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A Show of Strength
REVIEWS | Par Veronica Posth

A Show of Strength

There were high expectations for Staatsballett Berlin’s double bill featuring two well-known choreographers, Alexander Ekman and Sharon Eyal. “Lib,” which stands for Liberty, by Alexander Ekman is a collaboration with hair designer and artist Charlie Le Mindu: In fact, the evening opens with a man wearing a long vertical wig on his head, seated in the auditorium, while the spectators take their places. The performance has already started but only some realise it. He slowly and casually moves towards the stage and once there he entertains with some foolish movements and poses. Then, one by one, four graceful dancers enter...

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LA Dances Festival
REVIEWS | Par Victoria Looseleaf

L.A. Dances Festival

Seeing dance up close and personal can be something thrilling—as long as the choreography and performers are up to terpsichorean snuff. That was mostly the case when the 12-member L.A. Dance Project performed Program C as part of its L.A. Dances Festival that ran for 10 days in November (Programs A and B ran September 26-October 25). A bold undertaking by the troupe founded by Benjamin Millepied in 2012, the festival featured six world premieres, 10 works and one revival.  

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Richard Alston Dance Company
REVIEWS | Par Lorna Irvine

The Creative, the Curious and the Courtly

There are two very distinct strands to Richard Alston's choreography. The first is a provocative, experimental path, where Alston's eccentric musical choices dictate the shifts and twists within. The second is a more classical, traditional route. Yet, both are never too sentimental or frilly, in spite of the craftsmanship. His is a “get on with it” approach, and there is an enormous amount of heart and humour, so it's really heartbreaking to think there have been recent cuts to the company, and they're winding down.

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Ghost Dimensions
REVIEWS | Par Lorna Irvine

A Haunting

At once an art installation and dance piece, “Ghost Dimensions” cannot easily be pigeonholed or put into neat niche categories. It works almost like a puzzle, split into two halves with the incredible design by Tseliso Monaheng projected onto two sheets. It’s all about duality. These two component parts can be experienced by the audience in one sitting from one side of the room, or explored around the other. One side is rendered in neon colours, showing cityscapes, obscure figures and trees; the other is in negative like a reversal of the production. Both sides of the images meet up...

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CCN-Ballet de Lorraine
REVIEWS | Par Sara Veale

Remembering Merce

Merce Cunningham would have turned 100 in 2019, a centennial that’s seen institutions around the world flock to commemorate the prodigious American choreographer. There have been exhibitions, seminars, master classes and of course performances, including the ambitious “Night of 100 Solos,” commissioned by the Merce Cunningham Trust and featuring 75 artists dancing in tandem across three cities.

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World Premieres
REVIEWS | Par Merilyn Jackson

World Premieres

Five years into his appointment as artistic director, former American Ballet Theatre star, Ángel Corella challenges the Pennsylvania Ballet’s cadre to surpass themselves each new season. Adding demi-soloist and first soloist last spring gives him 23 dancers above the corps and a freer hand in casting for each ballet. The result is a faster, sleeker look on the entire company from corps to principal dancer.

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Cindy Van Acker
REVIEWS | Par Gracia Haby

One by One

The sky turns red to the sailors’ delight, caused by the setting sun dispatching its light through a high concentration of dust particles: good weather will follow. I ascend the stairs of Dancehouse for my second taste of swiss.style, with grass on my heels, my Quarries Park “Trophy”-marker.

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trophy
REVIEWS | Par Gracia Haby

Taking Sides

“Ping.” “Tink.” “Chick-o-wee.” In the late afternoon, Quarries Park, Clifton Hill, is a wonderful chorus of bird calls and a whirl of neighbourhood activity. The sun doesn’t set for another two hours yet. The golden light where everything appears rimmed by a halo or to glow softly is approaching. In anticipation, the high-pitched trills and the soft churring “kreeeark” of birds. And at the foot of the park, a knot of people gathers for Rudi van der Merwe’s “Trophy,” presented by Dancehouse as part of swiss.style, a focus on dance from Switzerland for the first ten days of November. In...

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the royal ballet
REVIEWS | Par Sara Veale

Sixties Swing

The Royal Ballet’s first mixed bill of the 2019/20 season is a snapshot of 1960s British ballet and the polar places it went. Sandwiched between a spare modern creation and a frothy classical revival are bouncy character variations set to a turn-of-the-century orchestral work—slightly mismatched courses, sure, but an interesting snapshot of the company’s mid-century catalogue, plus a chance to see the Royal’s robust solo talent in action.

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Sydney Dance Company
REVIEWS | Par Claudia Lawson

A Step in Time

Sydney Dance Company’s second program marking their 50th anniversary year is “Bonachela/Obarzanek.” This double bill celebrates the company’s history as laid out by its dancers and choreographers, and also the cultural contribution SDC has made to the contemporary dance scene in Australia and around the world.

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New Ventures
REVIEWS | Par Sara Veale

New Ventures

Birmingham Royal Ballet is on a creative commissioning spree. Set on widening its audience at home and away, the company has been funnelling resources into a range of choreographic initiatives and collaborations, and its shows are looking sharper for it.

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Emanual Gat
REVIEWS | Par Lorna Irvine

Hypervigilant

There is an itchy sense of restlessness to Emanuel Gat's ephemeral piece with Scottish Dance Theatre, a heightened kind of hypervigilance with a dozen dancers onstage always looking over their shoulders. They appear primed to pounce at any time, all too aware of lurking predators. It's there in Gat's lighting design, which is hugely evocative of twilight corners. It's woven into the alertness of eyes, the scratchy shapes of arachnid hands twitching in the air and protective hunches on haunches, the groups of two or three, rearing up like horses on hind legs. This “fight or flight” stance is a...

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Featured Reads

REVIEWS | Rachel Howard
Starry Nights

Beneath blue California skies, manicured trees, and the occasional hum of an overhead airplane, Tamara Rojo took the Frost Amphitheater stage at Stanford University to introduce herself as the new artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.

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