Sadler’s wells
The choreographer that does things to tango couples that Relate would not recommend
I often regret that I’m writing in the past tense here, but never more than about milonga. It is such…
Is that Sylvie Guillem? Or R2-D2? Guillem's farewell dance at Sadler’s Wells reviewed
There’s been a clutch of middle-aged danseuses taking leave of life in one way or another recently. We’ve seen the…
Boris Johnson on his plans for the Olympic Park: inspired or whimsical?
Jack Wakefield on the Mayor’s ambitious, not to say whimsical, vision for the Olympic Park
50 shades of beige: English National Ballet's Modern Masters at Sadler's Wells, reviewed
My moment of the week was stumbling into the shocking, fantastical Cabinet of Curiosities in the Alexander McQueen show at…
A legendary piece of iconoclastic dance returns. Does the piece still stand up?
Funny how things turn upside-down with time. A work of contemporary dance that made an iconoclastic splash decades ago is…
The Associates at Sadler's Wells reviewed: another acutely inventive work from Crystal Pite
The prodigious streetdancer Tommy Franzén pops up everywhere from family-friendly hip-hop shows by ZooNation, Boy Blue and Bounce to serious…
London International Mime Festival review: on juggling, dance and Wayne Rooney's hair transplant
January is something of a palate-cleanser for the year, as the London International Mime Festival flies in plane-loads of companies…
Sacred Monsters, Sadler’s Wells: Sylvie Guillem and Akram Kham’s captivating final boogie
I’m dashing between dance theatres at the moment and there’s just so much to tell you about. I could linger…
Thomas Ades’s Polaris at Sadler’s Wells: the dance premiere of the year
This has been an extraordinarily exciting fortnight, on and off stage. Premieres in anything from ice-skating to classical ballet, charismatic…
Matthew Bourne’s Lord of the Flies: when boys turn feral
GCSE Eng Lit pupils are doing well from dance this season with two set books told in the medium of…
Does a tart like Manon have a place in the Royal Ballet repertoire?
What can the Royal Opera House be insinuating about its target audience? No sooner had Anna Nicole closed than Manon…
Perfect dancing but boringly beautiful
Aesthetically speaking, last week’s performance by the Nederlands Dans Theater 1 was one by the slickest of the season. Fashionably…
A swan to die for at Sadler’s Wells
Swans, swans, more swans. If the lifespan of a dance critic were calculated by the number of performances of Swan…
Dance games from Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker at Sadler’s Wells
Forget the pedantic classifications of genres, styles and schools. When it comes to dance performances, it all boils down to…
The wit, wisdom and womanising of Constant Lambert
Philip Hensher on the tragically short life of the ebullient and multi-talented musician, Constant Lambert
Romeo, Juliet and Mussolini
George Balanchine’s Serenade, the manifesto of 20th-century neoclassical choreography, requires a deep understanding of both its complex stylistic nuances and…
European postmodern dance can be just as boring as American postmodern dance
What’s in a definition? As far as theatre dance is concerned, quite a lot. Labelling — and often labelling for…
Stuttgart Ballet - still John Cranko's company
Stuttgart Ballet’s rapid ascent to fame is at the core of one of the most interesting chapters of ballet history.…
Is there or isn't there a hanged man in 'Sun'?
Sun is one of those performances that confront reviewers with the eternal dilemma of whether or not it is appropriate…
Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote lacks the wow factor
Superstar Carlos Acosta makes little or no reference to Don Quixote’s established history in his programme note about the genesis…
