We talk to two of the three artistic directors of Nora about what makes them tick and touring their latest bill - "Nora invites Aggiss, Burrows, Fargion and Tanguy".
Archive - May 2017
★★★✰✰ Morris is not the man to create a Beatles tribute show, choreographing 1960s dance routines to the original songs. Instead, he commissioned an hour-long score from Ethan Iverson...
American Ballet Theatre Giselle ★★★★✰ New York, Metropolitan Opera House 26,27 May 2017 www.abt.org Giselle Fever Like Swan Lake, Giselle is a centerpiece of the ballet repertoire; American Ballet Theatre performs it almost every spring season, for good reason. The company’s production is handsome and a bit shopworn, with sets by Gianni Quaranta that were originally designed for the 1987 film...
★★✰✰✰ The show – an art installation and dance performance at once – makes heavy use of digital technology, with a range of lighting and visual illusions designed by Johnston, plus a thudding soundtrack from Canadian composer Tim Hecker.
This years finalist were: Aitor Arrieta, Isabelle Brouwers, Rina Kanehara, Madison Keesler, Guilherme Menezes and Emilio Pavan...
★★★✰✰ M¡longa has a lot of spirit to offer when it lets the dance take the lead.
★★★★✰ Alexei Ratmansky’s new ballet for ABT, Whipped Cream, is like a Viennese confection: so layered and airy that it takes a moment to fully take in the flavor of its many ingredients.
English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer Competition is unique in British ballet in throwing the spotlight on more junior dancers or “tomorrow’s stars” as ENB put it. This year's competition is on the 25 May and ahead of the that we talk to 4 of the 6 finalists - Isabelle Brouwers, Rina Kanehara, Madison Keesler and Guilherme Menezes...
★★★★✰ Symphonic Dances is Scarlett’s farewell portrait of Yanowsky. Like her, the ballet is big and bold, beautiful and elusive.
★★✰✰✰ The whirling speech is often hard to decipher – the dancers are always in motion, their words thrown at whoever is nearest, the acoustics are terrible, and their French accents are very heavy.
★★★★✰ Don Q is pure entertainment, the kind of extroverted spectacle that the ballet is so very good at.
The Royal Ballet perform a mixed bill of four works - William Forsythe's 'The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude', George Balanchine's 'Taranatella', Christopher Wheeldon's 'Strapless' and Liam Scarlett's world premiere of 'Symphonic Dances'...
★★★★✰ The days run away like wild horses: The teeming vitality of this opening offers exuberant fun, as does the playfulness Collins adds to her source material...
Gallery by Dave Morgan...
42nd Street ★★★★★ / An American in Paris ★★★★✰ - Jann Parry reviews "42nd Street" and takes another look at "An American in Paris", this time with Ashley Day partnering Leanne Cope...
★★★✰✰ With his latest, The Decalogue, which opened on May 12, Justin Peck seems to have turned a new page...
★★★★✰ In his new ballet, Kenneth Tindall takes Casanova on an epic adventure in absorbing dance theatre that aligns his inventive choreography and mime with a strong and exciting narrative...
★★★✰✰ The South tour is particularly interesting this year because it features a new piece by Ruth Brill, a first artist within the company, and this is her first major commission.
★★★★✰ There’s an appealing simplicity to Jose Agudo’s first full-length company production.
Tango coach and dancer Nelida Rodriguez de Aure has been helping Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui with his show, "m¡longa". About to tour the UK it sees a unique coming together of tango and contemporary dancers. Diane Parkes talks to Nelida about the background and what makes tango so very special...