★★★★✰ George Balanchine's "Stravinsky Violin Concerto" has just been streamed by NYCB - Jann Parry on a complex and effervesent masterwork, if Balanchine stated that it was simply his response to Stravinsky’s music...
Tag - Frederick Ashton
★★★★✰ Program 3 features all-British choreographers: Peter Wright, Peter Darrell, Christopher Wheeldon, Matthew Bourne and Kenneth MacMillan. The exception is a solo by American Dominic Walsh, created for his own contemporary dance company. ...Some of the selections are probably unfamiliar to American audiences, as well as to British ballet fans of a younger vintage.
★★★★★ Thank you, Royal Ballet, for giving so much pleasure in trying times.
★★★★✰ Kevin O'Hare, director of the Royal Ballet, came on stage to welcome the return of a paying audience for what turned out to be the opening and closing live performance of the season...
The entire Royal Ballet were back on stage and performing for a live audience last Friday in a gala style show which was/is also streamed. Jann Parry was mightily impressed with the dancing and repertoire (★★★★★) if not so much with the live audience experience in a Covid aware Opera House (★★★✰✰)
★★★✰✰ Wheeldon has woven a lot of narrative threads into his ballet spectacular.
★★★★★ Though the concert was a treat, could the Royal Opera House please try raising our spirits in future streamings, and give the Royal Ballet the prominence it deserves.
★★★★★ If you want an antidote to any miserable lockdown mood, La Fille mal gardée cannot fail to lift your spirits and allow you to marvel at some really first-rate dancing.
The Royal Ballet's Vadim Muntagirov talks about making the most of lockdown and getting ready to dance again for the Royal Opera House's Live from Covent Garden transmission on Saturday night (20 June 2020), where he is dancing Ashton's seldom-seen "Dance of the Blessed Spirits"...
Marianela Núñez talks about one of her favourite ballets, "La Fille mal gardée", and life under lockdown, which for Marianela has been in Argentina. "La Fille mal gardee", one of the most loved works in the Royal Ballet repertoire, streams this Friday, 12 June, from 19:00 BST
Feature – Ashton Rediscovered Masterclass: Voices of Spring, coached by Merle Park and Wayne Eagling
For anyone with an interest in the machinations of bringing a difficult pas de deux to performance standard, this was an experience to cherish.
★★★★✰ Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov's account of Swan Lake is spellbinding... if Scarlett's revision of the 1895 scenario makes even less sense than the original.
★★★★✰ Isadora Duncan's spirit has been honoured, even if the impact of her presence remains elusive.
★★★✰✰ The Washington Ballet new program titled Balanchine + Ashton showcased four works by the two great choreographers, who “forever shaped our art form,” as the company’s artistic director, Julie Kent, put it in her opening remarks.
★★★★✰ Alina Cojocaru's choice of works for her brief season at Sadler's Wells provided an insight into her priorities as she reflected on her career: live music-making and dance-making that has something to say.
Lynette Halewood with some reflections on London dance performances over the last year - the good and the less good...
★★★★✰ Richard Alston's title for his company's last tour before it closes in 2020 is Final Edition. The autumn run ended with four performances at The Place, in a programme aptly called Alston At Home.
★★★★✰ The Royal Ballet's current production of The Sleeping Beauty, dating back to 2006, is a homage to Ninette de Valois and her faith that Marius Petipa's Imperial Russian ballet should be the flagship of her British company.
Ashton Rediscovered Masterclass: "Foyer de danse", coached by Ursula Hageli & Christopher Newton, and the "Le Papillon" solo, coached by Wayne Eagling. Jann Parry with a detail report for DanceTabs..
★★★★✰ The title of the latest triple bill in the Linbury studio theatre is taken from The Observer's dance critic's review of the Merce Cunningham Company's arrival in Britain in 1964.