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.
Under are the articles written for DanceTabs.
San Francisco Ballet – Bespoke, Hummingbird and Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming – London
★★★★✰ the overall impression was of the wholly American spirit of the company – peppy, vivacious, determined and running at full-tilt.
TAO Dance Theater – 4 & 9 – London
★★★★✰ There is something verging on the mystical about Tao Ye’s rigorously minimalist dance creations. The Beijing-based choreographer’s Numerical Series has stripped back dance to an almost forensic study…
Rambert – PreSentient, Rouge, In Your Rooms – London
★★★✰✰ The bill is a bold statement of intent – but a little underwhelming in reality.
Deborah Colker Dance Company – Dog Without Feathers – London
★★★✰✰ It’s hard to tear your eyes away from the filmed sequences – which means the live dance element rather loses out.
Israel Galván – La Fiesta – London
★★★★✰ Much like his previous show, FLA.CO.MEN, with which it shares quite a few elements, this was 90 minutes of never knowing quite what was going to happen next…
Damien Jalet & Kohei Nawa – Vessel – London
★★★★✰ The tableaux recall Francis Bacon paintings – and Goya in his darkest moments.
Lost Dog – Juliet & Romeo – London
★★★★✰ What if the star cross’d lovers hadn’t died, but had run away, got married, had a child, reached middle age and hit a relationship crisis?
Russell Maliphant and Vangelis – The Thread – London
★★★✰✰ Sometimes a meeting of diverse dance styles can illuminate both – at other times, it’s not clear what benefit either has gained from the encounter.
BalletBoyz – Them/Us – London
★★★★✰ There’s lots to savour in this burst of creative expression from the present crop of Boyz.
Ultima Vez – Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour – London
★★✰✰✰ Ultima Vez’s latest show, a devised piece of dance-theatre that tries to explore the nature of faith and religion, …ends up about as awkward and unwieldy as its title.
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch – Bon Voyage, Bob… – London
★★✰✰✰ It’s three hours long, not including the interval. But a tanztheater classic this is not…
Uchenna Dance – Hansel & Gretel – London
★★★✰✰ Vicki Igbokwe’s bold dance retelling of the classic fairytale Hansel and Gretel has a sense of playfulness at its heart, and something of a political message for adults to chew on too.
Colin Dunne – Concert – London
★★★★✰ Since leaving the Riverdance juggernaut, Dunne has taken a stripped-back approach to Irish dancing, exposing its deeply soulful side.
Dimitris Papaioannou – The Great Tamer – London
★★★★✰ What a deeply strange – and strangely affecting – piece of work The Great Tamer is. You’d struggle to call it dance; Dimitris Papaioannou is intensely interested in bodies and how to move them, but this manifested itself in something quite different from sequences of steps.
Via Katlehong Dance and Gregory Maqoma – Via Kanana – London
★★★★✰ This show was a blast of South African pantsula, a township dance movement that has drawn influences from everything from tribal dances to hip hop…
Wen Hui – Red – London
★★★✰✰ It reminds you powerfully that the Chinese Cultural Revolution has a living legacy…
Carlos Acosta and Acosta Danza – Carlos Acosta: A Celebration bill – London
★★★✰✰ There was a lot here to enjoy. This may have been a celebration of three decades in dance, but there was no nostalgia here…
Avant Garde Dance – Fagin’s Twist – London
★★★★✰ Tony Adigun’s smart street-dance reimagining of Dickens’s Oliver Twist switches the focus of the tale…
Carlos Acosta – Dancer, Directer, Choreographer: ‘I am a man on a mission – I always have been’
“That’s what it’s always been about for me – the necessity to connect with an audience and express myself.”
Dance@TheGrange – Curated by Wayne McGregor & Edward Watson – Grange Festival, Hampshire
★★★★✰ McGregor’s company dancers (in Bach Forms) brought a surging energy, buoying up jewel-like moments from the Royal Ballet stars…
