Sadlers Wells Michael Keegan-Dolan’s groaning cornucopia of a show with company Teaċ Daṁsa outstands, outsmarts, and exhausts in equal measure. There is so much to discuss, so much crammed in, so many visual, musical, and thematic elements to cover for this show, that I have been sitting for five minutes, fingers held over the keyboard, slack-jawed, trying to work out ...
Clod Ensemble & Nu Civilisation Orchestra Barbican Centre Mea culpa, mea culpa, this review will be part apology, part whinge and hopefully just a little amusing. Picture this, a rushed theatre critic, invited by a trusted PR person to his favourite venue, quickly skims the show’s blurb, sees jazz, dance and a transformed space. Scuttles down on the day in ...
Cadogan Hall Chelsea is decidedly not my stomping ground, Sloane Square might as well be Siberia, and the 25 minute walk from my neck of the woods the Siberian Express. Yet I will trundle along the Kings Road for the sizzling new variety act in London’s dance ecology, Ballet Nights. Celebrating their 1st birthday and 6th show, founder, choreographer, dancer ...
State Ballet of Georgia, London Coliseum Unseasonable although it may be for such Christmas staples as Swan Lake, all dance fans will endure the shake up of schedule for the State Ballet of Georgia’s first trip to London. Flashing their spin on the big-bird-based-bash. By now I think we all know the “plot” of pool of swans, from either the ...
Linbury Theatre In the “studio” of the Royal Opera House, sunken into the clay of Covent Garden the young, spritely dancers of The Next Generation Festival leap and lunge, in all their nauseating optimism. The Linbury is the smallest space in the Royal Opera House, and today youth abounds – the air positively glinting with it – as the Next Generation Festival highlights ...
Ballet Black, Barbican Centre Everything is change, nothing in life stays the same. This is doubly true for the mayflower-like professional lives of dancers, and the turnover of a company’s members. Nobody, no matter how beloved is immune to this, not even Ballet Black. Cassa Pancho’s mold-breaking dance troupe is turning 23. A full adult’s lifetime of transforming the dance ...
Sadler’s Wells Everyone has their own specific May bank holiday rituals. Some go for a bracing hike around the Chilterns, some down tinned cocktails on the sin-wagon to Brighton, and some (Including me) pack into the already packed Sadler’s Wells for the yearly hip hop festival Breakin’ Convention. This time the festival is celebrating 21 years. Bounding along, forgetting names, ...
Proud City A Neo-burlesque evening of naughty delight, high on talent but heavy on price. Burlesque’s breadth and variety are commercialised with some success at Proud City, in the bowels of a Neo-gothic temple: The Minster Building: fitting that an architectural revival should be the home of this Neo-burlesque evening of naughty delight. Building from comic shows and musical hall, Burlesque ...
Crystal Pite & Jonathon Young / Kidd Pivot Sadlers Well Raise your hand if you’ve bickered in a book club. Or battled over your child’s nativity play with the oafish costume designer. Or snarked over the coffee cooler in an alcohol/drug or cross-stitcher’s anonymous group. These bubbles of society within a society are common, but rarely fodder for experimental fusion ...
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch+ Terrain Boris Charmatz Pina Bausch has caused a considerable rift in my household (from beyond the grave I might add). Our normally cohesive theatre-obsessed bubble of two, split down the middle by her infamous company’s style, fondness for repetition, and overall aura. So much so that my partner has refused flat out to join me for ...