A magical evening: English National Ballet’s Swan Lake
Emma Hawes’ Odette is the stuff from which dreams are spun: a wonderful combination of imposing lines and tender vulnerability.
UK
The Nutcracker at the Royal Albert Hall
A Nutcracker that provides all that is expected in an entertaining evening that left the audience very happy.
Christmas comes to the Coliseum with English National Ballet’s Nutcracker
Julia Conway, still only a Soloist, fully showed her potential, presenting a Sugar Plum Fairy variation with many new challenging technical steps
A vision of a disturbing, dystopian eco-dictatorship: Daniela Marcozzi’s monstrous
What if women could be artificially inseminated with animals, plants, minerals, emotions, natural phenomena and behaviours useful to an eco-regime?
Brilliant, high-intensity theatre: Ruination by Lost Dog
Ben Duke has found a sweet spot to set his trial of Medea. The kingdom of Hades, across the River Styx but not yet in Elysium, is just right
A Christmas treat: Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty: A Gothic Romance
With some of Bourne’s best choreography in the detail of the variations, the passion of the duets and strong ensemble numbers.
ACE Dance and Music: Unknown Realms
The quality and physicality of the dancing could not be faulted. The togetherness in unison moments was exceptional.
Freaky Bones: Israel Galván’s La Consagración de la Primavera
Goes far deeper than the spectacular or technique for technique’s sake. One comes out feeling awed and moved
Glistening, glowing and a riot of colour: Birmingham Royal Ballet’s reinvigorated Nutcracker
The refurbishment hasn’t just freshened the ballet up, it’s completely reinvigorated it… The perfect pre-festive treat for old and young alike
New English Ballet Theatre: Cycles of Loss and Love
It was apposite to present this programme close to Remembrance weekend when we recall the human loss suffered through the madness of war.
An inspiring evening of contemporary ballet: English National Ballet, Ek/Forsythe/Quagebeur
Perhaps only a giant of choreography such as Mats Ek could so successfully pull off a reboot of such a familiar subject as The Rite of Spring