Dance

Reviewer: Kelyn Luther Cirque Berserk is as its title suggests - a raucous circus with a carnival atmosphere. This carnival quality is unsurprising when you consider the diverse nationalities of the acts, including performers from Brazil, Cuba, Mongolia, France, and that’s only a few. Cirque Berserk are clearly, and rightly, proud of the range of cultures that make each act ...

Choreographer: Shamel Pitts Reviewer: Carrie Lee O’Dell Dancer and Choreographer Shamel Pitts is proud of his Brooklyn roots. In press materials and interviews, he talks about his youth in Brooklyn and the role that the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s programming played in shaping his own work. It’s fitting, then, that he returned to Brooklyn during Mother’s Day weekend to perform ...

Performers: Barely Methodical Troupe Directors: Melissa Ellberger, Ella Robson Guilfoyle, and the cast Reviewer:  Richard Maguire In a show full of tumbles, throws and acrobatics, it may be surprising that the overall impression is one of gentleness. In Shift, Barely Methodical Troupe demonstrates how much joy can come from play and yet accompanying this joy is an undercurrent of melancholy. ...

Music: Sir Richard Rodney Bennett CBE Writer: F. Scott Fitzgerald Choreographer and Director: David Nixon OBE Conductor: John Pryce-Jones Reviewer: Jo Beggs Any adaptation of The Great Gatsby promises so much. After all, it’s a sparkling novel, packed with powerful visual imagery, smouldering sensuality, passion and colour. It has the glitz of 1920s New York City, and the languid Summer ...

Dextera Choreographer: Sophie Laplane Dextera Composer: W.A. Mozart Elite Syncopations Choreographer: Sir Kenneth MacMillan Elite Syncopations Music: Scott Joplin & others Reviewer: Dominic Corr How precisely does one celebrate fifty years? By not simply paying tribute to your rich tradition of ballet but by evolving, showcasing how far as a company you have come. What’s more, you celebrate by showing ...

Dance company: National Dance Company Wales Choreographers: Marcos Morau, Fernando Melo, Caroline Finn Reviewer: Beth Steer Awakening, a programme of three different dances designed to show the versatility of the fantastic National Dance Company Wales, lives up to its intention to show the audience 'diverse perspectives on the world. Broken into three parts, with two twenty minute intervals, Awakening transports ...

Music: Jlin Choreographer: Wayne McGregor, in collaboration with the dancers Reviewer: Jo Beggs McGregor’s autobiographical piece, which premiered at the 2018 Edinburgh International Festival, is something of a new take on the re-telling of a life. Having sequenced his own genome and selected twenty-three memorable life moments, McGregor has created an episodic work that, like life, is visceral, lyrical, chaotic, ...

Choreography and Artistic Direction: Israel Galván Reviewer: Maryam Philpott If a performer isn’t using his legs or you cannot see his feet, is he really dancing? This is the quandary at the centre of La Fiesta because perversely for most of his new show Choreographer and principal dancer Israel Galván finds other ways to express the Spanish rhythms created by his ...