
English National Ballet – Song of the Earth, La Sylphide – London
★★★★✰ The pairing cannily indulges our need for vivid material on these bleak mid-winter nights while also steering us down from the high of the Christmas circuit, with its sugary Nutcrackers and other family-friendly fare.

English National Ballet – Song of the Earth, La Sylphide – Manchester
★★★★✰ The ENB production of La Sylphide has been staged by three luminaries of Danish ballet, Frank Andersen, Eva Kloborg and Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter, and is, therefore, one supposes, as authentic to the August Bournonville ideals, as possible…

2015 National Dance Awards – Announcement of Nominations
The Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle is pleased to announce the nominations for the 16th National Dance Awards,

Royal Ballet – Raven Girl, Connectome – London
In this revival of Wayne McGregor’s Raven Girl, Watson becomes something more than a postman…

National Ballet of China – Peony Pavilion, Red Detachment of Women – New York
The National Ballet of China dancers are beautifully trained, surprisingly tall, willowy – even the men – and delicately featured.

The Royal Ballet – Infra, Divertissements, The Age of Anxiety, The Dream, Song of the Earth – New York
These are dancers worth following in a wide repertory of works; it’s a shame to see them go while feeling we’ve barely gotten to know them better.

Royal Ballet – Afternoon of a Faun, In the Night, Song of the Earth – London
The final triple bill of the Royal Ballet’s season reverts to its founder’s faith in classical ballet as an expressive language.

Gallery – Royal Ballet in Afternoon of a Faun, In the Night, Song of the Earth
Gallery by Dave Morgan…

Royal Ballet – Four Temperaments, Untouchable (Shechter premiere), Song of the Earth – London
It’s a truism that any startlingly new dance-maker without an early elite training will have based his (or her) choreography on their own physique…

Gallery – Royal Ballet in The Four Temperaments, Untouchable, Song of the Earth
Gallery by Dave Morgan…

Royal Ballet – Ceremony of Innocence, The Age of Anxiety, Aeternum – London
The programme was so underwhelming that I went twice in succession, to see whether alternative casts could make a difference.

Mikhailovsky Ballet – Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness – London, Coliseum
His choreography is busy, occasionally predictable, but more often inventive, strong on musicality and both remarkably fluid and emotionally charged; stretching the dancers both literally and in terms of their artistic diversity.

Monica Mason: A Life With The Royal Ballet Exhibition
The exhibition ‘Monica Mason: A Life With The Royal Ballet‘ opened in February, but only last week did I see it properly – at a private view, which also happily involved some speeches…

Monica Mason: A Life With The Royal Ballet – Exhibition
Monica Mason has had a unique career with The Royal Ballet, having worked with every previous Director of the Company. As her final Season as Director of The Royal Ballet begins to draw to a close, the Royal Opera House Collections Spring/Summer 2012 exhibition examines and celebrates her 54 years with the Company.

Hamburg Ballet – Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler and Streetcar Named Desire – Hong Kong
The local audiences warmly welcomed the long-overdue return of the Hamburg Ballet which was appearing for the third time in the festival. For this 40th anniversary festival the Hamburg company brought both a plotless ballet and a narrative ballet by its renowned choreographer, John Neumeier.