★★★★✰ Symphonic Dances is Scarlett’s farewell portrait of Yanowsky. Like her, the ballet is big and bold, beautiful and elusive.
Author - Jann Parry
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...
★★★★★ Edward Watson and Steven McRae casts both reviewed. "...the Royal Ballet is doing MacMillan proud, coming up to the 25th anniversary of his death..."
★★★★✰ Matthew Bourne celebrates the 30th anniversary of his own company at the same time as Tate Britain has launched "Queer British Art 1861-1967" to mark the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality. "Early Adventures" could be a theatrical coda to the exhibition...
★★★★✰ The first Emeralds ballerina, Beatriz Stix-Brunell, could be a water nymph, touching the hands of her suitor, Valeri Hristov, in the opening pas de deux before drifting out of reach.
★★★★★ The ballet is a triumph, of course. It really is... Wheeldon and his collaborators have reclaimed the Gershwins’ music and songs for a five-star production...
Flight Pattern: ★★★★★, After the Rain: ★★★✰✰, Human Seasons: ★★✰✰✰. Like Gorecki, Crystal Pite has created a memorable and moving work full of meaning...
★★★★✰ The long gala (three and a half hours with one interval) was well organised, with no speeches and no protracted curtain calls.
★★★✰✰ A final poem, ‘Man Down’, calls for compassion and acceptance that we are all combinations of male and female. The message is in the words rather than in the bodies of the dancers.
★★★★★ The hour-long evening is a magical experience, a testament to the decades-long collaboration between Maliphant and Hulls...
She found that she came back to perform with the company she left five years ago with a different approach. ‘I know more about why I love to perform...'
★★★✰✰ The Siberian company performs its Fille mal gardée with good heart and neat feet.
★★★✰✰ The story line becomes as labyrinthine as the ribbons of tape that criss-cross Paul’s bedroom.
★★★✰✰ The ballet’s narrative interest depends on the dancer, and both performers are magnificent – different in tone and physicality, though not markedly so.
★★★★✰ Bausch with added balls.
★★★★✰ The grand pas de deux was the triumphant highlight of the fairytale festivities. Hay expressed the prince’s pride and pleasure in his variations; Takada was demure and regal in hers...
Though Rauschenberg’s designs have no apparent connection with the dances they accompany, and even compete for the audience’s attention, they have become inescapably part of the experience of each work.
★★★✰✰ If you remember the 1948 film, the plot is easy to follow. If you don’t, and can’t pick up the references to ballets, a printed scenario would be helpful, as would job-descriptions of the characters...
★★★★★ The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker has undergone various changes since its gala premiere in 1984, not least in the central roles of Clara and Drosselmeyer...
★★✰✰✰ ...of more interest to Rodin scholars than dance-lovers.