Subtle, intriguing and inventive: Rambert’s Death Trap reviewed
Ben Duke belongs to a class of younger choreographers who have decided to flout the convention that dancers should remain…
Can everyone please shut up about Maria Callas?
Rupert Christiansen on the cult of Callas
Uninventive and far too polite: BRB’s Black Sabbath – The Ballet reviewed
Not being an aficionado of the heavy-metal genre, I snootily suspected that I would rather be standing in the rain…
Striking but not altogether successful: ENB’s Our Voices reviewed
Aaron S. Watkin, an affable bearded Canadian, is the new artistic director of English National Ballet. He arrives from Dresden,…
A haunting masterpiece: Northern Ballet’s Adagio Hammerklavier reviewed
One could soundly advise any choreographer to avoid music so transcendentally great in itself that dance can add nothing except…
A vanity exercise: Carlos at 50, at the Royal Opera House, reviewed
In 2015 Carlos Acosta announced his retirement from the Royal Ballet and the classical repertory. It seemed like the right…
Can ballet survive the culture wars?
Despite #MeToo and the new resistance to male bullying, the dance world is still ferocious and unforgiving, writes Rupert Christiansen
Short of sparkle: Cinderella-in-the-round, at the Royal Albert Hall, reviewed
Having been unexpectedly delighted by the Royal Ballet’s revival of Christopher Wheeldon’s Corybantic Games at Covent Garden last week, I…
Same old, same old: Wayne McGregor’s Untitled, 2023, at the Royal Opera House, reviewed
My witty friend whispered that Wayne McGregor’s new ballet Untitled, 2023 put her in mind of Google HQ – it’s…
Stunts, gimmicks, tricks, hot air: snapshots from the edge of modern dance
This month I’ve been venturing into the further reaches of modern dance – obscure territory where I don’t feel particularly…
Patronising to the people of Peterborough: BRB2’s Carlos Acosta Classical Selections reviewed
Fulfilling its sacred duty to serve regions that higher culture tends to avoid, Birmingham Royal Ballet made a midweek visit…
A triumph: Nederlands Dans Theater 1, at Sadler’s Wells, reviewed
Yes, yes, I know. You’ve had your fill of David Attenborough’s jeremiads, you’ve heard enough already about climate change catastrophe.…
Not an experience you’d want to repeat: Shen Yun, at the Eventim Apollo, reviewed
If you live in London, you may well have spotted Shen Yun’s enormous candy-coloured posters on the Underground, endorsed by…
Time for Akram Khan to move on from climate-change choreography
It must be 20 years since I first saw Akram Khan dance, and I will never forget the impression he…
Distressingly vulgar: Royal Ballet’s Cinderella reviewed
Despite its widespread rating as one of his masterpieces, Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella is chock full of knots, gaps and stumbling…
Generous, boundless, turbo-charged: Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends, at Sadler’s Wells, reviewed
The death last week at the age of 83 of the sublime Lynn Seymour – muse to Ashton and MacMillan,…
Best in show
Civilisation has never nurtured more than a handful of front-rank choreographers within any one generation, with the undesirable result that…
Mel C’s debut as a contemporary dancer is impressive: How did we get here?, at Sadler’s Wells, reviewed
‘We hope you enjoy the performance,’ announced the Tannoy before the lights went down for How did we get here?…
A short history of applause – and booing
A dank Tuesday evening in a West End theatre. The auditorium is barely two thirds full. The play is nothing…
Like bingeing on cheap chocolate: Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, at Sadler’s Wells, reviewed
A Christmas revival of New Adventures’ ten-year-old production of Sleeping Beauty stirs up all my nagging ambivalence about Matthew Bourne’s…
The highlight was a dazzling duet from Pam Tanowitz: The Royal Ballet – A Diamond Celebration reviewed
The Koh-i-Noor in this Diamond Celebration of 60 years of the Friends of the Royal Opera House garnered the least…
Exhilarating: English National Ballet triple bill, at Sadler’s Wells, reviewed
Headed for San Francisco, Tamara Rojo bows out of her directorship of English National Ballet with an exhilarating triple bill…
Arts Council England and the war on opera
Instructed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to move money away from London and reassign it to…
One long moan of woe: Crystal Pite's Light of Passage, at the Royal Opera, reviewed
I was moved and shaken by Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern when I first saw it in 2017. In richly visualised…
A solid evening’s entertainment: Rambert's Peaky Blinders ballet reviewed
Being of a squeamish sensibility and prejudiced by a low opinion of recent BBC drama, I can claim only a…
