Royal Ballet – The Nutcracker – London
★★★★✰ Wright’s ending is the best ever, preserving the assurance of the Grand pas de deux that the future must surely be blissful.
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…”
Royal Ballet – Obsidian Tear, Marguerite and Armand, Elite Syncopations – London
★★★★✰ The ostensible link between the three works in this mixed bill is that they are by the Royal Ballet’s resident choreographers, past and present: Frederick Ashton. Kenneth MacMillan and Wayne McGregor. But none is typical of the choreographers’ work…
MacMillan Celebrations – Gloria (NB), The Judas Tree (RB), Elite Syncopations (RB+Guests) – London
★★★★✰ Elite Syncopations: Dancers from all five major British ballet companies took part, some doubling up roles in identical outfits so that identifying dancers was confusing. The stand-out solo in both the casts I saw was to the Calliope Rag, Monica Mason’s original role…
Royal Ballet – Opening the New bill – Hull
★★★★✰ The Royal Ballet’s away-day to Hull, this year’s UK Capital of Culture, was dramatic in its scale: 17 pieces presented over three hours…
News – Royal Ballet Promotions, Joiners and Leavers, 2017/18 Season
Hightlight – Yasmine Nagdhi promoted to Principal dancer. Full press release with all Promotions, Joiners and Leavers
Royal Ballet – Jewels: Emeralds, Rubies, Diamonds – London
★★★★✰ The first Emeralds ballerina, Beatriz Stix-Brunell, could be a water nymph, touching the hands of her suitor, Valeri Hristov, in the opening pas de deux before drifting out of reach.
“What Lies Beneath” – A book of dancers portraits by Rick Guest
“I wanted to make a series of portraits of the dancers themselves, as opposed to dancers dancing, to show the character that underpins their performance, to see the determination and sacrifice that it…
Royal Ballet – Afternoon of a Faun, In the Night, Song of the Earth – London
The final triple bill of the Royal Ballet’s season reverts to its founder’s faith in classical ballet as an expressive language.
International Ballet Festival 2015 Dance Open and Tsiskaridze at the Vaganova Academy – St Petersburg
Margaret Willis has just been in St. Petersburg, catching up with the Dance Open Festival and also visiting the Vaganova Academy where she had some words with director Nikolai Tsiskaridze…
Royal Ballet – Four Temperaments, Untouchable (Shechter premiere), Song of the Earth – London
It’s a truism that any startlingly new dance-maker without an early elite training will have based his (or her) choreography on their own physique…
Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House – A Gala Celebration: Life Reimagined – London
Both Royal Ballet premieres, one by Kim Brandstrup, the other by Liam Scarlett, were surely keepers, bound to be seen again.
Two Russian Galas – Dance Open in St. Petersburg, Soul of Dance in Moscow
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…
Alexander Whitley – All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, The Measures Taken – London
But this is a really enterprising and unusual use of the Linbury space that leaves you with an intense curiosity to see what Whitley does next.
Gallery – Alexander Whitley: The Measures Taken and All That Is Solid Melts Into Air
Featuring The Royal Ballet and Alexander Whitley Dance Company. Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou…
Royal Ballet – Serenade, Sweet Violets, DGV: Danse à grande vitesse – London
It’s always good to get back to mixed programmes after one of the Royal Ballet’s long runs of blockbusters, and better still when the first item on the bill is Balanchine’s timeless Serenade.
The 13th International Ballet Festival DANCE OPEN – 23-28 April 2014, St. Petersburg
The Festival is held from April 23 to April 28, 2014 on stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater, St. Petersburg. The main focus of the 13th International Ballet Festival DANCE OPEN, which performances will be held on stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater, is on original contemporary choreography.
Royal Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty – London
….thanks and admiration to Francesca Hayward for a blithe, swift Songbird Fairy, probably the most pleasing I’ve ever seen…
Royal Ballet – Chroma, The Human Seasons, The Rite of Spring – London
The Royal Ballet’s autumn season triple bill offered very different ways of presenting bodies in space: anatomical studies in an architectural limbo (Chroma); flying figures in constant flux (The Human Seasons); a tribal community following ritual patterns (The Rite of Spring).
