August 2006
Place Prize Preview
Charlotte Cripps highlights some of the choreographers who have been commissioned to make work for the Place Prize competition. “Louise Katerega’s A State of Becoming, inspired by Theodore Gericault&… Continue Reading
Grupo de Rua de Niteroi at Edinburgh Festival
‘It starts with half a minute of near perfection – a handful of dancers, revolving around on their heads, hands or shoulders’
Bolshoi Ballet in Don Quixote at Royal Opera House
‘In Matvienko and Natalia Osipova, the Bolshoi has a pair of lovers whose recklessness is breathtaking.’
Suzanne Farrell Ballet in Don Quixote at Edinburgh Festival
‘Act III’s Elysian Fields ballet, where the Don’s fevered delusion evokes a fetching feminine ensemble, led by the woozy lyricism and skittish allegro of his beloved Dulcinea.’
Suzanne Farrell Ballet in Don Quixote at Edinburgh Festival
‘The work is an odd conglomeration of individual dances, glued together by a narrative loosely borrowed from the book.’
Suzanne Farrell Ballet in Don Quixote at Edinburgh Festival
‘Balanchine’s Don Quixote is a weird experience, sometimes dreadful, sometimes workmanlike, sometimes nail-bitingly daring – in no way a masterpiece, yet a piece made by a master in the grip of the strongest emotions of his life.’
Samanvaya at Edinburgh Festival
‘I found the combination of subtly contrasting styles riveting and beautiful.’
Scottish Ballet in Mixed Bill at Edinburgh Festival
‘Eve Mutso and Erik Cavallari were strikingly confident in the long final pas de deux of Agon and the entire cast rose well to its off-kilter challenges’
Samanvaya at Edinburgh Festival
‘Alarmel Valli and Madhavi Mudgal’s collaboration Samanvaya flew gracefully in the face of tradition by juxtaposing the respective performance styles of these two world-class dancers.’
Cuban Revolution
The phenomenal success of ballet in Cuba is all down to the dedication of one woman. Zoe Anderson talks to Alicia Alonso in the Independent, 24 Aug Continue Reading
Grupo de Rua de Niteroi at Edinburgh Festival
‘Plainly some found Beltrão’s pared-down aesthetic alienating. Walk-outs missed the climax, a cyclone of ensemble energy set to an infectiously rhythmic, pre-recorded instrumental. The beat was back and the audience revelled in it.’
Grupo de Rua de Niteroi at Edinburgh Festival
‘It’s where these men, no ordinary street dancers, are at: raw 21st-century expression, sullen and daringly obscure in parts, vivid and reassuring in others, and sometimes extraordinarily brilliant.’
Bolshoi Ballet in Triple Bill at Royal Opera House
‘Balanchine’s Symphony in C to Bizet’s score is a joyous work made all the more pleasurable by the Bolshoi dancers whose sense of line seems just a little more elongated than anyone else and who now are accustomed to the faster speed of Balanchine’…
Bolshoi Ballet in The Bright Stream at Royal Opera House
‘Ratmansky has the nowadays rare gift for choreographing ensembles.’
Bolshoi Ballet in Don Quixote at Royal Opera House
‘The young Natalia Osipova, from the corps de ballet, given a chance in the leading role of Kitri, … She was well partnered by Denis Matvienko as Basil with one-handed lifts over the head and exciting leaps and turns.’