Lynette Halewood with some reflections on London dance performances over the last year - the good and the less good...
Tag - Queen Elizabeth Hall
★★★★✰ Jeyasingh has directed a work in which all the elements integrate seamlessly to provide a satisfying, if fleeting, picture of a life.
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
★★★✰✰ 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.
★★★★★ 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.
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
★★★★✰ The Mother takes already dark source material (a Hans Christian Andersen tale) and plunges even deeper into the nightmare scenario it proposes, giving everything a convincing Russian twist along the way.
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
★★★✰✰ It’s hard to tear your eyes away from the filmed sequences – which means the live dance element rather loses out.
★★★✰✰ This is the stuff of which nightmares are made. A frightful storm from which sundry strangers take refuge to spend the night in an isolated place provides the essence of On The High Road...
★★✰✰✰ Ultima Vez’s latest show, a devised piece of dance-theatre that tries to explore the nature of faith and religion, ...ends up about as awkward and unwieldy as its title.
★★★✰✰ Rosie Kay’s MK Ultra is an ambitious project which tackles complex thematic sources - conspiracy theories, brain washing and mind-control, not to mention myths about secret societies such as the Illuminati...
★★★★✰ Pascal Dusapin’s dance opera Passion is a minimalist affair. There are no ornate sets or costumes, no crowds of characters or elaborate plotlines to consume them. Instead we’re presented with a snapshot of two anonymous lovers...
★★✰✰✰ Cherkaoui looks older than his years, so much so that his relationship in Play with Shivalingappa risks being unsettling. As dancers, they are no longer equals, as they must have been in 2008.
★★★✰✰ The inspiration for bharatanatyam dancer Malavika Sarukkai to create her group work Thari – The Loom came from the hand weavers of Kanchipuram in India and the elaborately patterned saris that they produce.
Motionhouse are celebrating their 30th anniversary and we thought it would be terrific to review and toast their success with some great pictures taken over those 30 years.
Head and shoulders above other new work this year was Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern for the Royal Ballet...
★★★★✰ Even without Khan’s charismatic presence Kaash is a fiercely physical and engrossing hour in the theatre...
Lynette Halewood with her personal selection of London dance memories this last year…
This programme is a satisfying synthesis of classical music and dance from southern India, all from performers based in the UK.