At least there are some memorable performances to recall from 2021: at the beginning of the year none of us had any idea when we might sit in a theatre and watch live dance again...
Tag - Birmingham Royal Ballet
★★★★✰ The annual ballet gala organised by Olga Balakleets and Ensemble Productions was deferred to the end of this year because of coronavirus restrictions. Fortunately, invited dancers from European countries were able to travel before the latest measures were imposed...
The Frederick Ashton Foundation marked its tenth anniversary with an evening of rarely performed Ashton pieces and a specially commissioned film, Frederick Ashton: Links in the Chain, by Lynn Wake.
DanceTabs photographer Foteini Christofilopoulou recently spent the day with Birmingham Royal Ballet starting with company class, followed by rehearsals of two works involving the company with Miguel Altunaga, Goyo Montero, Alessandra Ferri, and director Carlos Acosta.
★★★✰✰ "These two extraordinary ballet stars gave a masterclass in elegant partnering, Ferri precise on pointe and soaring in a demanding series of lifts, Acosta charismatic, graceful and gracious."
Alessandra Ferri and Carlos Acosta perform the world premiere of a new pas de deux, by Goyo Montero, as part of an extended version of Montero's Chacona. The work can be seen in Birmingham Royal Ballet's Curated by Carlos triple bill presented on 4-6 Nov 2021 at Sadler’s Wells. Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
★★★✰✰ Birmingham Royal Ballet's latest bill, Carlos Curates: R&J Reimagined, had the company dancing in Edward Clug's Radio and Juliet (★★✰✰✰) and presenting Rosie Kay Dance Company in their new Romeo + Juliet (★★★★✰)
★★★✰✰ All up this is a most thoughtful and involving R&J for our time, one that with some dramatic honing will have a long life and which can speak powerfully to both new and old audiences. It's a dance of consequence, as ever, from Rosie Kay.
★★★★✰ The 2021 Royal Ballet School Summer Show, on the Royal Opera House Main Stage, was a different affair to normal with many of the White Lodge Junior School students physically absent because of Covid restrictions. But there was much to celebrate and lots of new work on display too...
★★★✰✰ A night of premieres for BRB this week with two World premieres (from Miguel Altunaga and Daniela Cardim) and one British premiere (from Goyo Montero) in their latest triple bill - "Curated By Carlos"...
Jann Parry with some thoughts on the Darcey Bussell gala to raise funds for British Ballet and featuring Ballet Black, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, New Adventures, Northern Ballet, Rambert2, Scottish Ballet and The Royal Ballet.
We talk to Darcey Bussell about her upcoming British Ballet Charity Gala which takes place on the 3 June at the Royal Albert Hall and features an amazing array of dance talent from Ballet Black, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, New Adventures, Northern Ballet, Rambert, Scottish Ballet and The Royal Ballet...
★★★✰✰ While Sarasota Ballet’s audiences in Florida may be familiar with much of the Ashton repertoire (more so than many British ballet lovers), international subscribers to Sarasota’s digital offerings have been able to catch up with some little-seen gems.
Birmingham Royal Ballet's new Nutcracker streaming is very much about investing in company and student dancers (from the Royal Ballet School and Elmhurst Ballet School) at the most difficult of times for the performing arts.
★★✰✰✰ Episode Two of Dancing Nation contains works by Humanhood (Júlia Robert and Rudi Cole), Botis Seva for Far From the Norm, Will Tuckett for Birmingham Royal Ballet, Oona Doherty, Boy Blue and Akram Khan with Natalia Osipova (for which ★★★★★).
★★★★★ That BRB managed to get this on at all is a small miracle - and the undiminished determination with which the dancers attack their work inspires passion in us all.
★★★✰✰ Carlos Acosta, ten months in to his directorship of BRB, has provided it with a mixed bunch of shoots for a fresh start. Their first flowering may have been cut short by the closure of theatres but the company has already shown its resilience, and will do so again...
Bruce Marriott, seeing live work for the first time in months, chose to dive in to an evening of new Birmingham Royal Ballet works including a world premiere - Will Tuckett's Lazuli Sky. He was glad he did...
★★✰✰✰ Strasbourg 1518 has been lauded as 'head buttingly confrontational' and an original 'dance for today'. It isn't. Familiar Bausch tropes don't really reflect 1518's psychogenic mania, which was communal, or today's experience of isolation, stress and tedium.
Carlos Acosta chats to Graham Watts about how things are going after his first few months at the artistic helm of Birmingham Royal Ballet & the impact that Covid-19 has had on his plans...