Varna International Ballet: Swan Lake
While Varna’s production harks back to the original, it just goes to show how the many alterations over the decades have improved the ballet
While Varna’s production harks back to the original, it just goes to show how the many alterations over the decades have improved the ballet
As if being able to juggle and dance weren’t enough, Sean Gandini and his company have added magic to the mix.
“A page-turningly good read” as “Fullington and Smith… invite the general and specialist reader alike to rethink nineteenth-century ballet.”
The happy grins and overheard comments during the interval told you all you needed to know. Mary Skeaping’s Giselle is wonderful, a real gem.
It’s all a very long way from Keegan-Dolan’s stunning and powerful Swan Lake… Abstract to the point of meaninglessness.
The highly entertaining show also lovingly mocks acrobatic, contemporary and rhythmic dance. There’s a take on Dirty Dancing, and much more.
An unexpected surprise. The choreography is endlessly inventive, the corps moving seamlessly from interesting shape to interesting shape
A mixed bill brought, inevitably perhaps, mixed success but without a shadow of a doubt, it was worth it for Set Fast alone.
A pleasing, traditional Swan Lake, but one that lacks characterisation and struggles for ‘wow’ factor.
Both specially filmed on location, Cohan’s Portraits is a series of five solos, while MacMillan’s Sea of Troubles is his shot at Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Memoria de los Sentidos spurns the usual flamenco hierarchy to put the guitar at the forefront with a nod to cante and baille towards the end