Royal Ballet – La Bayadère – London
★★★★✰ In the past, the Royal Ballet's version, last performed five years ago, has sometimes seemed insubstantial. Not so this time, with a luxury cast in full dramatic mode: Vadim Muntagirov,...
View ArticleStaatsballett Berlin – La Bayadère (premiere of Ratmansky reconstruction) –...
★★★★✰ In the last several years, the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky has developed a sideline to his main choreographic efforts: the reviving of ballets by Marius Petipa in a way that represents the...
View ArticleInterview: Mayara Magri, First Soloist, The Royal Ballet
Jann Parry talks to the recently promoted Mayara Magri at an important time - she is about to make her debut as Gamzatti in The Royal Ballet's production of La Bayadere - her first major and leading...
View ArticleRoyal Ballet – The Unknown Soldier (premiere), Infra, Symphony in C – London
★★★✰✰ If The Unknown Soldier is dispiritingly low-key, Wayne McGregor's Infra remains assertively bold...
View ArticleMemorable Performances of 2018 – London
Semperoper Ballett Dresden were another new visitor in the summer, with a programme of Forsythe works, some not seen here before. But Forsythe is a theme this year in himself.
View ArticleInterview: Thinking About Petipa – A Conversation with Alexei Ratmansky
Marina Harss talks to a legend about another legend and the greatest classical choreographer of them all - Marius Petipa. Full of interesting insights...
View ArticleRussian Ballet Icons Gala 2019 – London
★★★✰✰ The annual Ballet Icons gala, now in its 14th year, aims to promote Russian culture while providing a Sunday evening's entertainment for Russians in London and ballet-lovers...
View ArticleAmerican Ballet Theatre – Gala with The Seasons premiere + Ratmansky Trio...
★★★★✰ It’s impossible not to be impressed by the range of these works, from introspective and conversational (Symposium) to brilliantly classical (The Seasons) to dramatic (Dnieper).
View ArticleNatalia Osipova Film – A Force of Nature Natalia
★★★★★ This is a superbly made film... It draws a portrait of a supreme artist, a woman with exceptional humility, all sensitively handled with warmth and humour.
View ArticleBolshoi Ballet – Don Quixote – London
★★★★✰ The reason the Bolshoi's Don Quixote is so enjoyable is the gusto with which it is performed. It doesn't aim to be remotely authentically Spanish or even respectful of the original 1869 version...
View ArticleAmerican Ballet Theatre – Fall Gala and The Masters bills – New York
★★★★✰ The fewer the speeches, the better the gala – this universal truth seems to have bypassed the organizers at American Ballet Theatre...
View ArticleMariinsky Ballet – La Bayadère – San Francisco
★★★★✰ the Mariinsky’s production was a welcome ravishment of vibrant costumes, shimmering jewels, romantic storytelling and sheer entertainment...
View ArticleBolshoi Ballet – Giselle (Ratmansky premiere) – Moscow
★★★★✰ This is a Giselle that is both familiar and new. Watching it on opening night was like seeing a faded painting regain its colors.
View ArticleSome Memorable Performances of 2019 – New York
I don’t really believe in lists, but it’s admittedly fun to look back over the year and reflect on moments that have stayed with me. So here they are, in no particular order…
View ArticleEnglish National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer 2020 Competition – 5 Questions to 6...
English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer Competition is unique in British ballet in throwing the spotlight on more junior dancers or "the excellence of the Company’s young talent,” as ENB put it. This...
View ArticleBook – Soar: A Life Freed by Dance – by David McAllister
David McAllister, about to step down as the artistic director of Australian Ballet, has just released his memoir and it proves enlightening and candid reading about both the company and the man himself...
View ArticleStella Abrera, Principal Dancer and Artistic Director, Kaatsbaan Cultural...
Stella Abrera, the much loved and recently retired American Ballet Theatre principal talks to Oksana Khadarina about her new life as Artistic Director of the Kaatsbaan Cultural Park and its much...
View ArticleAustralian Ballet – Summertime at the Ballet gala – Melbourne
★★★★✰ After nearly a year away from dancing for live audiences Australian Ballet are back with a gala - Summertime at the Ballet - and at an unusual location, the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne.
View ArticleEnglish National Ballet – Raymonda by Tamara Rojo (premiere) – London
★★★★✰ Rojo has achieved an excellent feat of artistic engineering; creating a fully-functioning, enjoyable new model out of a redundant artefact.
View ArticleNew York City Ballet – Mozartiana, Rubies, La Valse – New York
★★★✰✰ Last week’s performance, of a triple bill of Balanchine works, was as normal as anything could be in these abnormal times...
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