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: Mayara Magri, First Soloist, The Royal Ballet
Jann Parry talks to the recently promoted Mayara Magri at an important time – she is about to make her debut as Gamzatti in The Royal Ballet’s production of La Bayadere – her first major and leading role in the company she joined 6 years ago…
World Ballet Day, 2 October 2018 – an insight into what The Royal Ballet will be doing
Jann Parry talks to The Royal Ballet about what’s happening on World Ballet Day this year and just what it means for some of those involved… Kristen McNally, James Hay and Assistant director Anthoula Syndica-Drummond.
5 Questions to Jenna Lee, freelance choreographer, on her creative world and working with New English Ballet Theatre…
We talk to Jenna Lee about her work – The Four Seasons – for New English Ballet Theatre’s autumn tour this September and October. That and about her wider choreographic practice…
Royal Ballet School – Summer Performance, ROH Main Stage – London
★★★✰✰ A matinee in two halves: fine before the interval, with dire, dreary choreography in the second half. Thank goodness for the exhilarating Grand Défilé at the close.
2018 English National Ballet Emerging Dancer Competition – performance and results
For the first time, English National Ballet’s competition for its junior members was held in the capacious London Coliseum, where the company has been performing The Sleeping Beauty…
Feature – Ashton Foundation Masterclass with Monica Mason coaching the Spanish Dance from Swan Lake and the Fairy of Joy from Sleeping Beauty
February’s masterclass, the fifth in the series, featured choreography from the start and end of Frederick Ashton’s tenure as artistic director of the Royal Ballet, 1963-1969.
Gallery – Ashton Foundation Masterclass with Monica Mason coaching the Spanish Dance from Swan Lake and the Fairy of Joy from Sleeping Beauty
Gallery by Dave Morgan…
Royal Ballet School – Annual Main Stage Performance 2017 – London
★★★★✰ It was a well-balanced programme, featuring different kinds of discipline for future corps de ballet dancers, and honouring veteran choreographers as well as contemporary ones.
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
Interview – Mara Galeazzi on Woolf Works, her wider career and dancing on…
She found that she came back to perform with the company she left five years ago with a different approach. ‘I know more about why I love to perform…’
English National Ballet – Giselle – London
★★★✰✰ Elisa Badenes and Cesar Corrales delivered a good professional show, if it was not the runaway success I had perhaps hoped for.
Interview – Viviana Durante: Ballerina, mother, teacher and coach of MacMillan’s Anastasia
One of the leading interpreters of Kenneth MacMillan’s dramatic ballets Viviana Durante’s leaving of the Royal Ballet at the height of her powers was a sad loss to London, if the gain of those who saw her perform elsewhere all around the world. Well now she’s back at the Royal Opera House, this time to coach MacMillan’s Anastasia, which is where Jann Parry caught up with her…
5 Questions to Didy Veldman – on forming and touring her new company, Umanoove
Choreographer Didy Veldman has just formed her own company – Umanoove – and is off touring her latest work, called “The Happiness Project”. Time for a brief 5 questions interview we thought…
Interview – Gary Harris on life and setting Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia for the Royal Ballet
Gary Harris has had one of the most varied ballet careers you can get… dancer, teacher, ballet master, artistic director, designer and notator. Now he’s working with the Royal Ballet to bring back Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia – Jann Parry went for a chat.
Film: “Dancer” – Sergei Polunin documentary
“Dancer” has been given a few screenings in London, most recently as part of the BFI London Film Festival, with Polunin and the director, Steven Cantor, in attendance for Q&A sessions…
Royal Ballet School – Annual Main Stage Performance 2016 – London
★★★★✰ The Royal Ballet School in particular includes something very special in their show – the closing Grand Defile, which always brings a lump to the throat and a feeling of pride.
Royal Ballet: Promotions and joiners for the 2016/17 season
Four Royal Ballet dancers promoted to Principal from the start of the 2016/17 Season – Alexander Campbell, Francesca Hayward, Ryoichi Hirano and Akane Takada
Interview – Laura Morera – Principal, The Royal Ballet
“I’ve never won a prize before…” on the day Laura Morera won an Outstanding award at the National Dance Awards, Margaret Willis had a long chat with the excited, and much loved, Royal Ballet principal…
2015 Dance Memories – London
Lynette Halewood with her personal selection of London dance memories this last year…
