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.
Birmingham Royal Ballet – Autumn delights: La fille mal gardée & The Nutcracker – London & Birmingham
★★★★✰ I look forward to the changes inevitably coming to BRB, but I can’t believe any new director will turn their back on such repertoire gems as La fille mal gardee and their Peter Wright Nutcracker.
San Francisco Ballet – Nutcracker – San Francisco
★★★★✰ I’m a Nutcracker fan. And I’m a fan of San Francisco Ballet’s current production, choreographed in 2004 by Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson…
Company XIV – Nutcracker Rouge – New York
★★★★✰ Austin McCormick’s Company XIV continues to maintain the highest bar in balletic, baroque burlesque.
Gallery – English National Ballet in Nutcracker
With Rina Kanehara and Jeffrey Cirio in the lead roles. Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou…
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.
Interview: Mayara Magri, First Soloist, The Royal Ballet
Jann Parry talks to the recently promoted Mayara Magri at an important time – she is about to make her debut as Gamzatti in The Royal Ballet’s production of La Bayadere – her first major and leading role in the company she joined 6 years ago…
Interview: Melissa Hamilton, First Soloist, The Royal Ballet
“I knew that I had to seize my only chance to have a ballet career. Masha Mukhamedov agreed to teach me privately six days a week for ten months…”
Interview – Annabelle Lopez Ochoa on creating Guernica for SF Ballet’s Unbound Festival
“I don’t know if we can make the world a better place, but we can definitely have the audience think about it.”
Royal Ballet/ROH Learning and Participation – Giselle, schools’ matinee – London
★★★★✰ This was indeed a Giselle to treasure as a first encounter with ballet.
English National Ballet – Song of the Earth, La Sylphide – London
★★★★✰ The pairing cannily indulges our need for vivid material on these bleak mid-winter nights while also steering us down from the high of the Christmas circuit, with its sugary Nutcrackers and other family-friendly fare.
Birmingham Royal Ballet – The Nutcracker – London
★★★✰✰ Peter Wright’s glorious ballet might not shine quite so magically in its Bintley/Albert Hall version but the dancers certainly do…
Smuin Contemporary American Ballet – The Christmas Ballet – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ I’ve seen The Christmas Ballet five times over the years and it has always been and continues to be a lovely, celebratory afternoon or evening at the theatre. That said, I still struggle with the format.
Mark Morris Dance Group – The Hard Nut – San Francisco
★★★★★ The house was abuzz on Friday evening for the opening performance of Mark Morris Dance Group’s The Hard Nut. It’s been five years since Cal Performances hosted the production, and clearly fans had been anxiously awaiting its reappearance.
English National Ballet – Nutcracker – London
★★★✰✰ One of the ballet’s biggest departures from tradition is having the same dancer play Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy. The reasoning is unclear, but Kase proves versatile enough to pull it off…
Scottish Ballet – The Nutcracker – Edinburgh
★★★★✰ A charming, uplifting ballet that truly sets the scene for Christmas. A large part of the heart-warming effect was Darrell’s decision to populate the stage with children…
Miami City Ballet – The Nutcracker – Los Angeles
★★★✰✰ The MCB dancers exude Balanchine brio and delight in performing his intricate steps, but they had to give their all to keep up with the youngsters.
Royal Ballet – The Nutcracker – London
★★★★★ When Peter Wright’s production of The Nutcracker for the Royal Ballet was given its premiere on 20th December 1984, gala guests were treated to free champagne and souvenir booklets. No expense was spared…
