En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Tyrone Singleton

A sumptuously designed example of English ballet at its best 

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.

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. 

BRB delivers in a production of jolly moods, bawdy humour and great emotions.

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.

Celebrating 20 years as Artistic Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, David Bintley brings the company to London, where Balanchine’s Serenade acts as a delicate sorbet before the excesses of Bintley’s own Carmina burana.  

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.