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…
Interview – Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, choreographer, on working with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, the award winning choreographer, chats with Diane Parkes about working with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba. The ‘high powered’ and much admired company are about to tour the UK with one of her works and we wanted to know more…
New English Ballet Theatre – Quint-Essential bill of Five New Ballets – London
★★★✰✰ Some of these pieces are more successful than others but the dancers seize the opportunities with relish…
San Francisco Ballet – Cinderella – Washington
★★★✰✰ Yet for all its narrative surprises and witty designs, this Cinderella is a curiously underwhelming work when it comes to the choreography.
Celebrate Forsythe – Pas/Parts 2016, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Artifact Suite – Los Angeles
★★★★✰ San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Houston Ballet have come together in LA to celebrate William Forsythe probably the most influential ballet choreographer of his generation. Claudia Bauer reports on a fine night…
Youth America Grand Prix – Gala 2016 – New York
★★✰✰✰ Like all galas, this was quite a mixed bag. Over 200 students trooped on and offstage in a veritable tornado of activity before the veteran YAGP dancers stepped out for the showstopping stuff…
Pacific Northwest Ballet – A Million Kisses to my Skin, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Emergence – New York
★★★✰✰ Overall, the impression was of a company in top form, at ease in a variety of styles. The dancers have an easy-going, open demeanor that makes even the knottiest works look more appealing.
