Mark Morris Dance Group – Pepperland – Washington
★★★✰✰ Much of the exuberance and vibrancy in Pepperland is supplied by Morris’s ingenious and utterly entertaining choreography…
Black Grace – Kiona and the Little Bird Suite, As Night Falls, Crying Men, Method – New York
★★★★✰ The dozen dancers brought a fierce energy to the stage, performing four works of astonishing speed and athleticism.
Natalia Osipova – Pure Dance bill – London
★★★✰✰ Once again, Osipova gave it her all – and Osipova’s all is quite something to behold.
AXIS Dance Company – In•ter•twine, works by Arthur Pita, Jennifer Archibald & Robert Dekkers – San Francisco
★★★★★ AXIS, a bold and innovative leader in physically integrated dance, just presented their latest triple bill including two important premieres…
Rosie Kay Dance Company – Rosie Kay’s Fantasia – Birmingham
★★★★✰ A bravo to Rosie Kay, who does it yet again, delivering thought provoking dance in a very smartly designed package. (but do read the programme!)
Paul Taylor Dance Company – Junction, all at once, Promethean Fire – New York
★★★★✰ In her ‘all at once’, Tanowitz seems to have taken Taylor’s ‘Junction’ as her starting point. Like that work, it is a paean to awkwardness…
Paul Taylor Dance Company – Brandenburgs, Rewilding, Cascade – New York
★★★★✰ One can only wish the Paul Taylor Company well in this period of change. The dancers, new and old, perform with a warmth and openness that is rare.
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.
Yorke Dance Project – Twenty: Playground, Between and Within, Communion, Imprint – London
★★★★✰ By swelling the numbers of her small touring company, Yolande Yorke-Edgell was able to mount a revival of Kenneth MacMillan’s Playground and a 10-strong ensemble for Robert Cohan’s Communion. The programme also included new works by Sophia Stoller and Yorke-Edgell herself.
Viviana Durante Company – THREE/8.38/SEVEN – London
★★✰✰✰ The show at Wilton’s Music Hall, produced and directed by former ballerina Viviana Durante, was originally billed as The Seven Deadly Sins by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht…
De Keersmaeker, Queyras & Rosas – Mitten wir im Leben sind / Bach6Cellosuiten – London
★★★★✰ What unfolds over the two hours is an extraordinary conversation between musician and dancers.
Ivan Putrov – Against the Stream – London
★★★★✰ Putov brought together remarkable performers whom we long to see again, and left us wanting more…
Natalia Osipova – Pure Dance bill – New York
★★★✰✰ So, is Pure Dance a success? It depends on what you’re looking for. Osipova is as exciting, and as powerful, a dancer as ever. Among the commissions, only Valse Triste and Flutter are worthy of further exploration…
Richard Alston Dance Company – Detour, Quartermark, Proverb, Brahms Hungarian – London
★★★★✰ Alston’s choreography is formal in that it has structure, style and steps, instead of resorting to running in circles. Its partnering etiquette is courteous rather than abusive.
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas – Verklärte nacht – New York
★★★✰✰ The piece is strenuous, filled with running and partnering that, at first, verges on violent, and eventually turns rapturous, but never beautiful – De Keersmaeker never cedes to the lure of beauty…
Alessandra Ferri, Herman Cornejo and Bruce Levingston – TRIO ConcertDance – London
★★★★✰ A harmonious blending of music and dance, it proved seventy-five minutes of non-stop bliss!
Fall for Dance 2018, Program 1 – Boston Ballet, Sara Mearns, Caleb Teicher & Co, Cie Hervé Koubi – New York
★★★★✰ On the second night the program was offered, Mearns was stunning, but the remaining three pieces, by three different companies were, to varying degrees, engaging, although hers was a tough act to follow.
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas – The Six Brandenburg Concertos – New York
★★★★✰ At moments, I was ecstatically aware of the beauty of the body in motion.
Natalia Osipova – Pure Dance – London
★★★✰✰ No trade description problems, here. This was exactly what it said on the tin: Natalia Osipova performing pure dance, enhanced only by recorded music and lighting designs varying from the merest of subtle tints to an explosion of floodlights…
Royal Ballet School – Summer Performance, ROH Main Stage – London
★★★✰✰ A matinee in two halves: fine before the interval, with dire, dreary choreography in the second half. Thank goodness for the exhilarating Grand Défilé at the close.
