This is not by any means a DVD for casual viewing, but for the serious student of ballet it provides a concise and fascinating understanding of the key components of Romantic Ballet, hugely enhanced by the opportunity to see a group of restaged dances from that era that have not been seen before...
Author - Graham Watts
Hip hop is rapidly becoming the dominant dance discipline of the 21st century. Something that emerged as raw and explosive from US street culture is now established, codified and taught all around the world.
This remarkable experience is a cocktail of circus skills, dance, mime, comedy and illusion all wrapped up in an absorbing package of ebullient physical theatre.
...Robert North’s Christmas treat shows no sign of aging. This matinée was packed with children, having a few older people in tow, and everyone was having fun.
One might view the whole show as a battle of flamenco and African styles: the one, refined, disciplined and exact; the other wild and free; but both sharing a total dependence on rhythm.
Freedom came when the performers were allowed to dance. And that just wasn’t often enough.
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s diptych - hinged by the night - is a paean to medievalism which emphasises the crucial aspects of those times.
I can’t help but feel cheated at missing this day into dusk on a summer’s evening in Avignon and waking up to its counterpart the next morning.
This is a work that is dark and deep, like a bottomless black pool requiring forensic exploration.
The Cuban schooling of Hopuy is impressive and his variation was expertly danced, including the trademark Cuban flicking over of the take-off leg in a jeté en tournant...
This is not a DVD for casual enjoyment but it is a must-buy for anyone enthused by dance tradition and culture, students and teachers of contemporary dance and anyone with a strong academic interest...
Nothing in contemporary dance is more guaranteed to provoke controversy than the Place Prize, now returning for its fifth edition, organised by the excellent team at The Place...
A very enjoyable evening, which raised over £40,000, for which huge thanks to Swarovski and other sponsors and donors...
A 40-hour round trip to watch a ballet gala on the other side of the world might be seen as a trifle obsessive by some and perhaps it is. But galas tend to be two a penny these days and this one was certainly very different, both in terms of being in aid of a unique and wonderful cause and in the spectacular diversity of remarkable dancing...
All in all, this was a programme that delivered what Karen Pilkington-Miksa and her team set out to achieve for which she (and they) deserve our considerable applause. ...NEBT allows one more throw of the die but these young dancers still need a “double 6” to win contracts for more sustainable jobs.
Pina Bausch’s particular brand of dance theatre owns many characteristics that are reiterated again and again throughout her work. The balance of these motifs changed over the years but the act of breaching the fourth wall is generally present.
Once again, the performers of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch win over the audience with an apparently effortless ease.... Anna Wehsarg – a gorgeous statuesque redhead with legs that go on forever - can just walk on the stage, gazing into the audience and she has me captured.
Underpinning all of these familiar devices is the remarkable, intoxicating charisma of this extended family of performers, many of whom have been with the company for 30+ years. They continue to represent, with a comfortable faultless ease, Bausch’s unique cultural legacy...
I have had some of the best dreams ever while wide awake and watching Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. The company conjures imagery that no conscious mind seems capable of assembling.
I have a feeling that there may be a musical in here good enough to match the strength of the comedy and set design; if the level of the bar of song and dance can be raised to make a better impact against this over-bearing story.