Dance

Music and Lyrics: Howard Blake Choreographer: Robert North Director: Bill Alexander Reviewer: Selwyn Knight 2018, was positively awash with anniversaries relating to The Snowman: Raymond Briggs' book was first published in 1978, 40 years ago, and Birmingham REP’s first stage production inspired by the book and animated film of 1982, was first seen in 1993, 25 years ago. And, as the ...

Director and Choreographer: Akram Khan Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Akram Khan’s farewell continues and this week sees his last performances in his show Until The Lions, first seen at The Roundhouse in 2016. If this really is to be his final performance as a dancer then it’s a fitting and an emotional goodbye. In May of 2018, Khan danced his last ...

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Version and Direction: Victor Smirnov-Golovanov Artistic Director: Ludmila Nerubashenko Choreographer: Marius Petipa Reviewer: Janet Jepson There is a certain magic in the air when a ballet is performed, and an evening at the ballet seems to hark back to that previous era of classic theatrical opulence and privilege. To properly partake in the experience, one feels ...

Writer: Gbolahan Obisesan Choreographer: Vicki Igbokwe Reviewer: Maryam Philpott This Christmas seems to be a popular time to update and rework the Brothers Grimm. A fashion-forward take on Rumpelstiltskinopening at the Southbank earlier this week is now joined by Vicki Igbokwe’s African dance update of Hansel and Gretel at The Place in which the entire story is not just relocated but stretched ...

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Director and Choreographer: Matthew Bourne Reviewer: Sophia Moss “Don’t feed the swans” reads the sign standing next to a park bench where The Prince (Liam Mower) is writing a suicide note. Drunk and despondent, the prince plans to drown himself in Swan Lake, but before he can take his life, smoke starts to engulf the space ...

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Director: David Nixon Reviewer: Dawn Smallwood To mark the festive season of shows at the Leeds Grand Theatre, Northern Ballet brings its much loved The Nutcracker. This 2007 version has been especially refreshed for one to appreciate and love this classical ballet even more. It certainly has a modern feel but does not compromise at all the classical elements ...

Artistic Director: Marvin Khoo Choreographer: Carlos Pons Guerra Reviewer: Maryam Philpott “Each man kills the thing he loves” Oscar Wilde wrote in The Ballad of Reading Gaol, ever tortured by his complex relationship with Alfred Douglas. Dancer Mavin Khoo and choreographer Carlos Pons Guerra seem to have this poem at the forefront of their mind in their latest dance piece ...

Writer: Dylan Thomas Music: Cerys Matthews MBE, Mason Neely Choreographer: Darius James, Amy Doughty Reviewer: Beverley Haigh Ballet Cymru’s festive offering is A Child’s Christmas, Poems and Tiger Eggs, a reworking of the poems of Dylan Thomas by Cerys Matthews. Whilst spending Christmas in South Carolina in 2015, Matthews’ love of Dylan Thomas was reawakened and she was inspired to ...