★★★✰✰ 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.
Tag - Sweet Violets
It's always good to get back to mixed programmes after one of the Royal Ballet's long runs of blockbusters, and better still when the first item on the bill is Balanchine's timeless Serenade.
Gallery by Dave Morgan…
It is a mixed experience: too long and overworked in places, a dark vision, unevenly realised, with some striking and chilling moments.
Lynette Halewood with her personal selection of London dance memories this last year...
'Sweet Violets', though over-ambitious, is the best stab at a psychologically complex narrative ballet the company has commissioned for years.
32 Pictures by Dave Morgan