Lynette Halewood with her personal selection of London dance memories this last year…
Tag - Zenaida Yanowsky
Vadim Muntagirov, making his debut as Jack, is any girl’s dream of a dancing partner.
Jann Parry reviews Scènes de ballet, Five Brahms Waltzes, Symphonic Variations and A Month in the Country...
The best of the videos and best piece of the night was Kim Brandstrup's Leda and the Swan using the much-loved Zenaida Yanowsky and Tommy Franzen
It's not a perfect show by any means, but come the end you still love Acosta, his spirit and his smile. He remains a potent name, doing potent things for ballet, like filling the ROH...
Wheeldon has honed his craft in making a story ballet, much better constructed than his Alice in Wonderland. His core characters account for themselves in revealing solos and his pas de deux are no longer over-ingenious.
Fascinating to see the Royal Ballet’s production of Balanchine’s Jewels not long after the Bolshoi’s account at the Royal Opera House in summer. Unlike the Russians, the Royal Ballet dancers understand the different period conventions of the three ‘acts’...
Gallery by Dave Morgan...
The Royal Ballet’s autumn season triple bill offered very different ways of presenting bodies in space: anatomical studies in an architectural limbo (Chroma); flying figures in constant flux (The Human Seasons); a tribal community following ritual patterns (The Rite of Spring).
At this stage, Raven Girl seems a work in transition. Its longueurs need tightening, an inexplicable ‘19th century couple’excised, solos for important characters expanded, and more light thrown on the goings-on.
Watson’s Rudolf is at the end of his tether: sex is a drug, suicide his only release. ...This formidable cast will be seen in a live cinema screening from the Royal Opera House on 13 June.
Some images from Andrej's book to wet your appetite, all courtesy of Oberon Books. Based on these we very much look forward to reviewing the book...
...though I don’t believe it’s a great work of art, there’s no denying that it’s fun.
This triple bill, with two world premieres, shows how ably choreographers 85 years apart can refresh the language of classical ballet without distorting it beyond recognition.
It's the Royal Ballet's varied and unique repertoire that has kept me loyal to the company through some very thin times as well as the golden seasons, and this programme is a nice example of what a flick through its back - catalogue can produce.
Now Is All There Is - Bodies in Motion, is an exhibition of 34 stylized images of Royal Ballet dancers taken by photographer Rick Guest.
It’s an interesting evening, showing both choreographer and company at their best and at somewhat less than that.
It is a fine selection which illustrates the variety of the Royal’s heritage works, which must beg the question how well are they are danced now...
But if some grasp of the narrative can be assumed rather than supplied, Wheeldon still needs to make us care about his characters. He does succeed in making Alice a warm-blooded, strong-willed character, and Lauren Cuthbertson works extremely hard in the role to give us a lively, resourceful and energetic heroine. Jack is less strongly drawn. Federico Bonelli is certainly handsome enough for any...