★★★✰✰ Wheeldon has woven a lot of narrative threads into his ballet spectacular.
Tag - Brothers Grimm
★★★★✰ 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.
★★★✰✰ Yet for all its narrative surprises and witty designs, this Cinderella is a curiously underwhelming work when it comes to the choreography.
★★★★✰ It's taken me a while to catch up with Lorent but my goodness I won't miss much from here on.
★★★✰✰ "But it turns out that the pleasures of excess are really not enough to hold one’s interest if the underlying material is thin."
Wheeldon has two problems to contend with in Cinderella: Prokofiev’s prescriptive score and Ashton’s definitive choreography from 1948...
All up, another win for Ballet Black - a strong double bill of consequence and contrast preceded by a short amuse-bouche.
Earthy and gothic character-driven dance from balletLORENT
Christopher Hampson's production, set to Engelbert Humperdinck's 1893 opera score, dances round traditional perceptions of good and evil, raising sinister notions about the invisibility of danger lurking in the real world.
It is a mixed experience: too long and overworked in places, a dark vision, unevenly realised, with some striking and chilling moments.
If extravagant productions are the way to bring in new audiences and fill the till then they are justified for those reasons alone. However, they don’t necessarily leave a rich legacy for future generations.
Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is currently at the San Francisco Ballet preparing for the American premiere of his Cinderella. He has a rehearsal in forty-five minutes so we quickly set off to discuss his latest full-length ballet and many other things...