Russian Ballet Icons Gala 2019 – London
★★★✰✰ The annual Ballet Icons gala, now in its 14th year, aims to promote Russian culture while providing a Sunday evening’s entertainment for Russians in London and ballet-lovers…
Royal Ballet – Don Quixote – London
★★★★★ With Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov… Theirs was a performance that caught up everyone in the sheer pleasure and excitement of spectacular dancing.
Interview: Mayara Magri, First Soloist, The Royal Ballet
Jann Parry talks to the recently promoted Mayara Magri at an important time – she is about to make her debut as Gamzatti in The Royal Ballet’s production of La Bayadere – her first major and leading role in the company she joined 6 years ago…
Carlos Acosta and Acosta Danza – Carlos Acosta: A Celebration bill – London
★★★✰✰ There was a lot here to enjoy. This may have been a celebration of three decades in dance, but there was no nostalgia here…
Carlos Acosta – Dancer, Directer, Choreographer: ‘I am a man on a mission – I always have been’
“That’s what it’s always been about for me – the necessity to connect with an audience and express myself.”
Yacobson Ballet – Don Quixote – St. Petersburg
★★★★✰ Kobborg has deconstructed the work; mixing up the narrative’s building blocks before reassembling them in a masterpiece of balance that remains recognisably traditional but is also refreshingly new.
MacMillan Celebrations – The Judas Tree (RB), The Song of the Earth (ENB) – London
★★★★✰ The second programme commemorating the 25th anniversary of Kenneth MacMillan’s death revealed his very different responses to music, and to human nature.
Acosta Danza – Debut bill – London
★★★✰✰ Belles-Lettres – a piece by NYCB’s Justin Peck, reworked for Acosta Danza – is a sweepingly pretty pieces for nine dancers, all floaty, gorgeous frocks and increasingly impassioned duets…
Russian Ballet Icons Gala – In the steps of the Ballets Russes – London
★★★★✰ The long gala (three and a half hours with one interval) was well organised, with no speeches and no protracted curtain calls.
Memorable Performances of 2016 – London
Lynette Halewood with her personal selection of London dance memories from the past year…
Carlos Acosta – The Classical Farewell – London
★★★★✰ “Thank you, Carlos,” boomed one audience member as Acosta ended his performance by changing out of his dance gear, sitting meditatively on stage…
Gallery – Carlos Acosta in Don Quixote pas de deux
Part of Carlos Acosta’s “Classical Farewell” bill at the Royal Albert Hall. Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou…
Book – Peter Wright: Wrights and Wrongs – my life in dance
His is an insider’s account, complete with waspish comments and cameos of the famous people he encountered…
St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre with Irina Kolesnikova – Her Name Was Carmen – London
★★✰✰✰ Carmen ought to be an amazing role for a ballerina, up there with Swan Lake for presenting an opportunity to show lots of different characters in one…
Carlos Acosta at IDFB – A Classical Farewell – Birmingham
★★★★✰ Winks, finger wags, flamboyant leaps in a criminally short leather skirt – Carlos Acosta gives the people what they want in this winsome bill, a mix of variations he’s assembled to mark his retirement after more than 25 years on stage.
Royal Ballet – Elizabeth – London
reciting, along with modern bits of exposition to keep the audience informed of who’s who. Tuckett’s movement language is similarly diverse…
Gallery – Royal Ballet in Will Tuckett’s Elizabeth
With Zenaida Yanowsky and Carlos Acosta in the lead roles. Gallery by Dave Morgan…
2015 Dance Memories – London
Lynette Halewood with her personal selection of London dance memories this last year…
Carlos Acosta – A Classical Selection – London
Acosta deserves every moment of his standing ovation…
