Following the earlier news about DanceTabs closing, we've now run our final reviews and galleries and, in a final flourish, we wanted to celebrate the site by drawing together all the kind things that people have said since we made the announcement. Thank you!
Author - Bruce Marriott
★★★★★ This Nutcracker carries the subtitle "A magical family adventure" and Scottish Ballet across the board deliver on that - it's certainly a production worth going out of your way to see.
DanceTabs is closing and will stop adding new articles early next month - February 2022. Although DanceTabs is closing to new contributions, it is not closing as a website. The site will remain for at least three years and at some point go into archive that may look different but should ensure the availability of articles for far longer.
At a busy time, 5 very short questions and 5 very short answers...
★★★✰✰ "The English National Ballet 'Nutcracker' is a bit of alright and it's almost bound to send you home happier than you arrived." starts Bruce Marriott's review of a Christmas ballet that can both please and give pause for thought...
★★★★✰ Didy Veldman's company is touring again and life is good as thoughtful, quality dance hits smaller local venues once again - in my case the friendly Wilde Theatre at Salt Hill Park in Bracknell.
★★★✰✰ Birmingham Royal Ballet's latest bill, Carlos Curates: R&J Reimagined, had the company dancing in Edward Clug's Radio and Juliet (★★✰✰✰) and presenting Rosie Kay Dance Company in their new Romeo + Juliet (★★★★✰)
★★✰✰✰ Akram Khan and ENB will bounce back, but it's been a long time since I saw such a clunker of a work on a major company.
★★★✰✰ Starstruck is subtitled "Gene Kelly's Love Letter to Ballet" - it's a ballet about jazzy dancing fizz and if that connects with us then its work is really done.
★★★✰✰ All up this is a most thoughtful and involving R&J for our time, one that with some dramatic honing will have a long life and which can speak powerfully to both new and old audiences. It's a dance of consequence, as ever, from Rosie Kay.
Theatre-Rites 'The Global Playground' "explores the magic of our first encounters, how we play together..." and opens the dance programme at this years Manchester International Festival. Time for a quick word with choreographer Gregory Maqoma...
★★★★✰ A rare and full mixed bill of a night from Northern Ballet, the more welcome for featuring two London premieres - by Amaury Lebrun and Kenneth Tindall. The premieres bookended a bill with one short work and two pas de deux between...
★★★✰✰ A night of premieres for BRB this week with two World premieres (from Miguel Altunaga and Daniela Cardim) and one British premiere (from Goyo Montero) in their latest triple bill - "Curated By Carlos"...
★★✰✰✰ All up it feels like a dangerous story is just not told in a particularly dangerous or surprising way.
★★★★✰ It's been a long time since I've seen a piece of dance theatre quite so moving and thought-provoking as Adult Female Dancer.
We talk to Darcey Bussell about her upcoming British Ballet Charity Gala which takes place on the 3 June at the Royal Albert Hall and features an amazing array of dance talent from Ballet Black, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, New Adventures, Northern Ballet, Rambert, Scottish Ballet and The Royal Ballet...
Another week and another Scottish Ballet premiere as Nicholas Shoesmith's new short dance film, 'Odyssey', is unveiled on Tuesday 4 May. We talk to Shoesmith to find out all about it.
'Dive', by Sophie Laplane for Scottish Ballet, will premiere on Thursday 29 April to celebrate International Dance Day. For a heads-up we talked to Laplane about the new short film, co-created with James Bonas and directed by Oscar Sansom.
The inaugural performance of the Just Us Hip Hop Apprentice Co. is livestreamed from the main stage at DanceEast on Friday 16 April. A good time to have a word with Joseph Toonga about an important initiative...
★★★★★ Scottish Ballet have come up with a delightfully life-affirming present to blow away the Covid blues this Christmas. It's not a film of an existing ballet, as we usually see at this time of year, but a ballet feature film - something made just for the camera and in which the camera is choreographed into the action. The result is a huge success...