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National Ballet of Japan successfully performs two very different pieces, George Balanchine's Theme and Variations and David Bintley's Still Life at the Penguin Café, amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.  

New Year Ballet displayed the versatility of the National Ballet of Japan, from the 19th-century classic Paquita, to three works by Japanese choreographers and David Bintley's “Still Life” at the Penguin Café.

Outstanding performances all-around in this special treat for Christmas 

The welcome return of a thoughtful interpretation of this much-loved ballet  

A sumptuously designed example of English ballet at its best 

A unique marriage of production and performance space provides a spactacle synonymous withe spirit of Christmas 

Birmingham Royal Ballet presents a double bill subtitled ‘Two ballets fuelled by power and politics’ as part of David Bintley’s last season as director. 

It starts like a scene from Mary Poppins, with penguin waiters nimbly weaving between waltzing couples, but ends with a deft blow to the stomach to deliver its environmental message.

All the creative contributions of direction, choeography, designs and music come together to achieve a stirring ballet that tells a familar story with great clarity 

David Bintley's 2010 Birmingham Royal Ballet version of Cinderella is the antithesis to Ashton. Instead of pantomime, he offers pure fairy tale every magical step of the way.

For the second time in a week, Birmingham Royal Ballet celebrate Shakespeare with a wonderful evening of dance.

It can’t be easy to programme a Shakespeare season that has something new to say about this giant figure in a year of excellent productions up and down the country, but this programme achieves it. 

Birmingham Royal Ballet presents its Variations Triple Bill at Sadler’s Wells, with works by George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton and David Bintley

True to its origin in the Romantic period of the 19th century, this Swan Lake dances the Royal Birmingham Ballet into history because of the beauty of its leading dancer, Céline Gittens, one of the world's first non-white ballerinas.

Gods, nymphs, campy cavemen, angel's wings and a one-legged pirate - this production has it all, and plenty more. 

Shadows of War Birmingham Royal Ballet's triple Bill which opened at the Birmingham Hippodrome early last week, shows the company's more serious side. With choreographies of MAcMillan, Lynne and Bintley 

Birmingham Royal Ballet's Beauty and Beast is a wonderful, joyful and entertaining perormance, based on the well known gothic fairytale.

To begin their week-long run in London at Sadler’s Wells, the Birmingham Royal Ballet presented a diverse triple bill of works choreographed by Artistic Director and British ballet icon David Bintley CBE.

The evening was a step back into childhood nostalgia, of getting on the hired coach with my brother and neighbours from our cul-de-sac, to drive up to London for the traditional Christmas pantomime. And, of course, Aladdin with all that mystical eastern magic was always a favourite with us kids.

When The Grand Tour was premièred in 1971, the cast of celebrities it satirises were still well known, even though their 1930s heyday had passed. The problem with this rather lovely little work now is that its references are just too far in the past: neither the dancers nor the audience know who these exaggerated oddballs – Gertrude Lawrence, Theda Bara – were, or what they were famous for.

Opposites Attract was the title chosen to tie three pieces together in Birmingham Royal Ballet’s first triple bill at Sadler’s Wells this week, but that was optimistic: these three were so different in both style and quality that it was hard to find any affinity between them, or any sense of the company as a whole.

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 Petersburg.

The story of Cinderella needs no introduction but the inherent challenge for any new production of this well known fairy tale is to offer an experience that contrasts rather than compares with the much-loved Ashton production that has dominated above all others for over 30 years.This new production by David Bintley in celebration of 20 years of Birmingham Royal Ballet is an absolute delight.