All up this was a solid night and a good complement to ENB's 'Lest We Forget' (WW1) bill that was so recently on the main Barbican stage. But I hope that next year they return to a more open choice on what choreographers can do and also concentrate on choreography rather than include musical soiree interludes.
Tag - Barbican
Gallery by Dave Morgan...
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
Award winning British choreographers Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant and Liam Scarlett will all create new works for English National Ballet, as part of a programme of dance inspired by the centenary of the Great War.
A lasting impression of the performance was, as ever, the range of Cunningham’s vocabulary, from shape-making to intricate steps, leaps, spins and lifts, constantly surprising.
Lynette Halewood with her personal selection of London dance memories this last year...
Interviews with Alexander Whitley, Paolo Mangiola and Robert Binet about their new pieces commissioned by Wayne McGregor | Random Dance and the Royal Opera House...
One issue that arose is the fact that too many people in the Rain Room – whether dancers or audience – really starts to destroy the illusion of controlling the rainfall or being enclosed in the rain.
Sometimes Água’s moving images are dizzyingly beautiful, undulating palm fronds echoing the women’s waving tresses; sometimes they seem reminders that civilisation is only skin deep; or that the untamed jungle is indifferent to human concerns.
Ten Chi is like a musical composition mostly in a minor key – an accumulation of moments and motifs without a strong sense of purpose. In fact, much of the recorded music seems half-heard in sleep. There’s a pervasive feeling of melancholy, of a culture beyond comprehension except in crass tourist terms.
Once again, the performers of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch win over the audience with an apparently effortless ease.... Anna Wehsarg – a gorgeous statuesque redhead with legs that go on forever - can just walk on the stage, gazing into the audience and she has me captured.
I have had some of the best dreams ever while wide awake and watching Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. The company conjures imagery that no conscious mind seems capable of assembling.
With every Bausch work some of the images and sketches stick in the mind and linger as the particular flavour of the piece, and these will vary for every audience member. For me, it was how tough it is being a woman in Nur Du.
...the 30-strong company, which has one of the widest ranges in dancer age I've seen, is sensational to watch... For these cameos, and others, I'm glad I caught up with Viktor, but once is enough for a good while.
2012/13 does not look a great year for dance at the Barbican – judged by today’s press release anyway. It mainly comes down to Michael Clark it seems. Now Clark is not to be sniffed at by anybody and we much look forward to the premiere of course… but hopefully more dance will come in 2013 and the second part of the season. The Michael Clark Company part of the press release...
As has happened so often before, this collaboration by two individuals who are outstanding innovators in their own art, didn't quite add up to the sum total of that brilliance.