May 2015
Sylvie Guillem - Life in Progress - Sadler's Wells
She exploded out of the Paris Opera Ballet breaking physical boundaries and challenging women’s expectations in dance as much as Rudolf Nureyev transformed it all for men. The echoes of that greatness are poignant indeed in this programme of four contemporary works.
Sylvie Guillem - Life in Progress - Sadler's Wells
Line and power. Guillem’s career in three words. A pity, then, that her valedictory programme should be so forgettable. Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant and Mats Ek are all choreographers of distinction, but none rises to this particular occasion.
Review: Lost Dog - Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) - Battersea Arts Centre
Duke has a winningly charismatic stage presence, starting out with much modest shuffling and claims that this is an unfinished work. Certainly, it needs its intimate setting, relying as it does on rough-around-th… Continue Reading
News: Applications open for Dance UK's Mentoring Programme
Professional development opportunities for dancers and dance teachers identified by their peers as future leaders. Continue Reading
Lost Dog - Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) - Battersea Arts Centre
It’s an intriguingly ambitious show, presented in an intimate low-tech style. For all his faux naif modesty and charm, Duke is an accomplished speaker and dancer, holding an audience gripped.
News: Creativity and Age - The best is yet to come?
Do artists peak before 45? Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro has said so, and The Guardian's Helen Walmsley-Johnson has raised him six 50+ creative women, including Sylvie Guillem and Alessandra Ferri, to say no. Continue Reading
Feature: Gravity & Grace - The Institute of Controlled Falling
Dramaturg Ruth Little guest edits this year’s Dance Umbrella’s Definite Article series.Her theme is our relationship with gravity -with contributions from artists, scientists & social commentators… Continue Reading
Lost Dog - Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) - Battersea Arts Centre
Ben Duke’s project of reducing Milton’s Paradise Lost to 80 minutes of solo dance theatre sounds like an act of biblical hubris. Yet it’s a tribute to the wit and invention of his approach that not only Duke, but Milton and God come through it triumphant.
Sylvie Guillem - Life in Progress - Sadler's Wells
Exploring memory and identity through the character of a woman, possibly near the end of her life, it’s funny, touching, inscrutable, clever, thoughtful, and inimitable – much like Guillem herself. How horribly we will miss her.
Sylvie Guillem - Life in Progress - Sadler's Wells
It’s typical of her stubborn integrity that the farewell programme she has chosen is more about risk than nostalgia.
Sylvie Guillem - Life in Progress - Sadler's Wells
She has decided upon this particular sharp exit, with its stunning lack of self-celebration. And that is typical. No lachrymose curtain calls for this girl.
Sylvie Guillem - Life in Progress - Sadler's Wells
Farewell, Sylvie. The dance world will be a poorer place without you.
Sylvie Guillem - Life in Progress - Sadler's Wells
At the end of Here & After, Guillem briefly faces the audience. She meets our eyes, with the hint of a smile; she sees us, and for a moment we see her — the person, not the dancer — before she makes a decisive turn and walks off into the fading light.
Review: Sylvie Guillem - Life in Progress - Sadler's Wells
All those years of being partnered, supported and presented by a male ballet dancer and she ends her dance career in a free-flowing contemporary duet with a female... Continue Reading
News: Sadler's Wells marks Sylvie Guillem's final performances
"The title of Associate Artist Emeritus, is a celebration of the wonderful contribution she has made to the world of dance & an expression of our appreciation for her incredible artistry."... Continue Reading