Faust vs Alice – singing and dancing in boxes
Déjà vu? On the left the new Faust at the ENO (photo by Tristram Kenton), on the right a scene from the Royal Ballet‘s recent Alice (photo by Johan Persson).
Royal Ballet
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McGregor’s Olympian Big Dance 2012
Details of Big Dance 2012 were unveiled today by choreographer Wayne McGregor, who will create a new dance for 2,000 people to perform in Trafalgar Square next year. As previously announced, Royal Ballet resident choreographer McGregor will direct the large-scale routine at the centre of the festival, which will become nationwide in 2012 as part…
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Rupert Pennefather’s turning thirty but still looking good in white tights
The Times talked to Rupert Pennefather on the eve of his 30th birthday and his début in Manon: Never underestimate the importance of looking good in white tights – says Debra Craine – for a male ballet dancer it’s a crucial part of the job description. Which is no problem for the tall, well-proportioned Pennefather….
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The Royal Ballet’s Sarah Lamb talks to The Independent
Sarah Lamb is sewing shoes: I sew four or five a week, and I use a razor blade to pare them down. Today in the Manon rehearsal the floor is dirty in the first act, then you get blood on a shoe in the next act, so new shoes are needed. I believe there used…
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Critics round-up: Manon’s Leanne Benjamin and Steven McRae
Edward Watson‘s pulling out left the first night to newcomer Steven McRae but he had a very experienced Manon in Leanne Benjamin. This is how they were seen by the critics. LEANNE BENJAMIN – “one of the most painfully involving Manons imaginable” Times – Leanne Benjamin, queen of the Royal Ballet‘s Manons. Her dancing was a little…
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Yuhui Choe on what it takes to get to Cinderella’s ball
Korean dancer Yuhui Choe is currently playing Cinderella on the stage of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. I try to speak the emotion from my body — the theatre is very big so I want everyone to sense what I’m saying.” She talked to today’s Times about her performance days. EVENING It…
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That’s a lots of Manons – 8 casts, 15 performances and a sold-out notice guaranteed
The Royal Ballet‘s signature ballet Manon returns next week for a 15 show run. That’s a lot for a narrative ballet that doesn’t possess a Tchaikovsky score! But it is the casting that astounds – just everyone wants to take a shot at the doomed couple. The Manons with their respective Des Grieuxs are: Laura…
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When artistic disciplines collide, dance often takes a back seat.
Debra Craine in today’s Times comments on the new collaboration between the National Gallery and the Royal Ballet: The idea of artists and choreographers collaborating isn’t new. Pablo Picasso worked with Léonide Massine and Robert Rauschenberg inspired Trisha Brown; Jasper Johns advised Merce Cunningham; Isamu Noguchi joined forces with Martha Graham; David Hockney designed for…
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McGregor’s ‘Chroma’ arrives in San Francisco: “a series of astonishing lifts, upturning bodies like saltshakers”
Wayne McGregor’s ‘Chroma‘, created for The Royal Ballet in 2006, has crossed the Atlantic thanks to San Francisco Ballet. In London the work was an instant triumph. Debra Craine for The Times wrote: McGregor’s Chroma is ravishing on all fronts, choreography, music and design. The latter is what hits you first, an enormous light box brilliantly…
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Tamara Rojo arms herself to fight against the cuts
On Wednesday, the Arts Council announced that funding for 2012-15 will be cut by 11% for ENO, 15% for the Royal Opera House and the National Theatre, and 39% for the Almeida, in north London. Some smaller companies and regional theatres will lose all their funding. Difficult times, but out of hardship often spring new…
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So it’s not The Most Incredible Thing after all
British pop duo the Pet Shop Boys have unveiled their first ballet score, a dance work based on the Hans Christian Andersen story The Most Incredible Thing. It is a fairytale about a ruler who offers his daughter and half his kingdom in a contest.Venezuelan dancer Javier De Frutos has choreographed the piece, and ex-Royal Ballet…
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Miyako Yoshida’s concert for Japan
If you are anywhere near Covent Garden tomorrow drop in to the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House at 4pm for Miyako Yoshida‘s concert to raise money for the tsunami victims. Tickets are only £20, though of course donations are welcome. JAPAN TSUNAMI APPEAL CONCERT Sunday 20 March 4pm LINBURY STUDIO THEATRE Concert performance in…
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Steven McRae ignites the Covent Garden stage
The Times review opens with, Frederick Ashton‘s Rhapsody, the opening salvo of the Royal Ballet‘s latest triple bill, was created in 1980 to mark the 80th birthday of the Queen Mother. It was also conceived as a showcase for the extraordinarily virtuosic talents of the company guest star, Mikhail Baryshnikov. At this week’s opening night performance…
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Ivan ‘did-he-go-or-was-he-pushed?’ Putrov nears the opening of his Pet Shop Boys ballet
After 12 years at Covent Garden, eight of them as a principal dancer, Putrov quit the Royal Ballet last year in a move that prompted a flood of gossip and rumour. Falling out with his ballerina partners? Flareups in the rehearsal studio? Failing to keep his eye on the ball? says Debra Craine in The Times…
