★★★★✰ 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.
Author - Siobhan Murphy
★★★★✰ 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...
★★★✰✰ It reminds you powerfully that the Chinese Cultural Revolution has a living legacy...
★★★✰✰ There was a lot here to enjoy. This may have been a celebration of three decades in dance, but there was no nostalgia here...
★★★★✰ Tony Adigun’s smart street-dance reimagining of Dickens’s Oliver Twist switches the focus of the tale...
"That’s what it’s always been about for me – the necessity to connect with an audience and express myself."
★★★★✰ McGregor’s company dancers (in Bach Forms) brought a surging energy, buoying up jewel-like moments from the Royal Ballet stars...
★★★✰✰ The annual celebration of all things Boy Blue fielded 138 dancers this year – Kenrick Sandy and Michael Asante’s company is one that can wow you through sheer force of numbers alone.
★★★★✰ Jonzi D’s hip-hop dance festival reached its 15th birthday this year and its quinceañero was – eventually – a raucously joyful coming-of-age. Featuring performances by BirdGang, Zeljko Bozic & Miljan Nojic, Elsabet Yonas, UMA, Room 2 Manoeuvre, Compagnie Amala Dianor, The Locksmiths, The Ruggeds, Mufasa & Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Boy Blue Entertainment.
★★★★✰ Watson, a child of the Windrush generation, showed movingly here just what a “hostile environment” existed for these migrants from the moment they arrived.
★★✰✰✰ Jamaican dancehall and traditional Georgian vocal polyphony are not two things you expect to see in the same sentence, let alone on the same stage.
★★★★✰ Hair is a fraught subject for most women. For black women, the struggle with their locks (braids, weaves, relaxed or natural) can be titanic – getting your hair done can be a day-long ordeal...
★★★★★ It still has the power to surprise and delight – and let the imagination fly.
★★✰✰✰ The theme of Charge was energy – how electricity shapes our world and powers our bodies and minds; it was created with the input of scientists at the University of Oxford.
★★★✰✰ ...the latest double bill from this company of disabled and non-disabled dancers was playfully discombobulating and mischievously rambunctious.
★★★✰✰ Crystal Pite’s Solo Echo, originally made for Nederlands Dans Theater, was the undoubted highlight of the evening. Built around two Brahms sonatas...
★★★★✰ Born a Shadow: Compañía Rafaela Carrasco’s inspired show had a powerful narrative drive.
★★★✰✰ Ímpetus promised a mix of modern ballet with traditional flamenco, a show shaped by new interpretations of classic Spanish music...
★★★★✰ There are some extremely demanding physical comedy routines incorporated into Lebensraum. Even some of the throwaways are wince-inducing...
★★★✰✰ What to take away from this evening? It seemed odd to present sampling as something that needed explaining – but maybe that’s me showing my age.