Virtuosity commanded the stage in the first half, drama and mood in the second, with Liam Scarlett’s new ballet a fitting tribute to the retiring Zenaida Yanowsky
Was she – or wasn’t she – the Grand Duchess Anastasia, youngest daughter of Russia's last tsar who had survived the massacre of her family in 1917? Natalia Osipova made you believe she was.
Carlos Acosta's Carmen premieres at the Royal Ballet, alongside Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun, Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and Scarlett’s Viscera.
The Royal Ballet's Ashton programme is a rare delight; and the mix of pieces shows how that know-it-when-you-see-it Ashton style is perfectly versatile.
This charismatic Cuban is probably the only big dance name who could compete successfully with the Bolshoi Ballet now here in London. But then, for many years, Carlos Acosta has continuously shown persuasive pluck and daredevil tactics to his devoted audiences, many of whom are supporting him in his latest summer season programme at the Coliseum this week.
Last Friday, The Royal Ballet presented an exciting bill composed of George Balanchine’s iconic Apollo (1928) and two new ballets by acclaimed choreographers Alexei Ratmansky and Christopher Wheeldon. The programme was cleverly designed, since Ratmansky and Wheeldon are renowned explorers of the neoclassical style inaugurated by Balanchine.
Christmas must be nearing when that traditional fare of sparkle, excitement and the surging score of The Nutcracker bursts in full flood onto the world’s ballet stages. Originally created in 1891 by Marius Petipa for the Mariinsky Theatre, the ballet has become the annual bread-winner for most companies (albeit in various versions), guaranteeing full houses and happy customers.
Swan Lake is so iconic that describing it in a review seems superfluous. The idea of it, moreover, so dominates people’s perceptions of ballet, mine included, that before Monday night’s performance I was worried that I would be lost for fresh words, silenced by the weight Tchaikovsky and Petipa’s swans have acquired in the 117 years since they first fluttered across the stage in St Petersbur
Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 invited artists from different disciplines, mainly the visual arts, dance and music, to respond to Titian's three magnifient paintings of the Diana and Actaeon myth. The results are displayed in an exhibition at the National Gallery (alongside Titian's originals), and in an triple bill of new ballets at the Royal Opera House.
The Royal Ballet's revival of The Prince of the Pagodas is an extraordinary achievement in many ways, not least because the ballet has an undistinguished history.
This Royal Ballet programme, staged to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II, makes an exhilarating tribute, and shows the company on top form in two very different works.
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.
The Russian ballerina Galina Ulanova is a true legend in the world of classical ballet. Her dramatic interpretations plumbed deep into the human soul and revealed its full gamut of emotion and poetic beauty.