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Royal Ballet’s 24-year-old Liam Scarlett will create a new work for Miami City Ballet
The man creating a new dance for Miami City Ballet‘s next season is a 24-year-old dancer with London‘s Royal Ballet who’s being touted as one of the form’s most promising choreographic talents. And the creative collaboration came about through an ungraceful but fortuitous meeting, as MCB director Edward Villella, visiting the Royal during a vacation…
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First reviews are out of Wheeldon’s Alice at the Royal Ballet
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…
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Swans everywhere! Are we sick of the little flyers? Not a bit of it, and Sara Mearns is one of the reasons why
With the Royal Ballet and New York City Ballet offering Swan Lakes in the theatre, and the Black Swan BAFTAing and Oscaring all over the place, we should be getting sick of the little flyers. But we’re not. And Sara Mearns is one of the reasons why. Jocelyn Novek for the Associated Press: Move over,…
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Mara Galeazzi’s Dancing for the Children Gala 2011 at Sadler’s Wells on 3 April
The Royal Ballet Principal Mara Galeazzi‘s Gala 2011 is part of a unique initiative, Dancing For The Children, which has this year teamed up with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. Gala for Africa 2011 is a special evening of dance, world premieres, music and song with a star-studded line-up that includes Mara Galeazzi and and Principal dancers of The…
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Ballet Boyz: the next generation – meet The Talent
It’s more than 10 years since Michael Nunn and William Trevitt sensationally left the Royal Ballet – and the Ballet Boyz, as the pair became known, are Boyz no more. Now in their early forties, Nunn and Trevitt are passing their experience on to the fledgling dancers who make up their cheekily named new troupe,…
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The Bolshoi’s golden couple Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova come out tops at the 11th Critics’ Circle Dance Awards
The Bolshoi Ballet took the most prizes at the 11th Critics’ Circle Dance Awards held at Sadler’s Wells. The awards given out were: De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement – Jann Parry, Alistair Spalding Outstanding Female Performance (Classical) – Martha Leebolt (Northern Ballet) Outstanding Male Performance (Modern) – Daniel Proietto, for work with Russell Maliphant company…
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Sergei Polunin triumphs in Giselle at the Royal Opera House
Judith Mackrell in The Guardian finds much to praise in 21-year-old Sergei Polunin‘s Albrecht: Physically, Polunin could not be more ideal for the role. With his wide poet’s forehead, slender build and black velvet gaze he’s not only the most handsome man Giselle has ever seen, he’s a pin-up boy for the whole idea of…
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Fifty years of the Royal Ballet
The Proud Galleries in Chelsea launch its first ever exhibition dedicated to ballet with Fifty Years of the Royal Ballet, photographs by Colin Jones. Born in 1936 as the son of an East London printer, Colin Jones spent his youth struggling with dyslexia and illiteracy. He was evacuated three times during the Second World War,…
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The Royal Ballet School – Ninette de Valois: Adventurous Traditionalist
The Royal Ballet School is to host a Conference to mark the 10th Anniversary of the death of the Founder of The Royal Ballet School and Companies, Dame Ninette de Valois OM, CH, DBE (1898 – 2001). This significant and wide-reaching event will be held over the first weekend of April, 2011; opening at the…
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BRB’s Cinderella under the BBC’s Christmas tree
Cinderella is the BBC’s ballet offering for Christmas. The new, much-acclaimed Bintley production for the Birmingham Royal Ballet will be shown on BBC 2: Performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet in its 20th anniversary year, BBC Two broadcasts a new production of Cinderella – a dazzling visual experience choreographed by David Bintley. The production brings…
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José Manuel Carreño and Tamara Rojo in Carmina Burano in Mexico tonight with 250 performers onstage
American Ballet Theater star José Manuel Carreño and Royal Ballet principal Tamara Rojo, together with the Cuban Contemporary Dance Ensemble are gearing up to perform the monumental production of Carmina Burana in Mexico tonight. The show which won the Lunas del Auditorio 2008 and 2009 awards, will be held on November 28 in a unique…
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“The world’s greatest ballet company performs the world’s greatest love story at the O2” says the producer
Ok, maybe he’s going a bit over the top, but being that there are more than 20,000 seats to shift for each performance Raymond Gubbay needs to pull out all the stops. The Royal Ballet is thrilled to announce that it will dance a specially produced production of Romeo and Juliet at The O2 arena in…
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Christmas ballet officially began at the weekend with The Royal Ballet’s wonderful production of Cinderella
Performances continue until the 13th December. As Sarah Frater reminded us in the Evening Standard: Christmas ballet officially began at the weekend with The Royal Ballet‘s wonderful production of Cinderella. Frederick Ashton‘s 1948 super-traditional version of the classic fairytale is perfect family fare , with filigree dancing, clear story-telling and romping good humour from the Step Sister….
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