★★★✰✰ This excellent ballet is clearly a “keeper” and a work I would like to see again and again.
Tag - Patrick de Bana
★★★✰✰ Happy for Zakharova who ultimately curated an interesting night, very happy to see her retinue of Bolshoi dancers and happy to see Donlon provide such final good cheer.
"It’s like a game of tennis – I hit the ball and she returns it.". Margaret Willis catches up with choreographer Patrick de Bana to talk about his choroegraphic life and latest project - contributing to Svetlana Zakharova's show Amore - which tours to the UK in November.
After a successful season of Patrick de Bana’s Jane Eyre, back in 2013, Shanghai Ballet returns to the London Coliseum with the same choreographer’s Echoes of Eternity - we catch up with the stars of it - Wu Husheng and Qi Bingxue.
★★★✰✰ De Bana's choreography was especially effective in the group scenes and not least in the descriptive expression of the organised chaos of warfare...
Margaret Willis has just been in St. Petersburg, catching up with the Dance Open Festival and also visiting the Vaganova Academy where she had some words with director Nikolai Tsiskaridze...
Wonderful how Petit’s youthful melodrama (Le Jeune et la Mort) still works its power, performed with commitment and coached by an expert – Luigi Bonino, one of Petit’s favourite dancers
"It is performed with great commitment..." says Lynette Halewood of a Jayne Eyre ruthlessly pruned for dance...
But altogether, this was an evening of historical curios that lacked consistent vibrancy.
...so I will just conclude with noting that another depressing thing about the evening's kitsch-ridden choreography was that it didn't quite obscure the occasional glimmers of brilliance that reminded us that these men are, indeed, among the world's best, despite this tawdry presentation.