Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Interview with The Royal Ballet’s Lauren Cuthbertson – so much passion

2 May 2020 by gramilano Leave a Comment

On 14 March 2020, The Royal Ballet’s principal dancer Lauren Cuthbertson was dancing Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. A rare honour. She was dancing with former Royal Ballet dancer and Mariinsky principal dancer Xander Parish and cheered on by her mother, her boyfriend and his parents. Two days later, they were returning to London on the Gatwick Express when a message arrived: Royal Ballet classes, rehearsals and performances were suspended with immediate effect because of the spread of the coronavirus.

I’d heard from friends in Europe and America that things were shutting down, so I knew what was coming. So we drove out of London, and now I’m in the countryside with my boyfriend and his parents. I’m lucky to have a garden – if I were in London, it would be a very different story.

A female pas de deux from Royal Ballet dancers Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Yasmine Naghdi

22 September 2017 by gramilano Leave a Comment

It’s relatively rare to see a female pas de deux in classical dance. In 2015, for her farewell tour, Sylvie Guillem asked Russell Maliphant to create a such a duet as she’d never danced with a female partner, so he created Here & After, which she danced all over the world with La Scala soloist Emanuela Montanari. […]

Yanowsky’s Back! Making a comeback faster than Frank Sinatra

21 September 2017 by gramilano Leave a Comment

Frank Sinatra famously retired in 1970 only to make a comeback three years later, after which he continued to sing into the ’90s. Former Royal Ballet Principal Zenaida Yanowsky is making a faster comeback than Ol’ Blue Eyes. After 23 years with The Royal Ballet, Zenaida Yanowsky gave her final curtain call on the Covent […]

The world’s cheapest city (and most expensive) for a cultural break

24 August 2017 by gramilano 3 Comments

Prague has come up trumps as the place where those planning a cultural city break can save money this autumn, according to the 2017 British Post Office Travel Money Cost of Culture Report. The Czech capital emerges as cheapest in a survey of opera, dance, music concert, gallery and museum prices in 16 cultural cities, […]

Kevin O’Hare interview: It’s an exciting time for The Royal Ballet

4 September 2015 by gramilano 3 Comments

This is an exciting time for The Royal Ballet, which has been on a roll for several years with an enthusiastic public for the sold-out performances at the Royal Opera House, the extremely popular live cinema relays, and the streamed events on the internet. The public and critical success has been mirrored by the various […]

Critics Round-Up: An ‘imaginatively crafted delight’ or a ‘thin ballet’? Royal Ballet’s Alice

25 March 2012 by gramilano 4 Comments

We know that the Royal Ballet’s dancers are exceptional, we’ve seen that the designs and lighting are magical, but the jury is still out on whether Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland satisfies as a theatrical piece. Clement Crisp’s final paragraph from his Financial Times review of the current run was, But for all the unflagging energies, physical and […]

Christopher Wheeldon explains why his Alice ballet isn’t a slow-motion car crash

15 October 2011 by gramilano Leave a Comment

Luke Jennings, summing up the critics’ verdicts on the ‘McCartney Ballet’ in the Guardian’s theatre blog, reflected on unsuccessful narrative ballets: Ballet’s gatekeepers tend to almost infinite credulity, and this, to a large extent, is why there are so many bad narrative ballets. Here in the UK there are dance directors who understand the nature […]

First reviews are out of Wheeldon’s Alice at the Royal Ballet

1 March 2011 by gramilano Leave a Comment

Neil Norman for The Daily Express has no doubt: I predict that Christopher Wheeldon’s triumphant production of Lewis Carroll’s immortal classic will become the must-see ballet for children and adults alike. As a full-length narrative ballet – the first commissioned by the Royal Ballet in sixteen years – it is a cogent and immensely entertaining […]