SeeingDance

31/12/2024

To round off 2024, Nicola Clare is at Birmingham Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Nothing says Christmas more than a performance of The Nutcracker, and Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Royal Albert Hall production does not disappoint.

24/12/2024

"A ballet that oozes goodness and hope"

"Anna Rose O’Sullivan projected a gentle, modest, sweet Cinderella, put upon by her stepsisters... [She] really came into her own at the Act II ball, however. To say she was radiant does not seem enough. Regal and beautiful, her dancing perfectly precise, she positively sparkled."

David Mead reports from The Royal Ballet And Opera, London.

Anna Rose O’Sullivan projected a gentle, modest, sweet Cinderella... her dance with the broom was wonderfully wistful and full of longing

23/12/2024

Nicola Clare drops in on The Little Price by Luca Silverstrini's Protein, on at The Place London.

Flows seamlessly. The four actor-dancers... who also helped devise the show, perform with skill and conviction. However, there is something missing

21/12/2024

Has Swan Lake ever previously been paired with Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling? That's just what noted Australian contemporary circus company Circa Contemporary Circus deliver in Duck Pond, an entertaining take on the classic ballet that comes with all the important figures: a prince looking for a bride, an Ugly Duckling/Odette, a flock of white swans and a sexy black swan. And a rather surprise ending.

David Mead reports from the Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre, London.

There are plenty of the usual handstands and tumbling... But what is really memorable is the ease with which the performers fly through the air.

20/12/2024

In 2023, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company traveled to Hong Kong for an engagement in partnership with Hong Kong Ballet. The young dancers of ABT Studio Company presented performances at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts 香港演藝學院 - HKAPA alongside Hong Kong Ballet dancers and engaged in a variety of activities with the local community. Kindred Spirits, a 32-minute film by Andreas Guzman, offers an inside view of the experience: an unforgettable cultural exchange and formative juncture in the dancers’ professional journeys.

Be transported behind the scenes with this film exploring ABT Studio Company’s 2023 tour to Hong Kong and collaboration with Hong Kong Ballet.KINDRED SPIRITS...

19/12/2024

Just over a year after its launch in September 2023, Ballet Nights, a new take on ballet/dance programming by producer Jamiel Devernay-Laurence has been recognised with a nomination in the Innovation Award category at The Stage Awards 2025.

The award recognises new and exciting developments in the performing arts over the past year. The Awards ceremony takes place at the Royal Opera House on January 20, 2025.

“It’s wonderful news!” says Jamiel Devernay-Laurence. “This truly has been an incredible year; to be recognised in this way only a year after our adventurous launch means the world to our dedicated team. And I want to equally thank our amazing artists and audiences who have supported the development of Ballet Nights show by show. The only way is up!”

15/12/2024

"Artistic director Aaron S. Watkin’s neoclassical approach and Arielle Smith’s quirkier, more contemporary take on things do sit very happily side-by-side... Dick Bird’s sets are glorious, and to say that Act Two is a riot of colour just doesn’t feel enough."

"It is, like most Nutcrackers of course, really about Clara, and first Wiggins and then Bueno steal the show."

David Mead on English National Ballet's new Nutcracker, now on at the London Coliseum.

This much needed new production looks a treat... Paul Pyant’s video design is very good... Dick Bird’s sets are glorious... Act Two is a riot of colour

14/12/2024

"Magic indeed."

"While the ‘big’ Nutcrackers grab all the headlines, there are smaller-scale productions around worth catching too. They might not have all the special effects but are still magical."

David Mead reports from the Concordia Theatre in Hinckley, Leicestershire on Ballet Theatre UK's fine version of the seasonal favourite.

Creates a fantasy of world that delights and entertains from start to finish with its fine storytelling, choreography... and a lot of excellent dancing.

13/12/2024

"His swans, all men, are proud, feisty creatures, much closer in many ways to the real waterfowl than almost anything else you will see on stage. They move with power and presence."

David Mead is at Sadler's Wells for Matthew Bourne's New Adventures in his still remarkable Swan Lake.

