Jann Parry spoke to the internationally renowned Swedish choreographer shortly after the Royal Ballet premiere of his woman with water - they naturally discussed that, but also Covid and his retirement, or not....
Tag - Sylvie Guillem
★★★★✰ George Balanchine's "Stravinsky Violin Concerto" has just been streamed by NYCB - Jann Parry on a complex and effervesent masterwork, if Balanchine stated that it was simply his response to Stravinsky’s music...
★★✰✰✰ Episode Two of Dancing Nation contains works by Humanhood (Júlia Robert and Rudi Cole), Botis Seva for Far From the Norm, Will Tuckett for Birmingham Royal Ballet, Oona Doherty, Boy Blue and Akram Khan with Natalia Osipova (for which ★★★★★).
This three-hour compilation of dance films, interviews and discussions celebrates Akram Khan's burning desire to speak out to a wide audience in the occasion of his company's 20th anniversary.
★★★★★ What we are fortunate to be able to witness in these constrained times is an intimate record of otherwise fleeting performances by exceptional artists.
★★★✰✰ This was indeed a case of Up Close and personal with five intimate pieces variously dosed with Cuban fire and flair...
★★★★✰ The annual Icons gala provides the chance to see dancers who don't often appear in London...
★★★✰✰ A very mixed bill... Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medusa (★★✰✰✰), Christopher Wheeldon's Within the Golden Hour (★★★★✰) and Crystal Pite's Flight Pattern (★★★★✰)
★★★✰✰ Somehow, still at the start of the run, the production seems sanitised, nicely 'English' in spite of Nicholas Georgiadis's imposing Italian Renaissance sets and costumes. Different casts yet to come might bring fresh discoveries...
★★★★✰ For a very short while, Wim Vanlessen will enjoy the claim that he has performed for the Royal Ballet Flanders for more than half its existence. The company celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, later this year and Vanlessen joined in 1994. This performance was both a celebration of exceptional long service and a farewell...
★★★★✰ A harmonious blending of music and dance, it proved seventy-five minutes of non-stop bliss!
★★★★✰ As an almost abstract dance work Until the Lions is outstanding, a spectacular collaboration between dancers, musicians, designers and technicians.
★★★★✰ Forsythe is surprising himself and his audience with new discoveries of what bodies and ballets can do.
★★★★★ "I cannot recall being so moved at a dance performance for a very long time, if ever."
★★★✰✰ Semperoper's dancers distort the classical ballet line more than the Paris Opera Ballet's (or ENB's) and don't bother much with fifth positions or precise épaulement for Forsythe's endless tendus. They seem contemporary dancers rather than étoiles being outrageous.
★★★★✰ The ostensible link between the three works in this mixed bill is that they are by the Royal Ballet's resident choreographers, past and present: Frederick Ashton. Kenneth MacMillan and Wayne McGregor. But none is typical of the choreographers' work...
★★★★✰ Duet, the new work for Maliphant and Fouras closes the programme. This has a surprisingly eclectic soundtrack. After bursts of static as if from a radio, a vintage recording of Una furtive lacrima tenderly sung by Caruso...
★★★★★ A production that seems destined to become a masterpiece of early 21st Century contemporary ballet.
English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer Competition is unique in British ballet in throwing the spotlight on more junior dancers or “tomorrow’s stars” as ENB put it. This year's competition is on the 25 May and ahead of the that we talk to 4 of the 6 finalists - Isabelle Brouwers, Rina Kanehara, Madison Keesler and Guilherme Menezes...
★★★✰✰ Over two years after her retirement from New York City Ballet, Wendy Whelan remains a sight to behold.