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 ★★★★★
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Francois Rousseau and Julie Gardette – Where do the birds go? – Streamed premiere
★★★✰✰ No lockdown for Annabelle Lopez Ochoa who has just choreographed “Where do the birds go?” over five Zoom sessions with Norwegian National Ballet’s Francois Rousseau and Julie Gardette in their Oslo living room…
Dutch National Ballet – Frida – Amsterdam
★★★★✰ This was much more than my expectation of an update to Broken Wings. Part prequel, part sequel; it now stands proudly alone as an excellent new addition to the Dutch ballet repertoire.
Ballet Icons Gala 2020 – London
★★★★✰ The annual Icons gala provides the chance to see dancers who don’t often appear in London…
New English Ballet Theatre – New Works – London
★★★✰✰ In the event, the levels of polish and invention were quite remarkable given the circumstances.
Dutch National Ballet Junior Company – ROH, Young Talent Festival, Quint bill – London
★★★✰✰ Dutch National Ballet Junior Company at the ROH Young Talent Festival with 5 works – No Time Before Time, Fuse, What Got You Here, Fingers in the Air and In The Future.
International Draft Works 2019 – Royal Opera House, London
★★★★✰ All ten pieces on show were strong, considered commissions, and more than half came from female choreographers – a heartening boost for this male-saturated field.
Gallery – International Draft Works 2019 – Royal Opera House, London
Featuring emerging choreographers working with the National Ballet of Canada, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Dutch National Ballet, ABT Studio Company, Hamburg Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet and The Royal Ballet. Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou…
English National Ballet – She Persisted: Broken Wings, Nora, Le Sacre du printemps – London
★★★★✰ Grouping this diverse triple bill under the title She Persisted works in so many ways…
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…
Birmingham Royal Ballet – Fire and Fury: The King Dances, Ignite – London
★★★✰✰ David Bintley, who steps down as director of Birmingham Royal Ballet at the end of the 2018/2019 season, describes the current double bill as ‘two ballets fuelled by power and politics’.
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.”
Interview: Melissa Hamilton, First Soloist, The Royal Ballet
“I knew that I had to seize my only chance to have a ballet career. Masha Mukhamedov agreed to teach me privately six days a week for ten months…”
Interview – Annabelle Lopez Ochoa on creating Guernica for SF Ballet’s Unbound Festival
“I don’t know if we can make the world a better place, but we can definitely have the audience think about it.”
Dutch National Ballet – Dutch Doubles: Impermanence, Two and Only, Déjà vu, Last Resistance – Amsterdam
★★★★✰ Dutch National Ballet’s Dutch Doubles quad bill features 3 new works by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Ernst Meisner and Wubkje Kuindersma plus a classic piece, new to the company, from the legend that is Hans van Manen.
Preview – The National Ballet of Canada & Rudolf Nureyev’s Sleeping Beauty – a special combination then and now.
This is a Beauty like no other – the most spectacular classical production in the National Ballet’s repertory and a true jewel of a ballet.
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.
Ivan Putrov – Men in Motion (2017) – London
★★✰✰✰ All the ingredients seemed promising but the evening was disappointing, struggling to recover from the tedium of the dire opening item…
Dutch National Ballet – Hans van Manen, Ode to the Master bill – Amsterdam
★★★★✰ An outstanding bill in showing Hans van Manen’s work for three companies and its rich contemporary diversity – it all looks so fresh and of today.
Dutch National Ballet – Shostakovich Trilogy (European premiere) – Amsterdam
★★★★✰ This little trip made it abundantly clear we need to see more Ratmansky in the UK and Europe…