Most magnificent of all, is Harrison Dowzell as The Swan... Quite unforgettable. Whether in bird form... or as The Stranger at the Act 3 ball

11/12/2024

Two very different works linked by a common theme. David Mead sees Sasha Waltz & Guests in 'Beethoven 7' at Radialsystem Berlin, comprising Diego Noguera's 'Freedom/Extasis' and the evening's title work by Waltz' herself. Plus a word on the forthcoming major cuts to arts and culture funding in the city.

"The whole evening proved a powerful, engaging and thought-provoking experience."

A cloud makes its way towards the audience, soon enveloping us in its misty grip. Through the fog are glimpsed figures, human, but...

10/12/2024

"Set in an underworld resemblant of a job centre with its form filling station and water fountain of forgetfulness, Hades (Jean Daniel Brussé) and Persephone (Anna-Kay Gayle) welcome newcomers, that is, recently dead people, with bursts of confetti and sarcastic quips."

Georgia Howlett reviews Ruination by Lost Dog dance at the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Ballet And Opera.

Beyond its generous offering of dance, sound and humour, Ruination feels much defined by its extremely lovable cast

08/12/2024

A strong-willed and insanely in love Giselle (Riho Sakamoto); an elegant Albrecht (Martin ten Kortenaar), equally clearly in love; and a stronger than usual Hilarion (Alexei Orlenco).

David Mead reviews the final performance this season of the Staatsballett Berlin in Patrice Bart's very traditional, very classical, Giselle.

When the assured Riho Sakamoto first stepped out of her home as Giselle, she didn’t so much skip round the stage as fly.

06/12/2024

It's become a classic of 1970s postmodern dance, although the pitching of present day dancers against film of the original cast cannot fail to invite comparison.

Thoughts on Dance by Lucinda Childs Dance Company at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. A dance about dance (and Philip Glass' wonderful music) and nothing else.

About movement to music and nothing else. There’s no hidden theme, no hidden meaning. It’s even performed in simple white tops and trousers.

05/12/2024

Set in Berlin's Berlinische Galerie, and a collaboration between Dance On Ensemble, the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, and author Rabih Mroué, "A Sky Like A Wall proved an absorbing evening of sights and sounds."

"Danced in everyday clothes and trainers, the performers had a wonderful knack of appearing from nowhere and vanishing just as mysteriously, melting into and out of the audience."

The fascinating collage of scenes and sounds engaged fully, watched over not only by the audience but by the rows of portraits that line the gallery’s walls

03/12/2024

David Mead returns to the Staatsballett Berlin for another double bill, this time pairing L-E-V Sharon Eyal | G*i Behar's '2 Chapters Love' with Sol Léon's very personal 'Stars Like Moths'.

On '2 Chapters Love': "It opens with a solo by the terrific Danielle Muir... A living, breathing work of art, she stretches, twists and turns... sculptural shape after sculptural shape, her body as pliable as plasticine... Full of ‘classic’ Eyal but, in many ways, also very much an ode to classical ballet."

"2 Chapters Love may be full of ‘classic’ Eyal but, in many ways, it also feels very much an ode to classical ballet." Plus Sol Léon's Stars Like Moths.

01/12/2024

In the first of six reports from Berlin, David Mead sees the Staatsballett Berlin in a L-E-V Sharon Eyal | G*i Behar-Ohad Naharin double bill of 'SAABA' and the ever-popular 'Minus 16'.

On the Eyal-Behar piece: "There’s plenty of evidence of the pair’s distinctive and unique style... And yet, SAABA is different. Behar’s choreography feels more dreamy. Ori Lichtik’s music still has a good beat, but it’s more rounded."

The fourth of Sharon Eyal and partner G*i Behar’s work danced by the Staatsballett, SAABA is different. Behar's choreography feels more dreamy.

28/11/2024

Charlotte Kasner reviews Teaċ Daṁsa in Michael Keengan-Dolan's NOBODADDY at Sadler's Wells

https://www.seeingdance.com/teac-damsa-nobodaddy-241128/

28/11/2024

"Uplifting, hopeful, optimistic.. The setting may be dreary, but the story is warm, the characters vividly brought to life. Carols, Christmas tunes, fine dance, and a good story. What’s not to like?"

David Mead drops in on Northern Ballet and the welcome return of 'A Christmas Carol' at the Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham.

The setting may be dreary, but the story is warm, the characters vividly brought to life. Carols, Christmas tunes, fine dance, and a good story.