dance

Win tickets for Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake 3D premiere, plus live Q&A

theartsdesk Tuesday, 01 May 2012

Matthew Bourne, creator of the famous male swans of his modern reinvention of Swan Lake, is to launch the nationwide screening of a spectacular new 3D film of his creation, along with a live Q&A - and we have free tickets to be won for this exclusive event. UPDATE: Competition now expired.

iPads and smartphones go live with hip-hop dancing

Ismene Brown Monday, 30 April 2012

A new publicly funded UK web channel for performing arts opens tomorrow morning, preparing for a major launch this weekend streaming top international streetdancers to the web audience and publishing John Peel's notes on his record collection. The channel, called The Space, is funded by the Arts Council England in partnership with the BBC, and will run for six months over and through the Olympics period as an on-demand channel to put performance out via smartphones, tablets and computers.

Ballet industry demands end to "too-thin" dancers

Ismene Brown Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Ballerina Tamara Rojo, director-designate of English National Ballet, is making waves even before she takes up her position in September. Next Monday she is a keynote speaker at a day of events at the Royal Society of Medicine launching the first-ever NHS treatment centre for injured dancers and rejecting the pressure for extreme thinness in performers.

Tamara Rojo, prima ballerina, becomes English National Ballet's director

Ismene Brown Thursday, 12 April 2012

Royal Ballet prima ballerina Tamara Rojo has been appointed the new artistic director of English National Ballet. Though the announcement was officially dated for tomorrow, the press release was issued by the company this morning and the news has been widely sent out over the internet and social media since then.

Comment

Cash for arts: should it be bums-per-pound or pounds-per-bum?

Ismene Brown Saturday, 31 March 2012

The organisation that channels public money to generate today's new classical music has been resoundingly condemned this week by all of Britain's most important composers.

Comment

Boy George and rapper Wale to sing live in Royal Ballet's upcoming premiere

Ismene Brown Monday, 12 March 2012

Boy George will be in a live line-up of singer-performers for the latest Royal Ballet premiere by Wayne McGregor. Mark Ronson's cycle of nine love songs, orchestrated by Rufus Wainwright, will be performed by the former Culture Club New-Romantic (he's now 50), alongside Alison Mosshart of The Kills, Jonny Pierce of The Drums, Hero Fisher, Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow, and rappers Wale and his protégé Black Cobain during the six-performance run next month.

A swift comeback for Covent Garden's ballet prodigal Polunin

Ismene Brown Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Fascinating news of the errant Royal Ballet star Sergei Polunin, apparently not lost to ballet just yet. Following his sudden walkout from the world-famous company where he was trained and nurtured as the most promising young man for decades, he is returning to Sadler's Wells in a mere three weeks with the independent programme of male ballet put on by his compatriot-in-rebellion Ivan Putrov.

Now English National Ballet loses its second head - Eagling to leave

Ismene Brown Monday, 20 February 2012

Sudden and disconcerting news from English National Ballet where it's just been announced that artistic director Wayne Eagling is to step down this summer. The company gives no reason for this exceedingly short notice, which leaves them having to advertise the third most significant job in British ballet within the next few days, and a precipitate appointment procedure only weeks after the departure of their managing director.

Comment

Charles Dickens, Theatre and Dance Critic-at-Large

Ismene Brown Thursday, 09 February 2012

When a young Charles Dickens visited New York in 1842 with his wife, he strolled down Broadway, happened upon an unusual dance and naturally checked out theatreland. As his bicentenary is celebrated, here, from his journal, American Notes For General Circulation, are some of his observations on the arts and culture of this foreign city, intervals of refreshment between the widespread social ills that he was principally reporting upon.

Door left ajar for Royal Ballet star who quit

Ismene Brown Thursday, 26 January 2012

The young Royal Ballet star Sergei Polunin, Covent Garden's most remarkable male discovery for years, has quit the company in a stunning shock that today sent consternation throughout the ballet world from the USA to Japan.