Scottish Ballet – The Crucible – Edinburgh
★★★★★ Scottish Ballet has a major critical hit on their hands – this is compelling 21st century watching. It was the premiere you want to see, but so very often don’t, with everybody, but everybody, at the top of their game…
Ballet Black – The Suit, Ingoma – London
★★★★✰ Merging these two works onto the same bill created a powerful double-header of impressive and arresting dance theatre.
Scottish Ballet – Dextera, Elite Syncopations – Inverness
★★★★✰ It’s the company’s 50th Anniversary season and rather than start it, as you might expect, in Glasgow or Edinburgh, they opened in Scotland’s most northerly city, Inverness, with a special premiere and a full-on party for all.
5 Questions to Sophie Laplane – a Scottish Ballet Artist in Residence – about her new work, Dextera
Sophie Laplane, former company dancer, is now a Scottish Ballet Artist in Residence and her first main stage commission opens the companies 2019 season in Inverness on the 28 March, before touring to Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. We catch up with her about the new work and what else she is up to…
Ballet Black – Pendulum, Click!, Ingoma – London
★★★✰✰ It’s the spring and Ballet Black has just premiered its latest triple bill. It included new works by Sophie Laplane and Mthuthuzeli November, the former engagingly light and the latter movingly heartfelt…
Northern Ballet – Victoria (Marston premiere) – Leeds
★★★✰✰ Where the ballet takes off is when there are only two or three major characters on stage and then Marston clearly shows intentions and emotions and the dancing becomes rich and telling, clever and gorgeous.
Cathy Marston on her new work for Northern Ballet, Victoria, the creative process and more…
Marston has been working at Northern Ballet creating Victoria for the company (premiere this month) and we wanted to find out more, also catch up on other commissions and discuss just how she works creatively and manages to juggle it all so effortlessly…
Memorable Performances of 2018 – London
Semperoper Ballett Dresden were another new visitor in the summer, with a programme of Forsythe works, some not seen here before. But Forsythe is a theme this year in himself.
2018 National Dance Awards – Announcement of Nominations
The Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle is pleased to announce the nominations for the 19th National Dance Awards…
Ashley Bouder Project – Red Spotted Purple, Duet, Alas, Symbiotic Twin, In Pursuit Of – New York
★★★✰✰ Bouder’s pick-up ensemble of eight, which she refers to as an arts collaborative, reflects her ideals. It is racially diverse; the choreographers include both men and women. Not all the choreographers are white. This should be par for the course, but it’s not.
2018 English National Ballet Emerging Dancer Competition – performance and results
For the first time, English National Ballet’s competition for its junior members was held in the capacious London Coliseum, where the company has been performing The Sleeping Beauty…
Viviana Durante Company – Kenneth MacMillan: Steps Back in Time bill – London
★★★★✰ All credit to Viviana Durante (supported by Royal Ballet, Ballet Black and Scottish Ballet dancers) for contributing to the 25th anniversary of Kenneth MacMillan’s death with recreations of his early work.
Viviana Durante on her company and its showcasing of early Kenneth MacMillan works at the Barbican
Viviana Durante on her company and its showcasing of early Kenneth MacMillan works at London’s Barbican on 18 — 21 Apr 2018. Bruce Marriott talks to one of the foremost MacMillan interpreters about her MacMillan celebration showcasing 3 very rarely seen works.
Ballet Black – The Suit, A Dream Within a Midsummer Night’s Dream – London
★★★★★ Another year and another terrific bill from Ballet Black, mixing two strong and sophisticated works from much sought after international choreographers. …one of the company’s finest nights.
Gallery – Ballet Black in The Suit and A Dream Within a Midsummer Night’s Dream
Gallery by Dave Morgan…
Memorable Performances of 2017 – London
Head and shoulders above other new work this year was Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern for the Royal Ballet…
Ballet Central – 2017 Tour – London
★★★✰✰ At the end of the evening was what you might call the blockbuster piece of the tour – 30 minutes of Matthew Bourne in the form of Act II of his “Highland Fling”. Bourne’s take on “La Sylphide” is a wonderful piece of work, full of wit, style and pathos…
Royal Danish Ballet – Dangerous Liaisons (premiere) – Copenhagen
★★★★✰ …I was again struck by just how effortlessly a story can be communicated and emotions laid bare by ballet – it was a triumph.
Ballet Black – House of Dreams, Captured, Red Riding Hood – London
★★★✰✰ It’s rather a scandal that Ballet Black get no regular Arts Council support and yet proportionally they do far more to put new work out there and also before a public that is not your usual ballet crowd.
