Ivan Putrov – Men in Motion (2017) – London
★★✰✰✰ All the ingredients seemed promising but the evening was disappointing, struggling to recover from the tedium of the dire opening item…
Mariinsky Ballet – Don Quixote – London
★★★★✰ Tereshkina and Kim match well physically and temperamentally. She has a lovely high-flying arabesque line and a wide range of slow and fast turns, small and expansive movements.
Russian Ballet Icons Gala – In the steps of the Ballets Russes – London
★★★★✰ The long gala (three and a half hours with one interval) was well organised, with no speeches and no protracted curtain calls.
Gauthier Dance – NIJINSKI – Stuttgart
★★★✰✰ NIJINSKI neatly lassos this altogether using Goecke’s avant garde movement style …to give the Stuttgart audience an abstract impression of Nijinsky’s life and contribution to Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.
Obituary: David Drew, Royal Ballet Principal, with the company 56 years
David Drew, for 56 years a member of The Royal Ballet, has died after a long battle with illness. He described himself as one of a ‘bridge generation’ of dancers. The longevity of his career meant that he worked with many figures from the Ballets Russees – but also taught many dancers and choreographers working today.
Ivan Putrov – Men in Motion – Lodz Ballet Festival
The most impressive (if not, incredible) thing is that his scratch company exudes the professionalism that one would expect from a tight-knit group that has lived, trained, rehearsed and performed together for seasons.
Birmingham Royal Ballet – La Fin du jour, Miracle in the Gorbals, Flowers of the Forest – London
Gillian Lynne has made Helpmann and Benthall’s wartime collaboration into a gutsy dramatic ballet, probably with more choreography than Helpmann attempted.
The Work of Mikhail Fokine – Q&A with Isabelle Fokine
Born in Paris in 1958, Isabelle Fokine is the daughter of Vitale Fokine and granddaughter of choreographer Mikhail Fokine. She is artistic director of the Fokine Estate Archive, which holds the worldwide copyright to his work.
Les Saisons Russes / Natalia Sats Opera & Ballet – Petrushka, Chopiniana, Polovtsian Dances – London
The triumph of the triple bill was the rip-roaring account of the Polovtsian Dances, with the choir exulting from boxes at the side of the Coliseum stage.
Andris Liepa and Georgy Isaakyan – Bringing Diaghilev Back: Recreating the Russian Seasons
Graham Watts, visited the Natalia Sats Theatre in Moscow, earlier this year, to talk to both Liepa and Isaakyan about their new production of Le Coq d’Or.
Ivan Putrov – Men in Motion (2014) – London
…the men Ivan Putrov has chosen for his latest Men in Motion programme are exceptional dance-interpreters, not self-glorifiers…
Ivan Putrov – Dancer, Choreographer and Director of Men in Motion
“I want audiences to leave inspired, not scratching themselves in boredom.”
English National Ballet – Tribute to Rudolf Nureyev – London
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.
Gallery – English National Ballet – Tribute to Rudolf Nureyev (Rojo lead)
20 pictures by Foteini Christofilopoulou…
Gallery – English National Ballet – Tribute to Rudolf Nureyev (Klimentova/Muntagirov)
20 pictures by Dave Morgan…
Jean Abreu Dance – BLOOD – London
But Abreu’s charisma is impressive, as is his command of his muscles and vocal cords. And he is pursuing serious questions about identity and mortality even if he can’t provide the answers…
New York Philharmonic – A Dancer’s Dream: Le Baiser de la Fee, Excerpts from Neige, Petrushka – New York
…what joy to see a performance turn into a kind of rave, …to feel the music overflow the boundaries of convention and habit and feel, well, intensely alive.
Fabulous Beast – Rite of Spring, Petrushka – London
The vernal equinox having passed, here was my first sighting of The Rite of Spring in this the Centenary year of Stravinsky’s great masterpiece…
Gallery – Fabulous Beast in The Rite of Spring and Petrushka
30 pictures by Foteini Christofilopoulou…
Nadia Nerina and Isabel Rawsthorne exhibitions at the Royal Opera House
Rawsthorne was painted by André Derain and Pablo Picasso, and later by Francis Bacon. She was the inspiration for Alberto Giacometti’s etiolated sculptures of walking figures…
