
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…

San Francisco Ballet – Die Toteninsel (premiere), Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes, Björk Ballet – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ Liam Scarlett has great taste in dancers. For the 29 March world premiere of Die Toteninsel, his fourth commission for San Francisco Ballet, the British choreographer chose the lyrical and athletic principal Joseph Walsh and soloist Lauren Strongin…

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…

San Francisco Ballet – Frankenstein – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ It was a dark and stormy night – San Francisco Ballet couldn’t have designed a more apt and ominous atmosphere for the opening of Liam Scarlett’s Frankenstein.

National Ballet of Canada – Le Petit Prince – Toronto
★★★✰✰ Since its publication nearly 75 years ago, de Saint-Exupéry’s “Le Petit Prince,” a short illustrated novella about an improbable encounter between an aviator and a young space traveler, has captivated the hearts of millions of children and adults alike…

San Francisco Ballet – Fearful Symmetries (premiere), Rubies, Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ “But despite his high concept, Scarlett seemed to lose the thread halfway through, resorting to lascivious theatrics to complete the work…”

San Francisco Ballet – Caprice, The Four Temperaments, Swimmer – San Francisco
Swimmer is one man’s journey from being the stereotypical breadwinner… to his own self-realisation in a kind of isolated freedom.

San Francisco Ballet – Caprice, Hummingbird, Symphonic Dances – Paris
Audience applause during the evening recognised that Scarlett’s Hummingbird was the starry centrepiece of the three Paris premieres.

Royal Ballet – Polyphonia, Sweet Violets, Carbon Life – London
‘Sweet Violets’, though over-ambitious, is the best stab at a psychologically complex narrative ballet the company has commissioned for years.