At least there are some memorable performances to recall from 2021: at the beginning of the year none of us had any idea when we might sit in a theatre and watch live dance again...
Tag - Paule Constable
★★★★✰ "...this is not a feel-good show, celebrating the relaxation of lockdown. It’s about lonely people leading lives of quiet desperation, seeking consolation in alcohol and seedy sexual encounters."
★★★★✰ Performances across the board are stupendous, reminding us that interpretations evolve and change, and do not disappoint.
★★★★★ ...this revival of The Red Shoes, coming with a number of tweaks, appears even tighter and slicker than the original.
★★★✰✰ Our setting is the Verona Institute in the near future. Here disturbed young people have been locked up for an opaque purpose under the eye of a sadistic jailer... A traumatised Juliet meets a troubled Romeo, and it ends as badly as you might expect.
★★★★✰ Matthew Bourne has reworked his famous "Swan Lake" and it's now touring. Graham Watts wrestles with iconic and uber definitions in a long look at a much-loved work.
★★★✰✰ I went to Bristol to catch Coppelia and the specific lead casting of Celine Gittens and Tyrone Singleton - who have now totally transitioned from being rising stars to fully risen Principals.
Graham Watts' citation, made before the presentation - a major appreciation of a huge star of dance and theatre...
★★★✰✰ If you remember the 1948 film, the plot is easy to follow. If you don’t, and can’t pick up the references to ballets, a printed scenario would be helpful, as would job-descriptions of the characters...
It is a fabulous evening, funny, sexy and as fast paced as a thriller. This is Bourne’s finest and most inventive work.