Royal Ballet – Back on Stage – London
The entire Royal Ballet were back on stage and performing for a live audience last Friday in a gala style show which was/is also streamed. Jann Parry was mightily impressed with the dancing and repertoire (★★★★★) if not so much with the live audience experience in a Covid aware Opera House (★★★✰✰)
RDB’s Tobias Praetorius on his new ballet, The Princess and the Pea
Royal Danish Ballet’s Tobias Praetorius is an anomaly, a young dancer – he’s only 24 – who is already interested in playing character roles. He is also a choreographer and Marina Harss catches up with him about his latest project – a ‘Pixiballet’ (aimed at children) based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Princess and the Pea…
Amici Dance Theatre’s 40th Anniversary during lock-down
The six films in the 40th anniversary celebration provide tantalising glimpses of Amici’s considerable back catalogue, which includes short works as well as major productions…
Royal Ballet – Anastasia – streamed archive recording of 2016 performance
★★★★✰ Osipova inhabits the role of Anna Anderson with gruelling sincerity. She appears deranged from the beginning with close-up camera angles revealing a depth of despair that is tremendously affecting.
Royal Ballet – Swan Lake – London
★★★★✰ Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov’s account of Swan Lake is spellbinding… if Scarlett’s revision of the 1895 scenario makes even less sense than the original.
Washington Ballet – Balanchine + Ashton quad bill – Washington
★★★✰✰ The Washington Ballet new program titled Balanchine + Ashton showcased four works by the two great choreographers, who “forever shaped our art form,” as the company’s artistic director, Julie Kent, put it in her opening remarks.
Shanghai Ballet – Swan Lake – New York
★★★★✰ It’s comforting to know that at even my advanced age I can still be confounded even by hoary old Swan Lake.
The National Ballet of Canada – The Sleeping Beauty – Washington
★★★★✰ …undoubtedly one of the most visually stunning and dramatically meaningful Beauties you will ever find.
Ballet Icons Gala 2020 – London
★★★★✰ The annual Icons gala provides the chance to see dancers who don’t often appear in London…
New York City Ballet – All Balanchine: Allegro Brillante, La Source, Firebird – New York
★★★★✰ How is the company looking? …the company looks good so far.
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.
