Rebecca Galloway is a New Zealand-born writer and PR consultant for arts, design and culture. She studied dance for 13 years and has a degree in Art History from Victoria University of Wellington. She has held a variety of roles for organizations including the NZ School of Dance, City Gallery Wellington and Radio NZ, and was a strategic advisor to the national arts council Creative NZ. Rebecca left New Zealand for the United States, where she worked for renowned dance festival Jacob's Pillow in Massachussetts. Eventually finding herself in Montreal she fell in love and put down roots; currently splitting her time between communications for award-winning information design studio FFunction, dance criticism for a variety of publications and improving her rather patchy French. She tweets at @rtgalloway
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens has brought a brand new piece to the stage; a neo-classical adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s controversial novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
It’s the end of the 17/18 season for most ballet companies and for many, this means rounding off with a glitzy gala night. I feel these performances always go in one of two directions: they’re either a Greatest Hits or a bit of a patchwork quilt.
The German word Betroffenheit doesn’t translate easily to English. Any German-English dictionary will spit out approximations like "shocked" and "dismayed", but for a real translation, see Crystal Pite and Jonathan Young’s challenging, beautiful work by the same name.
Labelled a “permanent irritation” in her home country of South Africa, Robyn Orlin takes the epithet as a compliment. She’s the grain of sand that makes a pearl! An imperfect one, but still.
For China’s choreographic rising star, Tao Ye, numbers hold a pivotal significance. He works in numbered series, compiling a neat catalogue of minimalist, experimental dance that can be performed alone or sit buttressed up against each other.
Casse Noisette (the Nutcracker) is an annual tradition for shrieking hoardes of ballet-lovers all over the globe. If you want to keep it real, I heartily recommend a Sunday matinee.
Les Grands Ballets has a new Artistic Director – Ivan Cavallari – and 13 new dancers, mostly cherry-picked from some of Europe’s best ballet companies. Montreal audiences are in for a thorough journey through European contemporary ballet movements; which is not so far from the trajectory the previous Artistic Director Gradimir Pankov established during his tenure
Le Mariage de Figaro is meant to be a bit of a romp; a frothy drawing-room comedy of errors. In this respect, the National Ballet of Ukraine's production works perfectly.
Last week I decided I needed a stars-and-stripes-detox after bingeing on dramatic political coverage for the last six months. “No more,” I whimpered. “We need to go on a break, America.”
Fractals of You, from Montreal-based company Tentacle Tribe is one of the only works that I've seen master this technology-dance fusion (the other that springs to mind is the work of mega-watt Australian company Chunky Move).
The house was packed to the rafters at Montreal's Theatre Maisonneuve last Tuesday; it seemed the entire city turned out to witness Nederlands Dans Theater make its return after a twenty year absence.
As a dancer, Bryan Arias has performed for Ohad Naharin, NDT, Jiří Kylián, Complexions and Crystal Pite. Now, as a choreographer, Arias' work echoes their collective MO: airy curves, fluid releases, and tender partnering.
Continuing its reputation as Montreal's sampler box of contemporary dance, Festival Quartiers Danses presented two quite disparate works tightly buttressed up against each other in Cinquieme Salle on Sunday.
São Paulo Companhia de Dança presents a mixed programme of works by Edouard Lock, Jomar Mesquita and Nacho Duato at the Théâtre Maisonneuve in Montréal
Les Grands Ballet brought two international choreographers, Ken Ossola (Switzerland) and Shen Wei (USA) to Montreal to create brand new works for the repertoire, and the resulting double bill is an excellent showcase for Les Grands Ballets' lyricism and skill.
