Royal Ballet – Back on Stage – London
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 (★★★✰✰)
Studio 5: Great American Ballerinas – the City Center virtual series of master classes
New York City Center is streaming some ballet master classes, curated and hosted by Alastair Macaulay, and involving Misty Copeland, Sara Mearns and Tiler Peck. The coaches/guests include Nina Ananiashvili, Merrill Ashley, Alessandra Ferri, Stephanie Saland and Pam Tanowitz.
English National Ballet – Manon – streamed archive recording of 2018 performance
★★★★★ What we are fortunate to be able to witness in these constrained times is an intimate record of otherwise fleeting performances by exceptional artists.
Royal Opera House/Royal Ballet – Live from Covent Garden: Third Concert (27 June)
★★★★✰ The singers had the lions’ share of the concert, with just two pas de deux by Royal Ballet couples, Matthew Ball and Mayara Magri, Reece Clarke and Fumi Kaneko.
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.
Scottish Ballet – The Rite of Spring & The Fairy’s Kiss – streamed archive recordings of 2017 performance
With one common factor, music by Igor Stravinsky, Scottish Ballet (SB) deliver two excellent and very contrasting performances which were filmed at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh in 2017.
Royal Opera House/Royal Ballet – Live from Covent Garden: Second Concert (20 June)
★★★★★ 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.
Royal Ballet – Anastasia – streamed archive recording of 2016 performance
★★★★✰ Osipova inhabits the role of Anna Anderson with gruelling sincerity. She appears deranged from the beginning with close-up camera angles revealing a depth of despair that is tremendously affecting.
New Adventures – Reel Adventures festival: Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet
★★★★✰ Performances across the board are stupendous, reminding us that interpretations evolve and change, and do not disappoint.
Stuttgart Ballet – Mayerling – streamed archive recording of Stuttgart premiere
Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling in new Jürgen Rose designs – “I am not reviewing the recording so much as commenting on the differences between Stuttgart Ballet’s 2019 production and the Royal Ballet’s version that dates back to the ballet’s premiere in 1978…”
EDIFICE Dance Theatre – Salomé – London
★★★✰✰ This inventive dance theatre summarises Oscar Wilde’s one-act play, which relates the Biblical story of Salomé and her unrequited feelings for Jokanaan…
Royal Ballet – Onegin – London
★★★★✰ The ballet works as a conflicted love story centred on the heroine, Tatiana. When Natalia Osipova dances the role, she brings home how Russian the character is.
Interview – Jonathan Watkins and his new film ‘Kes Reimagined’ – a Kes for Today
“Kes Reimagined” is Jonathan Watkins’ new film version of “Kes” and shortly to premiere at the Leeds International Film Festival – 7 November 2019. Diane Parkes talks to Watkins about taking on a story made famous for many by Ken Loach’s classic film…
Birmingham Royal Ballet & Ballet Black – A Brief Nostalgia, The Suit, Nine Sinatra Songs – London
Birmingham Royal Ballet ★★★✰✰ & Ballet Black ★★★★★ The Suit rewards multiple viewings and it thoroughly merited the opportunity of the bigger platform…
Royal Ballet – Concerto, Enigma Variations, Raymonda Act III – London
★★★★✰ It is all too easy to assume that the first triple bill of the Royal Ballet’s autumn season celebrates its creative heritage from the 1960s. In fact, two of the ballets were made for other companies…
Gallery – Royal Ballet in Concerto / Enigma Variations / Raymonda Act III
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou…
Road to Recovery: Instagram vs Reality
Araminta Wraith, Scottish Ballet soloist, is a DanceTabs guest blogger during the companies 50th anniversary season. This is her fourth blog and all about dancers and injuries – it’s a very personal and heartfelt tale…
Royal Ballet – Manon – London
★★★★✰ Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov, as Des Grieux, are not new to the roles and their understanding of the characters and the choreography has deepened with experience.
5 Questions to Sarah Lamb, Royal Ballet Principal, about dancing Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon…
The Royal Ballet 2019/20 season opens on Wednesday 2 October with one of Kenneth MacMillan’s masterworks – Manon. Dancing that night will be Sarah Lamb – time to catch up with her we thought…
Astana Ballet – Love Fear Loss, A Fuego Lento, Heritage of the Great Steppe, Salomé – London
★★★✰✰ The extremely good-looking company members are well-trained, versatile dancers…
