Birmingham Royal Ballet – The Grand Tour, Faster, The Dream – London
The programme included works both old and new but it was not an altogether successful mixture. The dancers looked most at home, and at their most sleek and impressive, in Faster, a work made on them...
View ArticleCarlos Acosta – Classical Selection – London
his diverse selection of 17 works (including musical interludes) is a gala in all but name and this one could have been sub-titled “Gems of The Royal Ballet” for all nine dancers hail from that company...
View ArticleBirmingham Royal Ballet – E=mc2, Tombeaux, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café –...
What the programme showed was that, unlike most of other ballet choreographers in Britain today, Bintley's work isn’t primarily about the pas de deux.
View ArticleBirmingham Royal Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty – London
...it’s actually a real pleasure to watch a company just working together for the good of the ballet.
View ArticleBirmingham Royal Ballet – Prince of the Pagodas (Bracewell/Roberts) – London
One of Bintley’s other notable commitments as Director is the rapid development of young dancers. For a graduating dance student, hungry for big roles, BRB is the company to aim for....
View ArticleBirmingham Royal Ballet – Prince of the Pagodas (Caley/Hirata) – London
In his programme note, Bintley claims to have foregone sexual romance in favour of ‘something more mystical and subtle’, connected with Japanese veneration of its Imperial family. It doesn’t resonate...
View ArticleA Heads-Up on Queensland Ballet, La Sylphide and company director Li Cunxin
Jann Parry on the award winning Peter Schaufuss "La Sylphide", not seen in the UK in decades, and Li Cunxin's Queensland Ballet who are bringing it to London this summer. Includes an interview with...
View ArticleBirmingham Royal Ballet – Swan Lake – London
Opening night cast of Celine Gittens and Tyrone Singleton reviewed + some thoughts on Delia Mathews and Brandon Lawrence...
View ArticleRoyal Ballet School – Annual Main Stage Performance 2017 – London
★★★★✰ It was a well-balanced programme, featuring different kinds of discipline for future corps de ballet dancers, and honouring veteran choreographers as well as contemporary ones.
View ArticleBirmingham Royal Ballet – Arcadia, Le Baiser de la fée, ‘Still Life’ at the...
★★✰✰✰ Bintley’s ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café saves a dispiriting evening by providing nimble demi-character dancing with a timely message, first delivered nearly 20 years ago.
View ArticleBirmingham Royal Ballet – Romeo and Juliet – London
★★★★✰ It was a fine team performance from the company but particular honours go to Momoko Hirata’s Juliet who let us know what she was thinking and feeling at every moment.
View ArticleRoyal Ballet – Mayerling (Hirano, Osipova) – London
★★★★✰ Osipova is lethally orgasmic... Never has MacMilllan's choreography for the death duet seemed so astounding as in her account of it.
View ArticleSan Francisco Ballet – Alexei Ratmansky’s Shostakovich Trilogy – London
★★★★✰ A gleaming triptych of imaginative and remarkably demanding choreography. The production is textured in every aspect, plumbing deep wells of emotion and revelling in a multiplicity of tones,...
View ArticleSan Francisco Ballet – Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem, Bound To, Anima...
★★★★✰ It’s been a treat to see so much new work made specifically for a company. The dancers are free, unburdened by the weight of history and expectation, with no comparisons to be made to famous...
View ArticleBirmingham Royal Ballet – Giselle – London
★★★★✰ ...exemplary performances from Momoko Hirata as Giselle and César Morales as Albrecht make for a richly rewarding and moving experience.
View ArticleBirmingham Royal Ballet – The Nutcracker – London
★★★★✰ In spite of all the problems with performing a proscenium arch ballet in an arena setting with a purpose-built stage, it is no less magical than any other production and in some ways, it works...
View ArticleBirmingham Royal Ballet – The Grand Tour, Faster, The Dream – London
The programme included works both old and new but it was not an altogether successful mixture. The dancers looked most at home, and at their most sleek and impressive, in Faster, a work made on them...
View ArticleBirmingham Royal Ballet – Lazuli Sky, Our Waltzes, Liebestod – London
★★★✰✰ Carlos Acosta, ten months in to his directorship of BRB, has provided it with a mixed bunch of shoots for a fresh start. Their first flowering may have been cut short by the closure of theatres...
View ArticleDarcey Bussell’s British Ballet Charity Gala – London and available to stream
Jann Parry with some thoughts on the Darcey Bussell gala to raise funds for British Ballet and featuring Ballet Black, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, New Adventures, Northern Ballet,...
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