★★★★✰ A deceptively low-key hour-long show... which blends circus skills with offbeat humour and a gently strange narrative arc.
Author - Siobhan Murphy
Siobhan Murphy is a freelance writer, reviewer and editor, based in London. Between 2005 and 2014 she was London Metro's arts editor. She also contributes to LondonDance and tweets sporadically at @blacktigerlily.
★★★★✰ Ballet Black’s 20-year-long diversity mission still feels urgent, and its latest double bill is an impressive reminder of the sort of talent and vision that could otherwise go overlooked.
★★★✰✰ "These two extraordinary ballet stars gave a masterclass in elegant partnering, Ferri precise on pointe and soaring in a demanding series of lifts, Acosta charismatic, graceful and gracious."
★★★✰✰ Jonathan Church's production staring Kevin Clifton, Steps star Faye Tozer, Charlotte Gooch, Cavin Cornwall and Adam Cooper...
★★★✰✰ What on earth was going on in Draw from Within, Rambert’s collaboration with the Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus? Surreality was the order of the day...
★★★★★ This was a triumph of ingenuity and good humour from Rambert - an exhilarating live streamed delight.
★★★✰✰ Five years on, it’s amusing to see what strange new resonances there are in Luca Silvestrini’s song-and-dance drama about our conflicted relationship with food.
★★★✰✰ Episode Three of Dancing Nation contains works by Matsena Productions (Anthony & Kel Matsena), Kenneth Tindall for Northern Ballet, Shobana Jeyasingh, and Marion Motin for Rambert.
★★★★✰ As tentative steps continue to get the dance world back on its feet, the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield has asked three companies to embrace the possibilities of lockdown with a trio of filmed works.
★★★★✰ Family ties were explored in two markedly different ways in this hip hop dance double bill.
★★★★✰ Although starkly different in theme and intention, both 13 Tongues and Dust showcased the company’s unique blend of movement, drawn from classical and modern traditions...
★★★★✰ It’s thrilling to see the building confidence of Carlos Acosta’s Cuban-based dance company. There’s a sense of cohesion, shared purpose and a unique identity drawn from a vibrant range of influences.
★★★✰✰ Once again, Osipova gave it her all – and Osipova’s all is quite something to behold.
★★★✰✰ A disarmingly odd blend of narrative theatre, philosophical debate and experimental performance.
★★★✰✰ A devised work, it pits six clowns against each other – a rancorous superannuated troupe locked in a queasy co-dependent relationship despite the fact they loathe each other.
★★★★★ The dance artist Oona Doherty was transplanted to Belfast from London aged ten, and there was the gaze of a curious outsider about Hard to Be Soft.
★★★★✰ You have to marvel at the skill and precision of the 15 dancers in Crowd, the creation of the Franco-Austrian choreographer Gisele Vienne and the opening show of this year’s Dance Umbrella festival.
★★★✰✰ Clarke doesn’t pull any punches with his ending ...once again, a community is left defiant but defeated.
★★★✰✰ Redd is another bold exploration of the storytelling potential of hip-hop dance, which succeeds in showing that beyond the crowd-pleasing tricks, this form can mine powerful, complex, gutsy emotions.
★★★★★ The Cordoban star Olga Pericet's poetically titled show revealed, wonderfully, a personality too big for flamenco to hold.