Wayne McGregor, Karole Armitage, Alexander Whitley and Crystal Pite offer four stimulating choreographic readings of Thomas Adès’s music, in 'Thomas Adès : See the Music, Hear the Dance' at Sadler’s Wells
Scottish Ballet presents Krzysztof Pastor’s Romeo & Juliet (2008), an innovative presentation of the story through several different time settings, at Sadler’s Wells.
In its annual visit to Linbury Studio, Ballet Black presents Arthur Pita’s brilliant A Dream Within a Midsummer Night’s Dream together with new works by Martin Lawrence, Christopher Marney.
Aurélien Bory’s production What’s Become of You? (questcequetudeviens?), danced and choreographed by flamenco dancer Stéphanie Fuster, presented to great acclaim at the Mime Festival
Stuttgart Ballet has a long tradition of promoting new choreography, and in this spirit the first programme for its visit to Sadler’s Wells included thirteen brief choreographies, all specially made for the company.
As he has done before with other dance forms alien to his background (flamenco, kathak or Shaolin rites, for instance), the prolific choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has plunged into Tango with an avid curiosity and sensitive perception. His new work M¡longa, a Sadler’s Wells production that premièred in Mézières, Switzerland, earlier this year, reflects his learning journey.
Hofesh Shechter is a choreographer known for creating potent dance works, which reflect on the nature of power and its impact over the individual. Following the line of his previous Uprising (2006) and Political Mother (2010), Sun (2013) is a complex, dark and pessimistic meditation on evil and its shattering effects.
Thirty years after its last visit to London, Boston Ballet has returned to the British capital in a celebratory mood. With the company opening its 50th season, the London tour has been planned both to launch the anniversary and to strengthen the growing international reputation of the company.
Under the title “Monteverdi Ballets”, Spitalfields Music Summer Festival presented a joint collaboration between the Early Opera Company and Avant Garde Dance. The challenge was to merge music and dance coming from two different artistic projects into a single unified product.
Hofesh Shechter is a choreographer who uses dance to make powerful statements in quite an oblique way. He does not define a storyline or delineate strong characters that can catch the audience’s sympathy. Rather, he combines the theatrical elements to suggest ideas and create moods, presenting them in disjointed fragments that the audience must put together after reflection.
For their second show in the London Coliseum this year, English National Ballet has presented the first programme entirely designed by its new artistic director Tamara Rojo. In the line of her vision of enriching the company’s repertory with new works, while at the same time honouring the classics, the triple bill built for the occasion is a fascinating combination of old and recent masterpieces.
On its return to London after 26 years of absence, the National Ballet of Canada has presented its brand new version of the much-loved tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The company having performed John Cranko’s interpretation since 1964, an entirely new production was commissioned to acclaimed choreographer Alexei Ratmansky to mark the 60th anniversary of the company in 2011.
The short but intense visit the Mikhailovsky Ballet is paying to London this Easter is showing the high standards the company can reach in both classical and contemporary ballet. In addition to splendid versions of Giselle, Don Quixote and Laurencia, the St Petersburg-based ballet company has also offered two bills with works by its acclaimed artistic director Nacho Duato.
It is certainly fortunate that this year London Flamenco Festival, which is proudly celebrating its tenth anniversary, has a small section in the programme entitled Beyond Flamenco. Comprising productions and events that offer a less orthodox look at this style of Spanish gypsy-rooted dancing, it complements the all-star programme in the Sadler’s Wells main auditorium.
Israel Galván is nowadays a renowned and acclaimed flamenco artist. After years of consolidating good fame as a fine dancer, he started to create his own choreographies in 1998. From his first work, Mira!, he revealed a distinctive style installed in the most innovative and daring side of the flamenco panorama.
Just a few weeks after being awarded the prestigious 2012 Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards for Best Independent Company, Ballet Black has paid its annual visit to the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio, presenting four new ballets that confirm the strong commitment of the company to original works.
