...while I may have successfully held my own for the first two rounds, I’d been soundly beaten by the end.
Author - Graham Watts
This was a tremendous show with which to close the Birmingham International Dance Festival of 2014.
This programme might also be viewed as demonstrating a particular curve in the formal journey of contemporary dance, albeit one taken in reverse and with an interloper for the sake of contrast.
The fact that I have now seen the show on four of its London seasons clearly reveals all that I need to say about my regard for its enjoyment quotient...
I’m clearly not cut out for naturism.
The big event was Light, set to the music of Phillip Glass and based upon Symborska’s poem about “that woman from the Rijksmuseum” (a reference to the servant girl that Vermeer painted pouring milk).
Alain Platel was inspired to make this work by the life of an elderly Brazilian woman named Estamira. Suffering from schizophrenia, yet charismatic and philosophical, she lived on a municipal rubbish dump...
...the audience was in thrall to the bucolic genius of Ashton’s production with as many curtain calls at the premiere as I can recall witnessing for a very long time.
Savion Glover’s latest show is the ultimate exposition of world-beating virtuosity, performed as an act of spiritual devotion that venerates past leaders of the Hoofer faith.
It takes Thiérrée a long time to make each new work. Tabac Rouge is his fourth production in a decade...
Graham Watts met up with the choreographer on a recent visit to St Petersburg to discuss his career and to ask what London audiences might expect from Rodin...
I was not surprised to discover that Farruquito was voted one of the world’s great beauties by People magazine since I spent much of this show wondering if he had a talking mirror in his dressing room...
If Maya is a consummate performer who manages to be both elegant and ebullient in equal measure, then her guest, Manuel Liñán is easily the crème-de-la-crème of the male dancers seen thus far...
Miguel Poveda is impossibly boyish for a man who recently passed his 41st birthday...
Candoco completely embodies the essence of diversity in the human condition. I love the emphasis of its strapline being “The Company of Disabled and Non-Disabled Dancers”.
Boris Eifman can never be accused of shying away from the obvious... His representation of the life and times of Auguste Rodin creates spectacular and absorbing dance theatre...
It would appear that Blaze is to hip hop as Burn the Floor has been to the popularity of ballroom and Latin...
Clinkard’s ability to draw together an integrated theatrical experience that engages bespoke live music and a clever lighting design shows a sure touch of class.
The cast’s collective maturity serves the work well since the central theme of many of the 50 or so episodes concerns the passage of life; concentrating especially on memories of childhood and youth contrasting with images of old age.
At Monday’s National Dance Awards two de Valois awards were given for outstanding achievement in dance. Here are Graham Watts citations for Leanne Benjamin and Matthew Bourne, as given on the day.