May 2012
Ballet Preljocaj - Snow White at Sadler's Wells
Preljocaj tells his story in unrelenting fashion, movement burdened with hermetic gesture, and resembling nothing so much as a cross between weight-training and the more dispiriting aspects of early American modern dance of the Denishawn era.
Ballet Preljocaj - Snow White at Sadler's Wells
Half-a-dozen magical, standout encounters leapt from this performance, each of which highlights how unlucky we are not to see Angelin Preljocaj’s work more frequently in the UK. Continue Reading
Made By Katie Green – Matters of Life and Death at The Place
Green’s five agile dancers make nimble work of the emotional twists and turns, keeping the piece both enjoyably physical and admirably legible... this is an accomplished and highly watchable piece of dance theatre. Continue Reading
Katja Nyqvist / Mazzilli Dance Theatre at Blue Elephant Theatre
A double bill of new contemporary dance in Camberwell: Underfoot is "about movement so physically & spiritually free, that it suddenly comes alive." For How Much is "powerful & deeply human.." Continue Reading
Daniel Linehan - Zombie Aporia at Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler's Wells
...even when the result is a bit awkward and jumbled, it feels hopeful when artists tackle big ideas and try to have fun at the same time. Continue Reading
Ballet Preljocaj - Snow White at Sadler's Wells
When Preljocaj lets his imagination run away with him like this, the results are spectacular.
Ballet Preljocaj - Snow White at Sadler's Wells
Preljocaj’s choreographic imagination steals over you. His movements give a freshly vivid inflection to his characters
Ballet Preljocaj - Snow White at Sadler's Wells
In fairness, the production – set to Mahler, with added electronic flourishes by 79D – does have a refreshing lack of sugar-coating
Scottish Ballet - A Streetcar Named Desire - Sadler's Wells
Entirely different encounters – Blanche and her lovers, Stanley and Stella, Blanche and Mitch – display surprisingly little variety of mood or tempo and the drama never gets the chance to take flight.
Breakin' Convention 2012 at Sadler's Wells
A man in trainers bounces downstage, hurls himself to the floor and windmills impossibly through a virtuoso hip-hop routine, before calmly unbuckling his artificial leg and repeating the entire thing to the screams of Sadler’s Wells.
Top Hat at the Aldwych Theatre
Tom Chambers … gets to show off his deft footwork alongside Summer Strallen in a frivolous, gently enjoyable exhibition of song and dance.
Daniel Linehan - Zombie Aporia at Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler's Wells
But overall, Zombie Aporia feels more like an idea – a textbook stuffed with ideas, actually – than a piece, and left me feeling that I’d picked up fragments, multi-tasked a lot but achieved only a little.
Gecko - Missing - at The Place
When theatre is this visually inventive, this disorientatingly immersive, it really is hard to resist... Continue Reading
Royal Ballet - La Fille Mal Gardée at Royal Opera House
Yuhui Choe is at once delightful and frustrating – her reading of the part warms up considerably as the evening progresses but needs to come to the boil far sooner.
Einstein on the Beach at Barbican Theatre
Lucinda Childs’ choreography figures prominently and brilliantly in two extended dance sections, but it wouldn't be wrong to say that the entire opera is primarily a work of choreography.. Continue Reading