sun 05/10/2025

dance

theartsdesk in Hamburg: Ghost Light - a ballet in the time of corona

Jenny Gilbert

So the Royal Ballet is to make a live comeback, for one night only, on 9 October. Fielding the entire company of 100 dancers, suitably distanced, the enterprise is being hailed as a triumph of logistics. And so it is. But the fact remains that the vast majority of its audience will be watching on a computer screen at home.

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Dancing at Dusk: A Moment with Pina Bausch’s 'The Rite of Spring' review - an explosive African rite

Jenny Gilbert

There’s sun and sand, and both are golden – but this is no holiday beach. Distantly, out of focus, you can make out a man with a donkey and cart. Off-camera, some locals kick a ball. A square of sand about the size of a tennis court has been carefully raked in preparation for a performance – a unique performance, as it turns out.

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The Thread, Sadler's Wells Digital Stage review - Greek folk and contemporary unite

Marianka Swain

The latest Sadler’s Wells digital offering is 2019’s The Thread, a luminous collaboration between choreographer Russell Maliphant and Oscar-winning composer Vangelis (Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner) for the Athens-based production company Lavris.

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Palermo, Palermo review - free to view Pina

Genevieve Curtis

It starts with an almighty boom. Without warning, a breeze-block wall that spans the width of the stage collapses into billowing clouds of dust. As the air clears, we see a stage strewn with rubble, and picking her way determinedly through it blonde Julie Shanahan, shod – as are all Pina Bausch's women – in high heels, absurdly impractical for walking, for dancing, or even for standing still.

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Rumpelstiltskin, Sadler's Wells Digital Stage review - spins an engaging yarn for young audiences

Marianka Swain

The latest in Sadler’s Wells’ Digital Stage programme – an impressively assembled online offering to keep audiences entertained during the shutdown – is balletLORENT’s family-friendly dance-theatre production Rumpelstiltskin. It was streamed as a "matinee" on Friday afternoon, and is avail

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Richard Alston Dance Company, Final Edition, Sadler's Wells review - farewell and thank you, Sir Richard

Jenny Gilbert

Hard as it is to imagine the British dance landscape without Richard Alston, we’re going to have to get used to it.

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Isadora Now, Barbican Theatre review - a little piece of history

Jenny Gilbert

Mention Isadora Duncan and the best response you’re likely to get is “Wasn’t she that dancer who died when her scarf got caught in the wheels of a Bugatti?” The closing scene of the 1968 biopic starring Vanessa Redgrave seems to have blotted out everything Duncan actually achieved.

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Alina, Sadler's Wells review - I think therefore I dance

Jenny Gilbert

It’s common to see the term “vanity project” applied to self-produced shows by ballet stars, but Alina – the first such London venture by Alina Cojocaru – was quite the opposite of vain.

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Message in a Bottle, Peacock Theatre review - a hiphop singalong

Jenny Gilbert

It’s hard enough to imagine hip hop set to the songs of Sting, but a hip hop show in which 27 songs by Sting laid end to end are made to tell a story about refugees? That’s the unlikely latest offering from the choreographer Kate Prince.

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The Cellist/Dances at a Gathering, Royal Ballet review - A grand love affair with a cello

Jenny Gilbert

The cello is the stringed instrument most closely aligned to the human voice. It has a human shape, too, so in theory it was a short step for choreographer Cathy Marston to give it a living, breathing presence in her ballet about the legendary cellist Jacqueline du Pré. But what a giant leap of imagination that turned out to be.

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