Forced Entertainment – Out of Order – London
★★★✰✰ A devised work, it pits six clowns against each other – a rancorous superannuated troupe locked in a queasy co-dependent relationship despite the fact they loathe each other.
Lucy Guerin – Split – London
★★★★✰ Fascinating for the duration of its 50 mins, Split focusses on duality – charting the shifts between Ashley McLellan and Lilian Steiner as they negotiate their space, timing, movement and relationship.
Oona Doherty – Hard to Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer – London
★★★★★ The dance artist Oona Doherty was transplanted to Belfast from London aged ten, and there was the gaze of a curious outsider about Hard to Be Soft.
Royal Ballet – Merce Cunningham celebration: Cross Currents, Monotones II, Everyone Keeps Me – London
★★★★★ Quite some achievement by Pam Tanowitz, to have followed treasured works by Cunningham and Ashton with one that pays homage to both, yet stands on its own as her distinctive tapestry of dance.
Danse Élargie: Dance Expanded – London
★★✰✰✰ Seven international companies appeared on the Sadler’s Wells main stage, all of whom are prize winners of the bi-annual international competition Danse Élargie: Dance Expanded – the brain wave of Boris Charmatz and director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota…
Gisele Vienne – Crowd – London
★★★★✰ You have to marvel at the skill and precision of the 15 dancers in Crowd, the creation of the Franco-Austrian choreographer Gisele Vienne and the opening show of this year’s Dance Umbrella festival.
Gallery – The Urban Playground Team in Zoo Humans (Dance Umbrella)
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou…
Gallery – Royal Ballet Merce Cunningham celebration – works by Cunningham, Ashton and Pam Tanowitz
Featuring works by Merce Cunningham, Frederick Ashton and Pam Tanowitz. Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou…
Dada Masilo – Giselle – London
★★★★✰ Masilo and company unpack this famous story of a wronged woman, establishing a refreshingly black, South African and feminist perspective.
Gary Clarke Company – Wasteland – London
★★★✰✰ Clarke doesn’t pull any punches with his ending …once again, a community is left defiant but defeated.
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.
Ballet Preljocaj – La Fresque – London
★★★✰✰ The key to La Fresque (The Wall Painting) is that it was originally commissioned in France as a piece to be seen by young people. Choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj, it’s based on a 14th century Chinese fable…
Gauri Sharma Tripathi, Sonia Sabri and Mayuri Boonham – Descendants bill – London
★★★★✰ As in all three pieces, these female artists and choreographers are formidable figures, descendants of dance pioneers from the Indian sub-continent.
Breakin’ Convention: Yaman Okur & Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven – 1mm Au Dessus Du Sol – London
★★★✰✰ Okur’s style of movement is highly distinctive – as if locking and popping have had the jerkiness removed and replaced with something altogether more silky.
Impermanence – Baal – London
★★★✰✰ Baal conveys a convincing Brechtian essence framed through a contemporary gaze. It’s an intriguing work that celebrates the company’s wild creativity…
Boy Blue – Redd – London
★★★✰✰ Redd is another bold exploration of the storytelling potential of hip-hop dance, which succeeds in showing that beyond the crowd-pleasing tricks, this form can mine powerful, complex, gutsy emotions.
Fame the Musical – London
★★★★✰ With a strong and familiar story, an excellent songbook, well performed, and a pacy theatrical momentum, it is highly recommended.
English National Ballet – Akram Khan’s Giselle – London
★★★★★ Everything about this production is topical, very real and will probably be so for many years to come. Absolutely five stars to the company…
Interview: Angelin Preljocaj, Choreographer and Director
Ballet Preljocaj are about to make their long awaited return to London’s Sadler’s Wells dancing “La Fresque” – Graham Watts talks to Angelin Preljocaj about the work itself and more widely about his creative life.
