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.
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…
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…
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.
Ballet Black – Cristaux, To Begin, Begin, Storyville – London
★★★★✰ I’ve long admired Ballet Black’s efforts to make ballet a more accessible art form to both dancers and audiences who’ve historically been excluded from it.
Ballet Black – To Fetch a Pail of Water?, Depouillement, Second Coming – London
All up, another win for Ballet Black – a strong double bill of consequence and contrast preceded by a short amuse-bouche.
Ballet Central and Friends Gala – London
This glitzy evening proved that the Central School of Ballet has friends in abundance (or perhaps that should be hyphenated to “a-bun-dance”) but the aim of this gala event was clearly to encourage a few more.
Ballet Black – A Dream Within a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Limbo, Two of a Kind – London
Now in its thirteenth year, Ballet Black’s specialness is not the colour of its performers’ skin but the quality and quantity of the works its director, Cassa Pancho, commissions: over 30 new ballets to date. Where else could ballet dancers experience such a cornucopia of creativity?
Ballet Black – Storyville quad bill – London
‘Storyville’ is a familiar morality tale, but Cira Robinson’s heartfelt commitment as Lola makes us care anew. Hampson has indeed turned her into a star… ‘Captured’ is a triumph for the company and Martin Lawrance, the choreographer.
