Dance

Uninventive and far too polite: BRB’s Black Sabbath – The Ballet reviewed

21 October 2023 9:00 am

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

30 September 2023 9:00 am

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

16 September 2023 9:00 am

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

12 August 2023 9:00 am

In 2015 Carlos Acosta announced his retirement from the Royal Ballet and the classical repertory. It seemed like the right…

Short of sparkle: Cinderella-in-the-round, at the Royal Albert Hall, reviewed

24 June 2023 9:00 am

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

17 June 2023 9:00 am

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

27 May 2023 9:00 am

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

13 May 2023 9:00 am

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

29 April 2023 9:00 am

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

22 April 2023 9:00 am

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

15 April 2023 9:00 am

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

8 April 2023 9:00 am

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

18 March 2023 9:00 am

The death last week at the age of 83 of the sublime Lynn Seymour – muse to Ashton and MacMillan,…

Best in show

11 February 2023 9:00 am

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

28 January 2023 9:00 am

‘We hope you enjoy the performance,’ announced the Tannoy before the lights went down for How did we get here?…

Like bingeing on cheap chocolate: Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, at Sadler’s Wells, reviewed

17 December 2022 9:00 am

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

26 November 2022 9:00 am

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

19 November 2022 9:00 am

Headed for San Francisco, Tamara Rojo bows out of her directorship of English National Ballet with an exhilarating triple bill…

One long moan of woe: Crystal Pite's Light of Passage, at the Royal Opera, reviewed

29 October 2022 9:00 am

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

22 October 2022 9:00 am

Being of a squeamish sensibility and prejudiced by a low opinion of recent BBC drama, I can claim only a…

Exhilarating, frightening and hilarious: Made in Leeds – Three Short Ballets reviewed

24 September 2022 9:00 am

Good, better, best was the satisfying trajectory of Northern Ballet’s terrific programme of three original short works, which moves south…

Nureyev deserves better: Nureyev – Legend and Legacy, at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, reviewed

10 September 2022 9:00 am

I was never Rudolf Nureyev’s greatest fan. I must have seen him dance 30 or 40 times, starting with a…

I feel sorry for those stupid enough to believe that ballet is racist or transphobic

6 August 2022 9:00 am

Sick though one may be of the way that the poison dart of ‘woke’ is lazily flung at what is…

Leave Bizet’s Carmen alone

18 June 2022 9:00 am

I’ve always felt uncomfortably ambivalent about the work of Matthew Bourne. Of course, there is no disputing its infectious exuberance…

I suspect this was a rush job: Like Water for Chocolate reviewed

11 June 2022 9:00 am

How much weight of plot can dance carry? Balanchine famously insisted that there are no mothers-in-law in ballet, and masters…