Kit, originally hailing from Northampton, now lives in London where he trains at the London Contemporary Dance School. With experience and interest in both Ballet and Contemporary Dance his main interests lie on the contemporary side of the art form.
There are at least three adaptations of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin being staged in London this month. With the Royal Opera House showing both John Cranko’s ballet and Tchaikovsky’s opera, the Barbican offers the most contemporary response: Deborah Colker’s Tatyana.Actually it’s not that contemporary – whatever that means.
Leo is a gravity-defying solo directed by Daniel Brière and performed, in its most recent incarnation, by William Bonnet. The show is based around a single illusion: Bonnet’s live performance on one half of the stage is filmed, rotated ninety degrees and then projected back onto the other half. It’s like watching a tennis match as my eyes dart from side to side.
Entering Sadler’s Wells theatre on Monday was like boarding a plane. Batsheva Ensemble’s UK tour has been plagued by protests and this performance was no exception with planted protesters disrupting the live performance using anti-Israel slogans. I intend to put the ugliness to one side and focus on the actual work.
Cesena is En Atendant’s more active counterpart. Whilst En Atendant, performed earlier in the week, was created to be performed at dusk; Cesena breaks in the day in more startling fashion. It was originally performed at Avignon’s medieval Palais des Papes at dawn, but is here shown at Sadler’s Wells at the more reasonable time of 7:30pm.
En Atendant is rarely thrilling. It is slow and lacks obvious shape, choosing not to please its audience with clear climax and development. There are few major shifts of energy or scene as it remains calm and considered throughout, requiring patience from its viewers.
Here are a company of versatile dancers. In the course of an evening they shifted from the hunched choreography of Hofesh Shechter to the long-limbed legginess of Crystal Pite, and also funny man Alexander Ekman’s rhythmic and irrational use of the body. In their first UK visit, Cedar Lake bring buckets of American performing talent but borrow some more familiar European choreographic skills.
You may have seen Akram Khan recently at the Olympics, performing alongside Emeli Sande and some 50 dancers in his touching and often aggressive tribute to the victims of the 7/7 bombings. Or, for those of you tuning into NBC’s coverage, you will have been treated to an interview with Michael Phelps.
The first of Continu’s three distinct sections is a focused, musical study to Iannis Xenakis’ Rebonds B, a solo percussion piece performed live by Robyn Schulkowsky. Sasha Waltz animates the rhythms and patterns of the music, layering the individual movements of a group of dancers in irregular formations to build the complexity of the score.
Candoco Unlimited is a varied and impressive offering from Britain’s foremost integrated dance company, set against the backdrop of the world’s largest celebration of disabled athleticism and physical achievement.
World Cities 2012 is a set of ten pieces created between 1986 and 2009, the year of Pina Bausch’s death. Each is a response to a different city on the globe. Ten Chi, just one chapter of this very alternative travel guide, marks time spent immersed in the day-to-day of Saitama, Japan.The piece begins boldly, before any performers are seen.
Noé Soulier filled the first half of the evening with two pieces – Le Royaume des Ombres (“The Kingdom of Shades”) and D’un pays lointain (“From Another Land”) – both of which were experimental works, playing with and distorting the conventional construction of the ballet language.
Spring Loaded is The Place's platform for not-yet-established choreographers and companies, and has been a stepping stone in the way to success for artists such as Matthew Bourne and Russell Maliphant. Smith Dancetheatre appear as part of this year's programme with Agnes and Walter: A Little Love Story, their debut production.
Even at the ripe old age of 28 Artifact looks as original as ever. William Forsythe’s reverent alteration of the ballet technique shows great understanding of both its history and its potential; whilst his sense for theatre gives the work a poignant and characterful edge beyond mere movement.
Laugh-out-loud comedy is a rare find in dance, which usually elicits no more than a polite, awkward titter. However it is such comedy that is one of the chief merits of this ballet. La Fille Mal Gardée is as anxious to show off bad dancing as it is to show off the good, pleasing the audience with all manner of buffoonery.The ballet’s opening gives me a childish thrill.
A Celebration of Bob Lockyer was less a celebration of the man than of his work. Lockyer has had a full career ranging from producer of award-winning dance programmes at the BBC, to chair of Dance UK and South-East Dance. His lengthy career has earned him the accolade of “one of the great heroes of British dance”.
Coppélia is one of the more light-hearted of the full-length classical ballets. Based very loosely on Hoffmann’s more macabre short story Der Sandmann, the plot revolves around the tempestuous relationship of its protagonists, Swanilda and Franz; and the work of the inventor Dr Coppélius, who is both brilliant and barmy.
The evening kicks off joyfully, first with a curtain-raiser courtesy of The Grey Coat Hospital School, who are one of the latest groups to benefit from Tavaziva Dance’s extensive community and youth work; then, as the main event begins, with a vibrant drum solo which elicits whooping and dancing in the audience.
Upon his death in 2009, Merce Cunningham left behind a huge footprint in the contemporary dance world. A stalwart of the American scene with a career spanning over 70 years, he created in excess of 150 original works and facilitated more than 800 improvised events.
Alain Robbe-Grillet’s 1957 novel La Jalousie, or Jealousy (though it could also be translated to mean ‘Venetian blinds’), has received a new translation into the media of art and dance at The Print Room in Notting Hill. The small-scale theatre and arts space is relatively new, set up in 2010. Since then it has promoted itself as a multi-disciplinary space.
The curtains open on The Rodin Project to reveal a large, irregularly shaped set draped in flowing white cloth. It hangs from the ceiling in icy sheets, reflective of the snowy landscape of the theatre’s exterior. Characters begin to emerge in the growing light, crawling and scampering slowly across the jagged stage.
