It all looks gorgeous but British companies have fought shy of Le Corsaire for a reason. The silly tale of lecherous pashas and smiling slave girls calls for a wholehearted, honey-roast acting style seldom found west of the Dnieper and the degree of difficulty is set cruelly high with enough fouettés, barrel turns, chaînés and grandes pirouettes to stock a dance competition. … [Read more...] about Photo Album: English National Ballet in Le Corsaire
Dasa Wharton
Photo Album: Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes
Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes is back and has been hailed by all the critics as being even better than before. Adam Cooper joins the company for this revival and Ashley Shaw is Victoria Page, the award-winning role she created. Dasa Wharton took her camera to capture the 2019 opening. Ashley Shaw gave a sensational reminder of why her portrayal of Victoria Page won the … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes
Francesca Hayward – find out more about The Royal Ballet’s star of the movie Cats
Francesca Hayward, Principal dancer of The Royal Ballet, has a leading role in the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats, directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl). The much-criticised film - both positively and negatively, though mostly the latter - has seen praise poured on Hayward who plays the white cat, … [Read more...] about Francesca Hayward – find out more about The Royal Ballet’s star of the movie Cats
Photo Album of Two Giselles: English National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet
There’s a spate of Giselles about at the moment, radical reinventions of the 1841 ballet from Akram Khan for English National Ballet, and South African choreographer Dada Masilo, drawing on modern class and gender politics to rewrite the Romantic heroine for our times. But if you prefer your Giselle with original spirit intact, then Birmingham Royal Ballet is the one for … [Read more...] about Photo Album of Two Giselles: English National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet
Photo Album: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in London
The company has three As in its title but, to my mind, this programme sets the case for it to have four, because the profundity of the African American cause is so central to this fine pair of works that it certainly seems in the hinterland of being culturally inappropriate for me – a white Englishman – to comment on the content or the narrative. I can see the references to … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in London