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.
Paris Opera Ballet – Serenade, The Prodigal Son, Agon – Paris
The company danced Serenade well but the very simplicity in its choreography, created as it was initially for students, ironically makes it hard to produce a perfect performance…
Interview: Shantala Shivalingappa – Dancer and Choreographer
Shivalingappa first caught my eye at the 2007 Fall For Dance festival, where she danced Varnam, a Kuchipudi solo. I was immediately struck by her musicality, the power and precision of her footwork, and the absolute clarity of her movements. And to the grace of her upper body and a jump that seems to comes out of nowhere, light and airy as a cat’s.
Artistic Director Tamara Rojo Announces English National Ballet New Season
To be honest I don’t think her first announcements are a landmark in repertoire terms – but it was never going to be unless some ballet fairy deposited a few extra million in the company coffers to allow instant change.
Paris Opera Ballet – Suite en Blanc, L’Arlesienne, Bolero – New York
Nicolas Le Riche was fabulously predatory in Bolero, a raging furnace of self-love and sex appeal. One imagines that after the show he must have ravaged a hundred virgins, but maybe he simply went home and soaked his feet in the tub, but in any case, he was magnificent, good taste (and choreography) be damned.
Shantala Shivalingappa – Namasya bill – New York
Disappointment is an inevitable part of theatre-going – I mean, how often do performances live up to our expectations? – but it is especially hard to swallow when it comes at the hands of one of the artists we most admire….
Sylvie Guillem – 6000 Miles Away – New York
The crowd erupted in cheers. Ek’s piece hints at another side of Guillem, a goofier, simpler human being beneath the veneer of the icon. If it feels a little coy, well, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. It’s a smart, well-calibrated program in every sense.
