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 - Valentino Zucchetti
★★★★✰ The 2021 Royal Ballet School Summer Show, on the Royal Opera House Main Stage, was a different affair to normal with many of the White Lodge Junior School students physically absent because of Covid restrictions. But there was much to celebrate and lots of new work on display too...
★★★★✰ The full bill features: The Sleeping Beauty Act III, Anemoi (new Valentino Zucchetti), Divertissements: Morgen (Wayne McGregor), Winter Dreams pdd, After the Rain pdd, Woman with water (Mats Ek and new to RB), Voices of Spring pdd.
The full bill features: The Sleeping Beauty Act III, Anemoi (new Valentino Zucchetti), Divertissements: Morgen (Wayne McGregor), Winter Dreams pdd, After the Rain pdd, Woman with water (Mats Ek and new to RB), Voices of Spring pdd. Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
Jann Parry with some thoughts on the Darcey Bussell gala to raise funds for British Ballet and featuring Ballet Black, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, New Adventures, Northern Ballet, Rambert2, Scottish Ballet and The Royal Ballet.
★★★✰✰ With works from Christopher Wheeldon (Within the Golden Hour), Kyle Abraham (Optional Family: a divertissement - a premiere) and Crystal Pite (The Statement & Solo Echo)
A quad bill featuring a premiere by Kyle Abraham (as yet unnamed) along with works by Crystal Pite and Christopher Wheeldon.
★★★★★ Thank you, Royal Ballet, for giving so much pleasure in trying times.
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 (★★★✰✰)
As lockdown eases ballet is getting out of streaming from living rooms and into the big wide world - Jann Parry looks at six happenings/films involving dancers from Dance Theatre of Harlem, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet & The Royal Ballet
★★★★✰ 21 dance films, sourced from all over the globe and presented by Marquee TV in association with Screen.dance (Scotland’s Festival of dance on screen) and San Francisco Dance Film Festival.
"If you missed 'Men at the Barre - Inside the Royal Ballet': a look behind the scenes at the male ballet dancers in the company, then do take the time to catch up on BBC iPlayer."
Feature – Ashton Rediscovered Masterclass: Voices of Spring, coached by Merle Park and Wayne Eagling
For anyone with an interest in the machinations of bringing a difficult pas de deux to performance standard, this was an experience to cherish.
★★★★✰ 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.
★★★✰✰ 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...
★★★★✰ - Royal Ballet School in Liam Scarlett's new Cunning Little Vixen. ★★✰✰✰ - Royal Ballet's Yasmine Naghdi debut in Two Pigeons.
★★★✰✰ If The Unknown Soldier is dispiritingly low-key, Wayne McGregor's Infra remains assertively bold...
Jann Parry talks to The Royal Ballet about what's happening on World Ballet Day this year and just what it means for some of those involved... Kristen McNally, James Hay and Assistant director Anthoula Syndica-Drummond.
Royal Ballet The Winter’s Tale ★★★★✰ Brisbane, Queensland Performing Arts Centre Gallery of pictures (Apr 2014, London) by Dave Morgan 5 July 2017 www.roh.org.uk www.qpac.com.au From his choreography for the dance movie, Centre Stage, to his latest hit musical, An American in Paris, Christopher Wheeldon knows how to capture audiences, keep their attention and send them out to the foyers with a...
★★✰✰✰ I begin this notice with a codicil. Let this preamble show my unbounded admiration for the spirit and rationale of Project Polunin.