Royal Ballet – Margot Fonteyn, A Celebration – London
★★★★✰ The Royal Ballet did themselves a lot of good with the last new bill of the season – a one-off celebration of Margot Fonteyn. There was much to be reminded of and be proud of.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (Trocks) – Programme A, Swan Lake bill – London
★★★★★ The Trocks’ version of Swan Lake (or Lac, as it used to be known) restores some Soviet era removals. Benno, the hero’s best friend and supporter, is back, as are mime sequences, mostly mystifying the participants…
Royal Ballet – Sylvia – London
★★★★✰ Sylvia makes a welcome return to the repertoire, reacquainting dancers and audiences with Ashton’s sensibility and complex choreography. It’s a joy but not a masterpiece, as he well knew…
Birmingham Royal Ballet – Arcadia, Le Baiser de la fée, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café – London
★★✰✰✰ Bintley’s ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café saves a dispiriting evening by providing nimble demi-character dancing with a timely message, first delivered nearly 20 years ago.
American Ballet Theatre – Souvenir d’un Lieu Cher, I Feel the Earth Move, Daphnis and Chloe – New York
★★★✰✰ The choreographer and L.A. Dance Project director Benjamin Millepied is a mover and a shaker, a clever curator, a man of taste, a force in the dance world. But is he good choreographer?
American Ballet Theatre – Jessica Lang’s Her Notes prmeiere + others – New York
★★★★✰ Jessica Lang’s Her Notes is a lovely and poetic work, though one with a slightly subdued effect. It is almost too tasteful.
American Ballet Theatre – Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, Symphonic Variations, Brahms-Haydn Variations + Fall Gala – New York
★★★★✰ A second look at Alexei Ratmansky’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium confirms the impression formed last season. It is a fascinating work that represents a new direction for the choreographer.
Obituary: David Drew, Royal Ballet Principal, with the company 56 years
David Drew, for 56 years a member of The Royal Ballet, has died after a long battle with illness. He described himself as one of a ‘bridge generation’ of dancers. The longevity of his career meant that he worked with many figures from the Ballets Russees – but also taught many dancers and choreographers working today.
National Ballet of China – Peony Pavilion, Red Detachment of Women – New York
The National Ballet of China dancers are beautifully trained, surprisingly tall, willowy – even the men – and delicately featured.
Christopher Wheeldon – An American in Paris – Paris
As in his narrative ballets, Wheeldon crams in too many ideas. What he does supremely well is to convey emotions beyond words in his pas de deux and solos.
Frederick Ashton Remembered – Ashton Foundation Masterclasses & In Step with Fred film screenings
As The Royal Ballet prepares to celebrate Frederick Ashton with an all Ashton quad bill, two other events have also been celebrating the work of the Royal Ballet’s founder choreographer…
The Work of Mikhail Fokine – Q&A with Isabelle Fokine
Born in Paris in 1958, Isabelle Fokine is the daughter of Vitale Fokine and granddaughter of choreographer Mikhail Fokine. She is artistic director of the Fokine Estate Archive, which holds the worldwide copyright to his work.
John Craxton Exhibition – Cambridge
John Craxton, the celebrated designer of Frederick Ashton’s Daphnis and Chloe, is the subject of an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge…
Book – Frederick Ashton’s Ballets by Geraldine Morris
What would he himself make of this book, I wonder? He’d be amazed, I should think, by the amount of detail he’d find, and possibly surprised by some of it…
Valerie Taylor-Barnes – former Royal Ballet dancer & Director of the Clive Barnes Foundation
On the eve of the Clive Barnes Foundation announcing its annual awards we interview Valerie Taylor-Barnes, the great critics widow, about her life in dance (including the Royal Ballet) and the work of the Foundation…
Desmond Kelly – Artistic Director Elmhurst and Governor of the Royal Ballet Companies
My nickname in BRB used to be Bastard – and something happened with Ballet Hoo! – I don’t know whether it’s my age, or the kids we worked with, but it made me realise that you can get the best out of dancers and students by coming in on a certain level and talking to them on a certain level – not always shouting. I do shout still, I do get very angry…
Birmingham Royal Ballet – Daphnis & Chloe, Two Pigeons – London
…the evening really belonged to Robert Parker, giving his last performance in London and challenging memories of almost any of his predecessors. Whilst being very, very charming he also has some of the toughness which I think Ashton originally intended, and the sincerity of his regret at the end was entirely convincing. He will be sadly missed.
Frederick Ashton Foundation and Christopher Nourse
Not Trusting to Fate – The Frederick Ashton Foundation’s avowed purpose is to perpetuate the choreographer’s legacy. But to do so, it needs the co-operation of those to whom Ashton willed his ballets…
