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REVIEWS | By Sara Veale

Free Spirits Reign

“First and foremost it’s a party.” This is how Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker characterises “Rain,” created in 2001 for her troupe Rosas. As far as festivities go, it falls more on the side of relaxed rendezvous than all-night rager, but certainly a feeling of elation defines the work. Over the past 16 years, “Rain” has become a signature feature in the Rosas repertory and part of the wider pantheon of contemporary classics. Crafted not just in sync but in symbiosis with Steve Reich’s minimalist score “Music for 18 Musicians,” it swirls song and dance to form a dreamy...

REVIEWS | By Rachel Elderkin

A Sense of Style

The final programme of the Royal Ballet’s Spring/Summer season sees the company perform a mixed bill of work by their founder choreographer, Frederick Ashton. Including two of his narrative works, one comic (“The Dream”) and one tragic (“Marguerite and Armand”), as well as the first piece he created for the Royal Opera House stage (“Symphonic Variations”), it’s a bill that pays homage to this admired choreographer. While there are times where the age of these works feels noticeable, the programme is, nonetheless, an enjoyable close to the season.

INTERVIEWS | By Penelope Ford

In Frame: Isabella Walsh

Of dancing in the premiere of Liam Scarlett's“Frankenstein,” San Francisco Ballet dancer Isabella Walsh notes, “it's kind of a sad ballet, but really interesting. It's like nothing I’ve done before.” Walsh, who joined the company in 2016 as an apprentice and is newly promoted to corps de ballet, is getting used to traversing new ground.

REVIEWS | By Sara Veale

On Edge

On the back of a US tour of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s imaginative reworking of “A Streetcar Named Desire” comes another bold showing from Scottish Ballet: a double bill with works from Crystal Pite and Angelin Preljoçaj. It’s an edgy turn for the company, and some slick, focused displays of dance arise from it, particularly in Pite’s “Emergence,” created in 2009 for National Ballet of Canada and acquired by Scottish Ballet last year.

REVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Blue in Green

It’s a given that Los Angeles, the sprawl-to-the-wall city, has some intriguing locations for site-specific dance, the Getty Center, Union Station and the plaza at the Music Center, to name but a few. With its tall royal palms, May-June jacaranda trees and sleek minimalist architecture, Santa Monica’s Tongva Park, proved a perfect match for the ever-exciting choreographer/dancer Mecca Vazie Andrews and her 11 skilled performers.

REVIEWS | By Gracia Haby

An Australian Nutcracker

A final performance. The audience applauds. Cries of Brava! can be heard, and flowers are tossed upon the stage in adoration and gratitude. In a tutu of rich autumnal hues, Clara takes her last bows. From the wings, her fellow dancers add to the applause.

REVIEWS | By Lorna Irvine

Put on your red shoes, and dance the blues

Nobody, but nobody, fuses together pop culture references, storytelling and populist dance quite like the fabulous Matthew Bourne. There is a reason people flock in droves to see his work, including those who are immune to dance's charms—he is simply a master craftsman. He is Britain's best-loved choreographer. This double Olivier Award-winning production is simply superb, and his company New Adventures are at the top of their game. “The Red Shoes” is arguably the most fully-formed production of his career to date.

FEATURES | By Sara Veale

Dancers in Dialogue

“Will you hold this, please?” I look up from my notebook to see a young woman pressing a length of string into my hands. A beat later she slinks away, leaving me to fumble with the thread as its other end is pulled taut by a man swaying across the room.

REVIEWS | By Gracia Haby

Out of Earshot

Myele Manzanza makes sound. Terrific sound. He plays drums. He plays the floor like it too were an instrument. Every surface, by this extension, has the possibility of being an instrument. And Manzanza also tap, tap, taps sound on Elle Evangelista, beginning with her shoulders. Standing face-to-face, he transmits sound to Evangelista. You can hear sound, yes. But you can also feel it as vibrations within the body.

REVIEWS | By Oksana Khadarina

Here/Now, No. 8

Only five years ago, choreographer Justin Peck was virtually unknown. Today he is a prominent presence in the world of dance, widely praised and admired by audiences (particularly young audiences) and critics alike. His meteoric rise to fame is underpinned by an impressive body of works. So far he has created 14 ballets for New York City Ballet where he is soloist and resident choreographer (he assumed this position in 2014). His other creations (more than a dozen) include commissions from Paris Opera Ballet, Miami City Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet among other companies. His ballets have been performed by...

REVIEWS | By Oksana Khadarina

Here/Now, No. 7

Remarkable in its size, range, and variety, New York City Ballet’s Here/Now festival presented ten separate programs. The first three were dedicated to works by Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and Justin Peck, one choreographer at a time, in the format usually used for the company’s luminaries, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. The remaining seven programs were packaged as collections of stylistically and musically diverse pieces, all created specifically for the company in the past thirty or so years. Over the course of four weeks, the festival afforded audiences the unique opportunity to see a great variety of works—a one-of-a-kind retrospective...

REVIEWS | By Penelope Ford

Room to Dream

Themes were choice, play, youth, and freedom at Toronto Dance Theatre's Emerging Voices program, premiering work by Alicia Grant and Emily Law. Both choreographers had the opportunity to develop their work within TDT's choreographic incubator facilitated by TDT Artistic Director Christopher House, and set their work on company dancers.

Featured Reads

REVIEWS | Sara Veale

Tranquil Intrigue

The title of this dance interpretation of The Tempest highlights a notable departure from canon. In “We Caliban,” Shobana Jeyasingh imagines Shakespeare’s titular native in the collective sense—a tribe, a spirit and a place at once.

REVIEWS | Rebecca Deczynski

Firebird Rising

Long before the dancers take the stage, Dance Theatre of Harlem’s season at New York City Center feels like one of the most energizing cultural events of the spring.

REVIEWS | Faye Arthurs

Rare Birds

It is rare for George Balanchine’s grand, bedazzled “Symphony in C” to open a program. Its champagne-popping finale for 52 dancers tends to be a nightcap.

REVIEWS | Eoin Fenton

Too Good to be True

When we think of countries that have shaped the world of dance our mind will often drift to the United States, Russia, or Germany. But what of Luxembourg?

REVIEWS | Rebecca Deczynski

Looking Forward

In times of rapid change, predicting the road ahead can seem to be a fool’s errand. But on a spring afternoon at Lincoln Center, I feel confident in this assertion: the future of dance is very bright.