Ballet

I’m done with Hofesh Shechter

19 October 2024 9:00 am

I think I’m through with Hofesh Shechter, and that’s a pity, because earlier work of his such as Political Mother…

Expressive and eloquent: Northern Ballet’s Three Short Ballets reviewed

28 September 2024 9:00 am

Ballet companies have become dismally timid about exploring their 20th-century heritage: everything nowadays must be either box-fresh new or a…

Letters: A cautionary lesson for England’s schools

14 September 2024 9:00 am

Lessons to learn Sir: Your leading article ‘Requires improvement’ (7 September) rightly raised concerns that a curriculum review in England…

How claims of cultural appropriation scuppered an acclaimed new ballet

7 September 2024 9:00 am

On 14 March 2020 I was at Leeds Grand Theatre for the première of Northern Ballet’s Geisha. The curtains swung…

The unstoppable rise of stage amplification

31 August 2024 9:00 am

Recent acquisition of some insanely expensive hearing aids aimed at helping me out in cacophonous restaurants has set me thinking…

Introducing Tchaikovsky the merry scamp

24 August 2024 9:00 am

Rescuing the composer from his tortured image, Simon Morrison presents him as a sort of Till Eulenspiegel character, laughing and pranking his way through life

Welcome back to London City Ballet – but can they please change their name?

10 August 2024 9:00 am

There’s sound thinking behind this summer’s resuscitation of London City Ballet – a medium-scale touring company popular in the 1980s…

The problem with Swan Lake

22 June 2024 9:00 am

Over this summer you can see Swan Lake performed at the Royal Opera House by the Royal Ballet; at the…

A fitting – and lovable – tribute to Frederick Ashton

15 June 2024 9:00 am

I encountered Frederick Ashton at a dinner party shortly before he died in 1988. Frail and anxious, he clutched my…

There are passages of considerable eloquence in Royal Ballet’s The Winter’s Tale

11 May 2024 9:00 am

There’s no escaping Christopher Wheeldon – a modest, amiable fellow from Yeovil of whom anyone’s mum would be proud. Reaching…

Don’t write off Hofesh Shechter – his new work is uniquely haunting

4 May 2024 9:00 am

In 2010, when his thrillingly edgy and angry Political Mother delivered modern dance a winding punch right where it hurt,…

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…

The dazzling classic The Red Shoes has several unfashionable lessons for us today

23 September 2023 9:00 am

Seventy-five years after its release, Powell and Pressburger’s dazzling, much-loved classic is more timely than ever, says Robin Ashenden

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…

Can ballet survive the culture wars?

22 July 2023 9:00 am

Despite #MeToo and the new resistance to male bullying, the dance world is still ferocious and unforgiving, writes Rupert Christiansen

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…

Letters: Britain needs the English National Ballet

1 October 2022 9:00 am

Putin’s options Sir: I agree with Paul Wood that Vladimir Putin is on the back foot (‘Cornered’, 24 September). His…

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…

The company has a hit on their hands: Scottish Ballet's Coppélia reviewed

27 August 2022 9:00 am

With the major companies largely on their summer breaks, the Edinburgh International Festival struggles to programme a high standard of…

The magic of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

13 August 2022 9:00 am

Louise Levene on the male ballet troupe that realised the ballerinas have all the best lines

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…