Dance Theatre of Harlem – Creole Giselle – streamed archive recording of 1987 performance
★★★✰✰ Giselle was the first full-length classical ballet that Arthur Mitchell’s company of black American dancers would perform. He thought there would be no point in their pretending to be Rhineland peasants, so decided to set the 19th century ballet in pre-Civil War Louisiana.
Royal Opera House/Royal Ballet – Live from Covent Garden: First Concert
★★★✰✰ The first concert was not much of a consolation for all that we have lost. So far, the Royal Ballet appears a token add-on to the opera’s contributions…
Dormeshia – And Still You Must Swing – streamed recording
★★★★★ Dormeshia’s And Still You Must Swing is the first online dance that made me want to write about it. I knew it would be good…
Royal Ballet – The Cellist – streamed recording
★★★★✰ Cathy Marston has achieved much in bringing the life of Jacqueline du Pré to the ballet stage and perhaps one of the things that becomes even clearer with repeated viewings, is that the music and the dance are inextricably linked.
English National Ballet – Swan Lake – streamed archive recording of 2018 performance
★★★✰✰ I do wonder why ENB chose this particular (acceptable but sometimes subdued) recording to stream, when we are all suffering from live performance withdrawal symptoms and this company so often produces spectacular performances, sending audiences away in raptures.
Royal Ballet – Anastasia – streamed archive recording of 2016 performance
★★★★✰ Osipova inhabits the role of Anna Anderson with gruelling sincerity. She appears deranged from the beginning with close-up camera angles revealing a depth of despair that is tremendously affecting.
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Francois Rousseau and Julie Gardette – Where do the birds go? – Streamed premiere
★★★✰✰ No lockdown for Annabelle Lopez Ochoa who has just choreographed “Where do the birds go?” over five Zoom sessions with Norwegian National Ballet’s Francois Rousseau and Julie Gardette in their Oslo living room…
New Adventures – Reel Adventures festival: Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man
★★★★✰ It doesn’t get much steamier than Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man, the third of his productions to be presented and screened on Sky Arts during lockdown.
New Adventures – Reel Adventures festival: Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet
★★★★✰ Performances across the board are stupendous, reminding us that interpretations evolve and change, and do not disappoint.
SystemsLAB mixed bill, curated by Freddie Opoku-Addaie – London
★★★✰✰ Featuring works by Jonzi D, Theo Inart, Becky Namgauds and the due of Ffion Campbell-Davies and tyroneisaacstuart.
![2Faced Dance Company's promotional image for the EVERYTHING [But the Girl] triple bill.© Chris Nash. (Click image for larger version)](https://149359931.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cn-everything-3bill-promo-image_360-300x180.jpg)
2Faced Dance Company – EVERYTHING [But the Girl] triple bill – London
★★★✰✰ This triple bill marks 2Faced Dance Company’s 20th anniversary. EVERYTHING [but the girl], presents two new pieces alongside a reworked number from 2011…
EDIFICE Dance Theatre – Salomé – London
★★★✰✰ This inventive dance theatre summarises Oscar Wilde’s one-act play, which relates the Biblical story of Salomé and her unrequited feelings for Jokanaan…
BalletBoyz – Deluxe: The Intro, Bradley 4:18, Ripple – Online and TV
★★★★✰ Deluxe by BalletBoyz can be seen online on Sadler’s Wells Facebook Premieres from Friday 27 March, 7.30pm for one week only, and upcoming on BBC Four for BBC Culture in Quarantine (date tba).
Richard Alston Dance Company – Final Edition – London
★★★★✰ 8th March at Sadler’s Wells was the last time we were able to see Richard Alston’s work performed by his own company of dancers. Jann Parry with a full and perceptive review of Alston’s latest work and last company show.
Nona Hendryx and Disciples of Sun Ra in the Temple – New York
★★★✰✰ “Space is the Place,” was the Sun Ra anthem. And those were the words for the last song in a tribute to the late pianist and Arkestra leader, conceived by Nona Hendryx and presented by Met Live Arts and Harlem Stage, at the Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum…
Mark Bruce Company – Return to Heaven – London
★★★✰✰ Trying to understand a holistic approach to the narrative was like compiling a jigsaw where some of the pieces are missing and others don’t fit.
Royal Ballet – Swan Lake – London
★★★★✰ Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov’s account of Swan Lake is spellbinding… if Scarlett’s revision of the 1895 scenario makes even less sense than the original.
Joffrey Ballet – Commedia, Bliss!, Beyond the Shore, The Times Are Racing – San Fransisco
★★★✰✰ The Joffrey Ballet brought a program of four diverse works. Peck’s Times was a hit as was Christopher Wheeldon’s Commedia. The other two works weren’t misses per se…
Crystal Pite, Jonathan Young, Kidd Pivot – Revisor – London
★★★★✰ Revisor is a strange and complicated piece of dance theatre. Watching it requires peeling away the many layers that constitute the work and it feels like trying to find someone hidden under many different disguises.
Linda Hayford and Kloé Dean – AlShe/Me and Man Up Aerowaves 2 bill – London
★★★★✰ Family ties were explored in two markedly different ways in this hip hop dance double bill.
