Birmingham Royal Ballet – The Nutcracker – London
★★★★✰ In spite of all the problems with performing a proscenium arch ballet in an arena setting with a purpose-built stage, it is no less magical than any other production and in some ways, it works advantageously.
Royal Ballet – Coppélia – London
★★★★✰ The dancing is so enjoyable, the comedy so appealing, that any flaws in the story telling are easily overlooked.
Royal Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty – London
★★★★✰ The Royal Ballet’s current production of The Sleeping Beauty, dating back to 2006, is a homage to Ninette de Valois and her faith that Marius Petipa’s Imperial Russian ballet should be the flagship of her British company.
New York City Ballet – Serenade, Summerspace, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 – New York
★★★★✰ On the penultimate day of the fall season, I managed to catch a performance of New York City Ballet’s revival of Merce Cunningham’s Summerspace. The 1958 piece, which had its City Ballet premiere in 1966, was last performed here in 2000.
Bolshoi Ballet – Jewels: Emeralds, Rubies, Diamonds – Brisbane
★★★★★ As you would expect Diamonds was the highlight of the three part Jewels.
Ivan Putrov – Against the Stream – London
★★★★✰ Putov brought together remarkable performers whom we long to see again, and left us wanting more…
New York City Ballet – Serenade, Mozartiana, Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 – New York
★★★✰✰ One of the earliest things I appreciated about Balanchine is that he made me feel okay about liking Tschaikovsky (as NYCB likes to spell it)…
Royal Ballet – Les Patineurs, Winter Dreams, The Concert – London
★★★★✰ Now that we are all one more Nutcracker nearer death, as weary critic Richard Buckle used to bemoan, the Royal Ballet has given us a wintry bonne bouche of ballets to savour.
New York City Ballet – The Nucracker – New York
★★★✰✰ Come hell or high water, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker will return to New York City Ballet, filling the theatre night after night. Balanchine made a ballet built to last, and it has not disappointed.
Company XIV – Nutcracker Rouge – New York
★★★★✰ Austin McCormick’s Company XIV continues to maintain the highest bar in balletic, baroque burlesque.
Royal Ballet – The Nutcracker – London
★★★★✰ Wright’s ending is the best ever, preserving the assurance of the Grand pas de deux that the future must surely be blissful.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (Trocks) – Les Sylphides bill – London
★★★★✰ The curtain calls for Robert Carter’s “Dying Swan” are nearly as long as the ballet itself and just as funny.
St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre – Swan Lake – London
★★✰✰✰ Although the first night audience was moved to a standing ovation, Swan Lake can and should be so much more than this stylised ritual…
Royal Ballet School – Summer Performance, ROH Main Stage – London
★★★✰✰ A matinee in two halves: fine before the interval, with dire, dreary choreography in the second half. Thank goodness for the exhilarating Grand Défilé at the close.
American Ballet Theatre – Swan Lake – New York
★★★★✰ Devon Teuscher has done her time, and the results are breathtaking…
Zurich Ballet – Swan Lake – Zurich
★★★✰✰ But, at least to my eye, the production’s triumph is its final lakeside act. There, the formations of swans, as originally choreographed by Lev Ivanov, become intricate, delicate, lyrical, and intensely moving.
English National Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty – London
★★★★✰ It’s a better Sleeping Beauty than the Royal Ballet’s, but it benefits enormously from a stellar performance at its heart, a reminder of how civilised ballet can be.
New York City Ballet – Coppélia – New York
★★★★✰ Tiler Peck, with her quick feet and sassy musicality, is perfectly suited to the role of Swanhilda. Her choreography has copious amounts of pointework, quick steps, requires adroitness in petit allegro and excellent mime technique – all of which Peck has in abundance.
Royal Ballet – Swan Lake (Scarlett premiere) – London
★★★★★ Liam Scarlett has devised a visual and emotional treat for audiences, fully justifying Kevin O’Hare’s faith in him as a director and choreographer.
