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…
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…
Book – Daria Klimentova – Agony and Ecstasy: My Life in Dance
“Vadim was the first partner to make me feel like I was 16, even though I was approaching 40 when we first danced together.”
English National Ballet – Ecstasy and Death bill – London
Rojo has declared that her ambition as artistic director of ENB is to make audiences hold their breath. I certainly did during Le Jeune Homme et la Mort…
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.
Mikhailovsky Ballet – Laurencia with Osipova and Vasiliev – London
When the Mikhailovsky Ballet first brought this production to London in 2010, Laurencia seemed a creakily old-fashioned Soviet drambalet. Now, with Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev as the leads, it sparkles with fun, melodrama and commitment…
Iceland Dance Company – Til, The Swan, Grosstadtsafari – Washington
The Swan (2008), a duet created by the company’s artistic director Lára Stefánsdóttir, turned out to be the most intriguing and theatrically effective dance on the program.
Peter Boal – Pacific Northwest Ballet – Artistic Director
So how long does he see himself staying on the far side of America? “Well, I am just about to sign another six year contract,” he grinned…
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.
Carla Korbes – Pacific Northwest Ballet – Principal
Now thirty-one Carla Korbes has grown up to become one of America’s most remarkable ballerinas. Her recent performance of Terpsichore’s duet with Apollo at the Guggenheim was one of the most touchingly natural and innately musical interpretations I’ve seen.
Nancy Reynolds – George Balanchine Foundation – Director of Research
An in-depth interview with the lady who helps bring Balanchine back…
Mikhail Baryshnikov – the Art Collector
What one does not see much of, at least at first glance, is nostalgia for the motherland. “I never had nostalgia about anything,” Baryshnikov says.
Gudrun Bojesen – Royal Danish Ballet – Principal
Gudrun Bojesen, the Royal Danish Ballet’s leading classical ballerina, is at an interesting stage of her career…
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.
San Francisco Ballet – Trio, RAkU, Voices of Spring, Number Nine – Washington
The mixed bill proved once again that San Francisco Ballet is a dedicated promoter of new work…
Baltic Dance Theater – Kylian/Weiss bill: Windows, No More Play, Six Dances – Gdansk
It is refreshing to see Jiri Kylian’s repertoire performed by a mostly modern company, and the two works of his that completed the programme were danced with an encouraging sense of theatrical flair.
Sadler’s Wells – Spring / Summer 2013 Programming
It’s the name of the game that one does not necessarily appreciate all plans (or indeed how they crystallise out in practice) but I have to say that Sadler’s Wells set a benchmark re new work/experiences and for where you want a progressive art to be.
Mark Morris Dance Group — Canonic ¾ Studies, A Wooden Tree, Silhouettes, Grand Duo — Sarasota
What was curious about A Wooden Tree is that it did not include much dancing in the traditional sense. It was as if Morris had decided to do an experiment: to make a dance with as little dancing as possible, practically a pantomime.
