Slava Samodurov: bringing Yekaterinburg Ballet in from the cold
Graham Watts braved 21 hours of flights and missed connections just to spend a night at the Yekaterinburg Opera House followed by a meeting with its new(ish) Director of Ballet, Slava Samodurov, a former Principal at The Royal Ballet…
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.
National Ballet of Canada – Romeo and Juliet – London
The result is oddly old-fashioned – even more so than John Cranko’s version, which the Canadians had performed since 1964.
American Ballet Theatre – Hong Kong Arts Festival Season – Hong Kong
The season began with a high-energy mixed bill which showed the company on sparkling form.
Peter Schaufuss Ballet – Midnight Express – London
Well, the set is spectacular, by the ever-resourceful Steven Scott. Perhaps Igor Zelensky and Sergei Polunin had simply seen stills of Peter Schaufuss’s Midnight Express when they agreed to appear in the ballet.
Mikhailovsky Ballet – Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness – London, Coliseum
His choreography is busy, occasionally predictable, but more often inventive, strong on musicality and both remarkably fluid and emotionally charged; stretching the dancers both literally and in terms of their artistic diversity.
Happy Birthday Nina Ananiashvili
A tribute to Nina Ananiashvili – with personal memories – on her 50th birthday.
Russian Ballet Icons – Nijinsky Gala – London
Though this year it was Nijinsky’s turn to be reclaimed as a Russian icon, the contents of the gala had little to do with him. Very probably the choice of items – mainly pas de deux – depended on which dancers were available to perform whatever was in their repertoire.
San Francisco Ballet – Guide to Strange Places, Beaux, Rite of Spring – San Francisco
Possokhov’s Rite of Spring is a mixture of mostly good choices with a few that seem rather odd to me.
Royal Ballet – Apollo, 24 Preludes, Aeternum – London
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.
Pacific Northwest Ballet – Romeo et Juliette – New York
Without Körbes’s natural, radiant dancing, Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette, which dominated the company’s four-day run, would have been hard to bear.
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.
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?
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.
Royal Ballet – Concerto, Las Hermanas, Requiem – London
It’s an interesting evening, showing both choreographer and company at their best and at somewhat less than that.
Australian Ballet – 50th Anniversary Gala – Melbourne
It was a program that harkened back to the big international Galas of previous years, as well as a nice reference to the company’s first years, when artists including Sonia Arova, Erik Bruhn, Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev guest-starred.
San Francisco Ballet – Primer and London Season Preview
Aimée Tsao, watching San Francisco Ballet for over 35 years now, with a general primer on the company and some thoughts on the repertoire they are bring to London in September 2012…
