne exhibitions at the Royal Opera House
Rawsthorne was painted by André Derain and Pablo Picasso, and later by Francis Bacon. She was the inspiration for Alberto Giacometti’s etiolated sculptures of walking figures…
Ballet Central – 2013 Tour with Bhuller, Marney, Gable and others – London
While I wasn’t wowed by the closer, as I left I couldn’t stop talking about the Bhuller and Gable and wishing to see major companies put them both on in full. That and the usual thought: Another year, another fine night from Ballet Central – well done all.
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch – Two Cigarettes in the Dark – London
Working backwards from the title song that ends Two Cigarettes in the Dark, it’s possible to discern a theme in Pina Bausch’s 1985 piece…
Royal Ballet – Ashton Bill including Marguerite & Armand with Rojo and Polunin – London
But it was Rojo who really surprised me, with the most emotionally open performance I’ve ever seen from her. …a swansong, indeed: what a way to go!
The Joffrey Ballet – Age of Innocence, After the Rain, The Green Table – San Francisco
Closing the program is Kurt Jooss’s anti-war ballet from 1932,The Green Table, one of the greatest pieces of choreography ever created and still relevant after more than 80 years.
2012 Dance Memories – London
Lynette Halewood with her personal selection of London dance memories this last year…
23rd International Ballet Festival of Havana, 2012
The festival was as intensive as ever, with three performances running on seven days, four on one day, some concurrently. The range and quality of dance overall was impressive.
Paris Opera Ballet – William Forsythe / Trisha Brown bill, Don Quixote – Paris
The middle piece, O Zlozony/O Compsite, is a beautiful work by Trisha Brown, made for the company in 2004. Bizarely it always reminds me of Ashton’s Monotones…
Birmingham Royal Ballet – Cinderella – Birmingham
As a young partnership Delia Mathews and Tyrone Singleton really are exceptionally good.
Remembering Peter Darrell – Scotland’s Dance Pioneer (1929-1987)
As Clement Crisp wrote after Darrell’s death: ‘His ballets are true and fascinating mirrors of their age’. Timing a revival is always tricky. Would we want to see his Beatles ballet, Mods and Rockers (1963), again?
Book – Frederick Ashton’s Ballets by Geraldine Morris
What would he himself make of this book, I wonder? He’d be amazed, I should think, by the amount of detail he’d find, and possibly surprised by some of it…
Natalia Makarova Honoured at The 35th Annual Kennedy Center Honours
The Honors are America’s highest award for those whose creative triumphs influenced and enhanced American culture. This is a celebration of their outstanding careers and extraordinary talents and appreciation of their unyielding commitment and contribution to the arts.
Valerie Taylor-Barnes – former Royal Ballet dancer & Director of the Clive Barnes Foundation
On the eve of the Clive Barnes Foundation announcing its annual awards we interview Valerie Taylor-Barnes, the great critics widow, about her life in dance (including the Royal Ballet) and the work of the Foundation…
Interview: Herman Cornejo – American Ballet Theatre – Principal
Well, performing for me is really about that experience of giving to the audience. In the studio you work and perfect things, you collaborate with your partner, but for me it’s about what happens on the stage, the ability to give something, to your partner, to the audience.
Ballet San Jose – Gala Performance – San Jose
…I’m not certain in which direction the company is headed. There is so much potential to be realised that it would be disappointing to see it ebb away.
Royal Ballet – Viscera, Infra, Fool’s Paradise – London
After the urban angst of Infra, Fool’s Paradise concludes the evening on a sigh of pleasure. This triple bill is proof indeed that contemporary ballet is alive and thriving.
Birmingham Royal Ballet – The Grand Tour, Faster, The Dream – London
The programme included works both old and new but it was not an altogether successful mixture. The dancers looked most at home, and at their most sleek and impressive, in Faster, a work made on them this year by their Artistic Director, David Bintley, evoking the striving of competitors in the Olympics.
