At least there are some memorable performances to recall from 2021: at the beginning of the year none of us had any idea when we might sit in a theatre and watch live dance again...
Tag - Tchaikovsky
★★★✰✰ "The English National Ballet 'Nutcracker' is a bit of alright and it's almost bound to send you home happier than you arrived." starts Bruce Marriott's review of a Christmas ballet that can both please and give pause for thought...
★★★★✰ With his Nutcracker! Matthew Bourne really wants the audience to have a good time and he knows how to deliver it...
★★★✰✰ This year, the Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo’s visit could not have been better timed. As a new Covid variant closes in, we all need a little cheering up...
★★★★✰ "It’s not often that I’ve seen a Nutcracker receive a standing ovation, but as the curtain fell and Clara ran to greet her mother, there was nothing to do but stand and applaud."
★★★★✰ The final applause was as warm as I have ever heard it, tinged with gratitude, for the return of a spectacle at once so grand and so intimate...
★★★★✰ Tchaikovsky’s music for The Nutcracker may be played ad nauseam in shops and public spaces over Christmas, but the ballet for which he wrote it is the real deal – especially in this production.
★★★✰✰ Featuring Alexei Ratmansky's 'Fandango', Justin Peck's 'Bloom' and Ayodele Casel's 'Where We Dwell'...
★★★★✰ Lauren Lovette has just said farewell to NYCB. Marina Harss on some moving performances - "The ovation was heartfelt, and went on for a long time."
Valerie Lawson on an important series, by WildBear Entertainment, excavating Australian Ballet's past and what's happening now for the company, with all the complications of Covid-19.
★★★✰✰ With works from Yuri Possokhov (Senseless Kindness), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Laid in Earth), Stina Quagebeur (Take Five Blues), Russell Maliphant (Echoes) and Arielle Smith (Jolly Folly)
★★★✰✰ It’s a bit of a bashed-together stream, with a shiny new, COVID-19 era recording of Emeralds, made in January of this year, teamed up with a Rubies from 2016, and Diamonds from 2017...
"I thought it would be interesting to make this Swan Lake very specific for Finland. They are proud of their Nordic heritage and traditions; that whole idea of winter and the purity of nature is very dear to them."
★★★★✰ Program 3 features all-British choreographers: Peter Wright, Peter Darrell, Christopher Wheeldon, Matthew Bourne and Kenneth MacMillan. The exception is a solo by American Dominic Walsh, created for his own contemporary dance company. ...Some of the selections are probably unfamiliar to American audiences, as well as to British ballet fans of a younger vintage.
★★★★★ Scottish Ballet have come up with a delightfully life-affirming present to blow away the Covid blues this Christmas. It's not a film of an existing ballet, as we usually see at this time of year, but a ballet feature film - something made just for the camera and in which the camera is choreographed into the action. The result is a huge success...
★★★★✰ There's no reason to feel short-changed by the Royal Ballet's Covid-compliant Nutcracker. The magic of Tchaikovsky's music and the beauty of the dancing still enchant spectators of all ages.
★★★★✰ Kevin O'Hare, director of the Royal Ballet, came on stage to welcome the return of a paying audience for what turned out to be the opening and closing live performance of the season...
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 (★★★✰✰)
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...
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...