November 2013
Alina Cojocaru - on the road with English National Ballet
Earlier this year Alina Cojocaru left the Royal Ballet to join English National Ballet - enjoying a transformation under the leadership of her friend Tamara Rojo. She talks to the Observer's Luke Jennings... Continue Reading
Michael Clark Company -Triple Bill - Barbican Theatre
Michael Clark was always a pop rebel with a classical heart, from his ballet training to his 1980s art-fashion triumphs. His latest work.. puts both sides into its opening image. Julie Cunningham descends from on high, like a shaven-headed angel with beautiful feet.
Phoenix Dance Theatre - Particle Velocity - Linbury Studio Theatre
Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Company has bright dancers who look ready to take on everything. In the mixed bill Particle Velocity, they go from the lyricism of Richard Alston’s All Alight to the messy relationship of Douglas Thorpe’s Tender Crazy Love.
Michael Clark Company -Triple Bill - Barbican Theatre
The dancers – Cunningham, Harry Alexander, Melissa Hetherington, Oxana Panchenko, Daniel Squire and Benjamin Warbis – are formidable, and the lighting and costumes are transfixing.
Cloud Dance Festival - Showtime - Bernie Grant Arts Centre
The evening’s standout work was Jo Meredith’s Chimera. Meredith is a working dancer whose next engagement is in Will Tuckett’s The Wind in the Willows, which transfers to the West End in December. But she is also, as her 2009 piece Vulnerasti demonstr…
Michael Clark Company -Triple Bill - Barbican Theatre
It’s all professionally enough executed, but there’s no evidence that Clark has anything to say – or indeed feels the need to have anything to say – and the overwhelming impression, as the muted applause of his loyal audience attests, is of an artist ru…
Michael Clark Company -Triple Bill - Barbican Theatre
Since his early iconoclasm, Clark has increasingly become an abstract artist, exploring the shapes and structures of dance within the format he has set himself. His latest bill at the Barbican shows that journey continuing.
Royal Ballet - Romeo and Juliet - Royal Opera House
Osipova’s dancing is fabulous, but the height of her jump and the powerful pliancy of her back never call undue attention to themselves. Her dancing is phrased entirely to serve the churning, delirious currents of Juliet’s emotions and the drama of Prokofie…
Phoenix Dance Theatre - Mixed Bill - Linbury Studio Theatre
Richard Alston’s new All Alight, recently created for the troupe, is a suite of fluent and cleverly spaced dances set to Ravel’s sonata for violin and cello, sophisticated in choreographic means and done with eager dedication.
Phoenix Dance Theatre - Particle Velocity - Linbury Studio Theatre
This part of the programme [Jose Agudo’s Ki & Douglas Thorpe’s Tender Crazy Love] ranges ambitiously across tastes and styles, and makes a confidently robust case for Phoenix’s future.
Stuttgart Ballet - Made in Germany - Sadler's Wells
It all makes, then, for an overstuffed and uneven programme. But it also has enough high points to make you glad you came, and enough strong performances to make the company’s staging – later this week – of Cranko’s Taming of the Shrew seem an enticing prospect.
Stuttgart Ballet - Made in Germany - Sadler's Wells
…the programme that marks its return to London – 13 choreographic fragments and duets from a repertoire specially made for the ensemble, and dumped without much ceremony on the Sadler’s Wells stage – taxed even my admiration.
Strictly goes to Blackpool
The night belonged to Susanna [Reid] and partner Kevin in their dramatic, dynamic epic of a Pasodoble. Performing to authentic music (hurrah!), Susanna was the perfect Spanish senorita. Continue Reading
Phoenix Dance Theatre - Particle Velocity - Linbury Studio Theatre
Four well-chosen pieces demonstrate the strength, versatility and sense of adventure of this Leeds-based company who are clearly punching above their weight.
Phoenix Dance Theatre - Particle Velocity - Linbury Studio Theatre
Artistic director Sharon Watson has been at the helm of Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre for four years now. In a company that’s had more reinventions than Madonna, Watson’s approach is to present a spread of current contemporary dance — something for everyone.