May 2010
Akram Khan Company in Gnosis at Sadler's Wells
‘Musically (and here every dot and squeak of it is vibrantly live and present) he invites Japanese taiko drum and cello into the sacred kathak line-up of tabla, voice and sarod. The movement, meanwhile, seems to have surrendered contraints of any kind to achieve a …
Ballet Nacional de Cuba in Dualia / Romance de Luna / La Leyenda at London Coliseum
‘Where flamenco shows usually strive for intimacy and spontaneity, Ballet Nacional is smartly drilled and conceived on a huge canvas: think Riverdance with ruffles. The costumes, always striking, sometimes out-dazzle the dancing.’
Les 7 doigts de la main / The Seven Fingers in Psy at Peacock Theatre
‘The circus skills are brilliant, twisted into clever, often funny dramas.’
Akram Khan Company in Gnosis at Sadler's Wells
‘Perhaps the clearest message we take away from this sublime evening is that art is not born of flash moves and glib ideas but of rigour, study and sacrifice. Khan and his five fellow-artists … have spent a lifetime acquiring their skills. Equally unfashionab…
Breakin' Convention at Sadler's Wells
‘Three times he [Jonzi D] warned that the default audience response (whoop when you can) wouldn’t work: with Dance Offensive’s hit-and-miss portraits of adolescent angst, with Marso Riviere’s haunting representation of his own body as a kind of…
Breakin' Convention at Sadler's Wells
‘Apart from [Mickael “Marso”] Riviere, the most serious-minded work came from the Cambridgeshire company Dance Offensive in a thoughtful, clever blend of movement and text structured round the pressures felt by today’s youth.’