...AM I is a thematic magpie, shifting from the macro to the micro and back again in its exploration of the nexus of religion and science.
Tag - Maurice Bejart
Finding myself in Rome for a few weeks, I decided to test the local waters and was happy to discover that the Rome Opera Ballet was performing Tchaikovsky’s 'Sleeping Beauty', with several casts. I chose a cast almost at random...
Margaret Willis has been busy: in St. Petersburg at the Dance Open Festival Gala and 2 days later in Moscow at the Soul of Dance Ballet Gala. And important awards were given at both...
All up it's an entertaining and chic-looking take on Swan Lake, and one where you don't have to know the original to enjoy it. But I'm glad I have seen a pukka Swan Lake or three...
L’Allegro, with its painterly tableaux, classical references, and unselfconscious evocations of sex and death, feels both ancient - almost pagan - and perfectly of our time...
Phoenix Dance Theatre are part way through their Autumn "Particle Velocity" tour - Paul Arrowsmith caught up with them in London at their Royal Opera House Linbury performances...
Still / Current is a marvellously evocative title for Maliphant’s work, capturing the mercurially elusive quality of his choreography and his own dancing. And the good news is that Maliphant is back on stage...
The Tribute bill is a well-chosen one... The season has been so short that the dancers haven’t had time to grow into their roles. They look as though they’re remembering instructions rather than relishing the ballets.
20 pictures by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
If the choreography was a mixed bag there was a clear flip side, or rather two. This year's standard, particularly on the boys' side, gave cause for celebration at the strength on show...
20 pictures by Dave Morgan...
Graham Watts was at the Palais Des Congres for us to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Rudolf Nureyev's birth...
Possokhov’s Rite of Spring is a mixture of mostly good choices with a few that seem rather odd to me.
The company danced Serenade well but the very simplicity in its choreography, created as it was initially for students, ironically makes it hard to produce a perfect performance...
Shivalingappa first caught my eye at the 2007 Fall For Dance festival, where she danced Varnam, a Kuchipudi solo. I was immediately struck by her musicality, the power and precision of her footwork, and the absolute clarity of her movements. And to the grace of her upper body and a jump that seems to comes out of nowhere, light and airy as a cat’s.
To be honest I don't think her first announcements are a landmark in repertoire terms - but it was never going to be unless some ballet fairy deposited a few extra million in the company coffers to allow instant change.
Nicolas Le Riche was fabulously predatory in Bolero, a raging furnace of self-love and sex appeal. One imagines that after the show he must have ravaged a hundred virgins, but maybe he simply went home and soaked his feet in the tub, but in any case, he was magnificent, good taste (and choreography) be damned.
Disappointment is an inevitable part of theatre-going - I mean, how often do performances live up to our expectations? - but it is especially hard to swallow when it comes at the hands of one of the artists we most admire....
The crowd erupted in cheers. Ek’s piece hints at another side of Guillem, a goofier, simpler human being beneath the veneer of the icon. If it feels a little coy, well, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. It’s a smart, well-calibrated program in every sense.