Rupert Christiansen

Depressingly corny: Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet, reviewed

5 July 2025 9:00 am

It’s all very well for people like me to sneer at dance makers for drawing on classic rock as a…

The artistic benefits of not being publicly subsidised

21 June 2025 9:00 am

Paralysed rather than empowered by the heavy hand of Big Brother Arts Council, the major subsidised dance companies are running…

The cheering fantasies of Oliver Messel

21 June 2025 9:00 am

Through the grey downbeat years of postwar austerity, we nursed cheering fantasies of a life more lavishly colourful and hedonistic.…

Christopher Wheeldon’s real gifts lie in abstract dance

24 May 2025 9:00 am

Christopher Wheeldon must be one of the most steadily productive and widely popular figures in today’s dance world, but I’m…

Budget Ballets Russes: BRB2’s Diaghilev and the Birth of Modern Ballet reviewed

17 May 2025 9:00 am

Although I doff my hat to Carlos Acosta’s BRB2, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s junior troupe, for a reminder of what is…

Exhilarating – but also exhausting: ENB’s The Forsythe Programme reviewed

19 April 2025 9:00 am

The first time I saw the work of Trajal Harrell I stomped out in a huff muttering about the waste…

Rejoice at the Royal Ballet’s superb feast of Balanchine

5 April 2025 9:00 am

Any evening devoted to the multifaceted genius of George Balanchine is something to be grateful for, manna in the wilderness…

What a joy to see some Merce Cunningham again

29 March 2025 9:00 am

How salutary to encounter the cool cerebral elegance of Merce Cunningham’s choreography again. A figure at the heart of the…

Irresistible: Osipova/Linbury reviewed

15 March 2025 9:00 am

One of the few indisputably great ballerinas of her generation, Natalia Osipova is a magnificent exemplar of the Russian school,…

I’ve had it with Pina Bausch

22 February 2025 9:00 am

My patience with the cult of Pina Bausch is wearing paper thin. She was taken from us 16 years ago,…

Does Sadler’s Wells really need a lavish new building?

15 February 2025 9:00 am

Arts Council England may be successfully clobbering the poor old genre of opera into the ground, but its sister art…

What a sad thing Strictly Come Dancing has become

1 February 2025 9:00 am

Those of a violently masochistic disposition would have heartily enjoyed the Saturday matinée of the Strictly Come Dancing: Live Tour…

A jewel in the English National Ballet’s crown: Giselle reviewed

25 January 2025 9:00 am

Since its première in Paris in 1841, Giselle has weathered a bumpy ride. For St Petersburg in 1884, Petipa gave…

Superb: Ruination, at the Linbury Theatre, reviewed

14 December 2024 9:00 am

Ruination begins with an ironic prologue in which a choric figure warns the audience that what follows makes unlikely matter…

‘La Scala was maddening’: an interview with John Macfarlane, the finest set designer of his generation

7 December 2024 9:00 am

Pantomime season is upon us, and unless your taste in colour runs no further than Smarties, there is no more…

Deeply impressive and beautiful: Akram Khan’s Gigenis reviewed

30 November 2024 9:00 am

After taking a wrong turn culminating in the misbegotten Frankenstein, Akram Khan has wisely returned to his original inspiration in…

A spectacular failure: Royal Ballet’s MaddAddam reviewed

23 November 2024 9:00 am

Adapting ballets out of plot-heavy novels set in fantasy locations and populated with multiple characters is a rubbish idea. The…

Demanding but exhilarating: Royal Ballet’s Encounters reviewed

2 November 2024 9:00 am

After opening its 2024/5 season with a run of Christopher Wheeldon’s candy-coloured, kiddie-friendly Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Royal Ballet…

I’m done with Hofesh Shechter

19 October 2024 9:00 am

I think I’m through with Hofesh Shechter, and that’s a pity, because earlier work of his such as Political Mother…

Expressive and eloquent: Northern Ballet’s Three Short Ballets reviewed

28 September 2024 9:00 am

Ballet companies have become dismally timid about exploring their 20th-century heritage: everything nowadays must be either box-fresh new or a…

The unstoppable rise of stage amplification

31 August 2024 9:00 am

Recent acquisition of some insanely expensive hearing aids aimed at helping me out in cacophonous restaurants has set me thinking…

Welcome back to London City Ballet – but can they please change their name?

10 August 2024 9:00 am

There’s sound thinking behind this summer’s resuscitation of London City Ballet – a medium-scale touring company popular in the 1980s…

Why I fell out of love with Wagner

13 July 2024 9:00 am

It’s four years since I gave up opera criticism. The pandemic had struck, I had hit a significant birthday, and…

Are the best young ballerinas being lured away from dance by sport?

13 July 2024 9:00 am

As graduation ceremonies go, the Royal Ballet School’s annual matinée ranks among the most spectacular. It takes place at the…

The genius of Frederick Ashton

29 June 2024 9:00 am

To defend my case that Frederick Ashton ought to be acknowledged as one of the major artistic geniuses of the…