Dutch National Ballet – 8 new digital works streamed to the world during lockdown
Dutch National Ballet, under director Ted Brandsen, have made a splendid response to COVID-19, streaming 8 new digital dances in the last 3 months. Graham Watts on many interesting and absorbing works, varying from ★★✰✰✰ to ★★★★★
English National Ballet – Song of the Earth – streamed archive recording of 2017 performance
★★★★✰ The recording reveals how unusual the choreography is, as it was in 1965… Dancers in pointe shoes have to adapt to flexed feet, flat-footed parallel positions, torsos bent forward, elbows and wrists held at angles.
Book – Royal Academy of Dance: Celebrating 100 Years
The achievements of RAD over the past hundred years are brought together in an impressive new book, published this month…
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.
Jasper Conran, designer, on working in ballet with David Bintley and now Christopher Wheeldon
Jasper Conran is producing new designs for Christopher Wheeldon’s “Within the Golden Hour”, to be premiered by the Royal Ballet on the 8 May 2019. Jann Parry talks to Conran about the designs and his earlier and extensive work for David Bintley at Birmingham Royal Ballet…
Royal Ballet – Les Patineurs, Winter Dreams, The Concert – London
★★★★✰ Now that we are all one more Nutcracker nearer death, as weary critic Richard Buckle used to bemoan, the Royal Ballet has given us a wintry bonne bouche of ballets to savour.
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…
Christopher Hampson, Scottish Ballet’s Director, on celebrating the companies 50th anniversary in 2019 & future plans
Scottish Ballet have just announced plans for their Fiftieth Anniversary in 2019, including three world premieres – we have the full press release and touch-base with CEO/Artistic Director Christopher Hampson about the celebrations and what happens beyond…
5 Questions to Jenna Lee, freelance choreographer, on her creative world and working with New English Ballet Theatre…
We talk to Jenna Lee about her work – The Four Seasons – for New English Ballet Theatre’s autumn tour this September and October. That and about her wider choreographic practice…
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…
BBC Young Dancer Award 2017
★★★★✰ Nafisah Baba is the BBC Young Dancer for 2017. The 20 year-old contemporary dancer from West London won the award with a diverse trio of dances that grew stronger through the rounds.
Dance Proms 2016 – Royal Albert Hall, London
★★★★✰ …the event is less about showing off the talents of dancers and their teachers than celebrating their hard work and dedication.
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…
Joffrey Ballet Concert Group – An Evening of Dance – New York
★★★✰✰ The Joffrey Ballet Concert Group, a pre-professional troupe of young dancers under the direction of David Robertson, performed a mixed but very split bill on Thursday night, roughly dividing the six-work program into two moods: spring/summer and dark and stormy.
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.
Live Stream: Ballet Estable del Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires – Sylvia – from Buenos Aires
Ballet Estable del Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires recently lived streamed Ashton’s “Sylvia” from their home theatre. Graham Watts tuned in from a remote North Norfolk – it’s a small world…
Dance Proms 2014 – Royal Albert Hall, London
I’ve never been to Dance Proms at the Royal Albert Hall before. Which is amazing given it has a cast of over 400 dancers, has been running since 2011 and, as I discovered, is such an uplifting and feel-good affair.
Royal Ballet receives the Royal Academy of Dance’s highest award during fundraising gala
The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) marked the 60th anniversary of its highest honour – the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award (QEII Award) – by giving it to The Royal Ballet. A good time for DanceTabs to catch up with director Kevin O’Hare and some of his dancers at the awards reception…
Shiori Kase – First Soloist, English National Ballet
5 Questions to Shiori Kase. ENB soloist Shiori Kase is on a roll – only yesterday promoted to First Soloist (as of September), she’s just won a Gold Medal at the prestigious Jackson International Ballet Competition in the USA and is about to make her debut in Coppelia…
Genée International Ballet Competition 2013 – Glasgow
The Genée International Ballet Competition 2013 was held in Glasgow this year – Jann Parry reports on the finals for us…
