Gallery by Dave Morgan...
Tag - Royal Opera House
Casting of Evgenia Obraztsova and Steven McRae
Cuthbertson isn’t one of those tiny doll-like Juliets who can get through the first scene on sweetness alone. Instead she gives hints of gaucheness ...you’'d bet heavily against her wardrobe being mainly pink.
Persevere and you will discover an exhibition (Thinking with the Body) that is genuinely provocative, multi-layered, visually and aurally – and as cerebrally demanding as any McGregor stage work.
It's especially challenging for the Royal Ballet, whose repertoire and style are built on the subtle understatement of Frederick Ashton and the deep psychological explorations of Kenneth MacMillan: hot-blooded Latin exuberance is not really their thing...
Gallery by Dave Morgan...
Gallery by Dave Morgan...
Dance Odysseys at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival with reviews on 20 dance works by Scottish Ballet, Scottish Dance Theatre, Gelabert Azzopardi Companyia de Dansa, James Cousins and Rosie Kay. Also thoughts on 4 rare films and links to much video material and many other reviews. It's big!
The Contortions of Contemporary Ballet, Put to Use... for a while.
"Alexei Ratmansky’s Flames of Paris is a lot like Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake..." starts Jann Parry's review...
20 pictures by Dave Morgan of the Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev cast.
The Bolshoi’s glorious rising star, Olga Smirnova, was imperious...
20 pictures by Foteini Christofilopoulou
...but the production isn’t so interested in motivation, more in grand effects, and those were delivered. It was a glittering, ostentatious performance, though not one to catch the heart.
Grigorovich’s staging of Act III is masterly. He has the fakirs lull Solor into an opium-induced sleep in a setting that lifts away to reveal a rocky arch. Within it Solor sees a vision of Nikiya enticing him into a ballet blanc nirvana
Evgenia Obraztsova, Anna Tikhomirova, Alexander Volchkov and Semyon Chudin, Olga Smirnova casts - 20 pictures
his diverse selection of 17 works (including musical interludes) is a gala in all but name and this one could have been sub-titled “Gems of The Royal Ballet” for all nine dancers hail from that company...
Grigorovich’s production is not concerned with dramatic plausibility or characterisation, which may account for Zakharova’s Odette remaining a remote vision and her Odile a cool doppelganger rather than a temptress.
Maria Alexandrova/Ruslan Skvortsov and Svetlana Zakharova/Alexander Volchkov casts - 20 pictures
If the choreography was a mixed bag there was a clear flip side, or rather two. This year's standard, particularly on the boys' side, gave cause for celebration at the strength on show...