Dance
An awesome and hilarious display: Rambert's Rooms reviewed
Social distancing continues to put the kibosh on large-scale productions, but Jo Stromgren has a nifty workaround in Rooms, which…
The day I danced with the Duke of Edinburgh
The day I danced with the Duke of Edinburgh
Zippy and stylish, with a glint of mischief: William Forsythe’s The Barre Project reviewed
In the early Noughties there was a Hollywood subgenre (by which I mean a few cult movies, each with terrible…
Gripping – if you skip the non-stop Yentobbing: Dancing Nation reviewed
Thank God for the fast-forward button. Sadler’s Wells had planned a tentative return to live performance last month but the…
What's an art form that feels unpopular and pointless, but isn't? Video art
How did the universe begin? Did the great god Bumba vomit us up, as the Kuba believe? Or did we…
Like much jazz, it might have benefited from being less solemn: BBC4's Ronnie's reviewed
Ronnie’s: Ronnie Scott and His World-Famous Jazz Club was like the TV equivalent of an authorised biography: impressively thorough, often…
I miss the faint hiss of a spinning foot: Royal Ballet – Live reviewed
Ballet lovers driven square-eyed by a drip feed of livestreaming and archive footage have been pining for the patter of…
Tranquil, silky and serene: Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Lazuli Sky reviewed
When Carlos Acosta was named artistic director of Birmingham Royal Ballet in January of this year, he announced ambitious plans…
Vigour and verve from a unique new Rite of Spring: Dancing at Dusk reviewed
Dancing at Dusk captures the final rehearsal of a new version of Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring. It’s only…
Sensual and silky: the Royal Ballet returns to Covent Garden
Wayne McGregor’s Morgen! and Frederick Ashton’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits are the first pieces of live dance — streamed…
Top of my must-watch mustn't-watch: Cats revisited
At the outset of lockdown I gave you my list of top mustn’t-watch films — that is, the ones that…
The genius of Martha Graham
If eight weeks in lockdown have brought out my baser impulses (biscuits by the sleeve, total renunciation of waistbands), it’s…
No one understood the ennui of lockdown better than Louis XIV and his courtiers
A few years ago I interviewed an eminent baroque conductor. Prickly and professorial, tired after a day of rehearsals, he…
Gorgeous and electrifying: And Then We Danced reviewed
The film you want to see this week that you mightn’t have seen if you weren’t stuck at home is…
Another triumph for Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young at Sadler’s Wells
It must have been hard for Crystal Pite and Jonathan Young to live up to the success of 2016’s devastating…
Rambert's latest uses the migrant crisis for superficial intrigue: Aisha and Abhaya reviewed
The January dance stage can be a site of naked contrition. Like a tippler grasping at green juice after a…
Chilling: Arthur Pita’s The Little Match Girl at Sadler’s Wells reviewed
Did your feet twitch? That’s the test of The Red Shoes. Did your toes point? Your ankles flex? Your arches…
Unsettlingly faithful to the spirit of Schiele: Staging Schiele reviewed
‘Come up and see my Schieles.’ Those were the words that ended a friend’s fledgling relationship with an art collector.…
A last dose of vitamin D before the clocks go back: Royal Ballet’s triple bill reviewed
Were those gerberas in Francesca Hayward’s bouquet on opening night? Gentlemen admirers take note: no woman, ballerina or otherwise, has…
Manon can be magnificent, this one was merely meh
Manon: minx or martyr? There are two ways to play Kenneth MacMillan’s courtesan. Is Manon an ingénue, a guileless country…
Nothing sings and shimmies like Alvin Ailey
Hit them with your best shot? Or save the best till last? Almost 30 years after Alvin Ailey’s death in…
Daffy charm and diabolo tricks: Bolshoi’s The Bright Stream reviewed
The Bright Stream is a ballet about a collective farm. Forget everything you know about collectivism — the failed harvests,…
Silly but stellar: Bolshoi Ballet’s Spartacus reviewed
It’s togas-a-go-go as the Bolshoi bring Yuri Grigorovich’s 1956 ballet Spartacus to the Royal Opera House. Oh dear, I did…
The extraordinary life of 104-year-old dancer Eileen Kramer
It’s not often you hear the voice of a 104-year-old on the radio. You’re even less likely to hear one…
Pam Tanowitz’s Four Quartets is a revelation
T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets is full of music and movement. The players, such as they are, slip, slide, shake, tumble,…
