Both the Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet are opening their 2021/22 seasons with the same ballet - Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet. Jann Parry takes a look at how one of the most admired narrative ballets of the 20th century came to be and details of the many dancing debuts we can look forward to...
Tag - Royal Danish Ballet
Featuring performance by Dorrance Dance, Contra Tiempo, Ballet Hispanico, Brian Brooks / Moving Company, Archie Burnett, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, LaTasha Barnes, STREB Extreme Action and Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet appearing under the banner Ballet Coast to Coast.
★★★★✰ Yuri Possokhov's contribution to ENB's digital season is based on the novel Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman – a War and Peace about the Soviet Union during World War II
★★★★✰ The streamed in-house recording of the premiere on 24 October 2020 features Ida Praetorius as the Sylph, Jon Axel Fransson as James and Kizzy Matiakis as the witch, Madge – her last role with the company.
Royal Danish Ballet's Tobias Praetorius is an anomaly, a young dancer – he’s only 24 – who is already interested in playing character roles. He is also a choreographer and Marina Harss catches up with him about his latest project - a 'Pixiballet' (aimed at children) based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Princess and the Pea...
★★★★★ What we are fortunate to be able to witness in these constrained times is an intimate record of otherwise fleeting performances by exceptional artists.
Cathy Marston on The Cellist & Mrs. Robinson – new works for The Royal Ballet & San Francisco Ballet
In the next two months Cathy Marston has premieres at The Royal Ballet (17 February) and San Francisco Ballet (24 March) - Jann Parry talks to Marston about the inspiration and making of two special works...
I don’t really believe in lists, but it’s admittedly fun to look back over the year and reflect on moments that have stayed with me. So here they are, in no particular order…
★★★★★ A wildly surreal comic turn involves a dog riding a bicycle, both cunningly choreographed. He's actually a tractor driver in disguise, disrupting sexual assignations.
★★★✰✰ Where the ballet takes off is when there are only two or three major characters on stage and then Marston clearly shows intentions and emotions and the dancing becomes rich and telling, clever and gorgeous.
Marston has been working at Northern Ballet creating Victoria for the company (premiere this month) and we wanted to find out more, also catch up on other commissions and discuss just how she works creatively and manages to juggle it all so effortlessly…
★★★✰✰ I was thrilled to see Snowblind returning. It was by far my favorite offering of last year’s Unbound Festival because it captivates on every level: potent storytelling, emotive choreography, fitting design tropes and deep character development.
★★★★✰ This is my second review of Scottish Ballet's Cinderella this winter. Why? Well, it's a production I like and I wanted to see more dancers in it, silly!
★★★★✰ English National Ballet can once more reflect triumphally on another significant success.
★★★✰✰ The good news is that Queen of Spades is a good-looking crowd pleaser and the RDB dancers look fantastic in it - I can't emphasise that enough. Also good that it's a step up from his last commission, Frankenstein - thank goodness, really.
★★✰✰✰ The efforts of San Francisco Ballet’s artists are sadly misplaced in this largely joyless and wholly unsatisfying rendition of The Sleeping Beauty.
★★★✰✰ All up, I think this production demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of "Raymonda" as a ballet. It certainly is a fabulous looking (and listening) calling card which might tour well...
★★★★✰ 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.
San Francisco exists in its own world, out here on the distant West Coast. The San Francisco Ballet, though, just became more global than ever, with new 2017-18 members joining from around the world. The company school, which presented its annual Student Showcase 31 May through 2 June at YBCA Theater, draws international students as well...
★★★★✰ ...I was again struck by just how effortlessly a story can be communicated and emotions laid bare by ballet - it was a triumph.