Dance
Mel C’s debut as a contemporary dancer is impressive: How did we get here?, at Sadler’s Wells, reviewed
‘We hope you enjoy the performance,’ announced the Tannoy before the lights went down for How did we get here?…
Like bingeing on cheap chocolate: Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, at Sadler’s Wells, reviewed
A Christmas revival of New Adventures’ ten-year-old production of Sleeping Beauty stirs up all my nagging ambivalence about Matthew Bourne’s…
The highlight was a dazzling duet from Pam Tanowitz: The Royal Ballet – A Diamond Celebration reviewed
The Koh-i-Noor in this Diamond Celebration of 60 years of the Friends of the Royal Opera House garnered the least…
Exhilarating: English National Ballet triple bill, at Sadler’s Wells, reviewed
Headed for San Francisco, Tamara Rojo bows out of her directorship of English National Ballet with an exhilarating triple bill…
One long moan of woe: Crystal Pite's Light of Passage, at the Royal Opera, reviewed
I was moved and shaken by Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern when I first saw it in 2017. In richly visualised…
A solid evening’s entertainment: Rambert's Peaky Blinders ballet reviewed
Being of a squeamish sensibility and prejudiced by a low opinion of recent BBC drama, I can claim only a…
Exhilarating, frightening and hilarious: Made in Leeds – Three Short Ballets reviewed
Good, better, best was the satisfying trajectory of Northern Ballet’s terrific programme of three original short works, which moves south…
Nureyev deserves better: Nureyev – Legend and Legacy, at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, reviewed
I was never Rudolf Nureyev’s greatest fan. I must have seen him dance 30 or 40 times, starting with a…
I feel sorry for those stupid enough to believe that ballet is racist or transphobic
Sick though one may be of the way that the poison dart of ‘woke’ is lazily flung at what is…
Leave Bizet’s Carmen alone
I’ve always felt uncomfortably ambivalent about the work of Matthew Bourne. Of course, there is no disputing its infectious exuberance…
I suspect this was a rush job: Like Water for Chocolate reviewed
How much weight of plot can dance carry? Balanchine famously insisted that there are no mothers-in-law in ballet, and masters…
Touching, eclectic and exhilarating: Rambert Dance is in great shape
Rambert ages elegantly: it might just rank as the world’s oldest company devoted to modern dance (whatever that term might…
Impressive interpretations marred by cuts: Scottish Ballet's The Scandal at Mayerling reviewed
Sneer all you like at its prolixities and vulgarities but Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling remains a ballet that packs an exceptionally…
A fitting swansong from Tamara Rojo: The Forsythe Evening reviewed
One wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of Tamara Rojo. The most fearsome figure on the British dance…
Why is dance so butch these days?
For an art form that once boldly set out to question conventional divisions of gender, ballet now seems to be…
Liam Scarlett's enduring legacy: Royal Ballet's Swan Lake reviewed
Without fanfare or apology, the Royal Ballet appears to have rehabilitated Liam Scarlett, but what a tragic balls-up it has…
Swings between violence and comedy: Pina Bausch's Kontakthof, at Sadler's Wells, reviewed
When you take in the richness of a Pina Bausch production — the redolent staging, the eloquent, eccentric twists of…
Rojo’s choreographic updating is a visual feast: English National Ballet's Raymonda reviewed
Velvet waistcoats, technicolour tulle and some very spangly harem pants — English National Ballet’s atelier must have been mighty busy…
The Nutcracker wasn’t always considered quite such a box of delights
The enduring appeal of The Nutcracker. The ballet wasn’t always considered quite such a box of delights
The genius of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker score
The enduring appeal of The Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s ravishing score is nothing less than the sound of Christmas
Zany and sensory-rich: Scottish Dance's Amethyst/TuTuMucky at The Place reviewed
The Barcelona-born choreographer Joan Clevillé has form for off-beat storytelling with a streak of sincerity. Before becoming artistic director of…
Richly layered and intricate: Royal Ballet's The Dante Project reviewed
Where does the artist end and their work begin? Like 2015’s Woolf Works, Wayne McGregor’s new ballet swirls creator and…
Skirt-swishing and stomach-dropping: Ukrainian Ballet Gala, at Sadler's Wells, reviewed
Like musical supergroups and Olympic basketball teams, ballet galas tend to prize individual gifts over group cohesion. A recent one…
Swaggerific display of pumping chests and crotch-grabbing struts: NYDC's Speak Volumes reviewed
Last week I attended a dance performance in person for the first time since March last year. If you’d asked…
At last some genuine gala material: Royal Ballet's Balanchine and Robbins reviewed
The OED defines ‘gala’ as ‘a festive occasion’. In the ballet world this usually translates as a handful of stars,…
