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REVIEW: New York City Ballet
A Tribute to Robbins and His Artistic Partners, Past and Present
Fancy Free, Dybbuk
USA, New York, State Theater
Dancers: De Luz, Fairchild, Peck, Stiefel, Taylor, Woetzel
by Alastair Macaulay
    "'Fancy Free,' the most familiar of this program’s three ballets, also proves the most substantial. Robbins and Bernstein intended otherwise with “Dybbuk” (1974), a series of dances that abstract aspects of S. Ansky’s play “The Dybbuk.” But my mind goes in and out of Robbins’s version of the story without being able to settle."
New York Times

REVIEW: American Ballet Theater Studio Company
A Sweet-Toothed Queen's New Royal Edict: Let Them Eat Cake, On Toe Shoes
Cake
USA, New York, Joyce Theater
Dancers: Gorak, Hernandez, Park, Thompson, Annika
by Claudia La Rocco
    "Ballet companies of America, take note: it is possible to create new story ballets and not just retool the existing war horses. And it can be done without byzantine sets, two-intermission marathons or huge casts."
New York Times

REVIEW: Nora Chipaumire
The Anguish of War, Expressed in Movement
Chimurenga
USA, New York, Dance Theater Workshop
Dancers: Chipaumire
by Claudia La Rocco
    "Nora Chipaumire’s “Chimurenga (struggle, cry, revolution)” demands close attention, even though she doesn’t always make it easy. But it’s no easy thing Ms. Chipaumire is trying to do in translating her youth during Zimbabwe’s second war of liberation into a 60-minute dance-theater work."
New York Times

REVIEW: Akram Khan
In Limbo with Akram Khan
Bahok
USA, New York, City Center
Dancers: Farro, Kim, Ning Ning, Nitong, Petrovic, Zhenxin
by Joel Lobenthal
    "Watching Akram Khan’s “bahok,” at City Center on Tuesday night, I thought of the plays “No Exit” by Sartre and “Outward Bound” by Sutton Vane. In each, an unsuspecting cross-section of humanity finds itself stranded in a limbo that turns out to be purgatory."
New York Sun

REVIEW: Cloud Gate Dance Theatre
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan at Birmingham Hippodrome
Moon Water
UK, Birmingham, Hippodrome
by Susan Turner
    "On the matter of time, it is over-long by 15 minutes or so, yet no one would deny the 19 dancers' - their bodies gleaming with effort -ability to make the difficult tai chi-inspired movements appear entirely effortless."
Birmingham Post

REVIEW: Boston Ballet
Reflecting Beauty of Music and Form in Swan Lake
Swan Lake
USA, Boston, Wang Theatre
Dancers: Cirio, Gurevich, Hough, Kuranaga, Mathis, Ponomarenko, Prouty, Rykine, Whiteside
by Thea Singer
    "Last night, Larissa Ponomarenko in the dual role of Odette/Odile, could literally make your heart sing - and later weep - with her tremu lous beats, off-kilter arabesques, and limpid broken arms-cum-wings as she, as the Swan Queen, fell hard and fast for Prince Siegfried (Roman Rykine) - and then crumbled, like a leaf underfoot, at his unintended betrayal."
The Boston Globe

REVIEW: Ailey II
Ailey Fledglings Show How Far They Can Fly
Eternal Knot, Fragile, Requiem, When Dawn Comes
USA, New York, La Guardia High School
Dancers: Johnson, Lebrun, Sykes
by Jennifer Fisher
    "Is it quibbling to say that the Ailey II dancers look way too professional to be members of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s junior troupe? Or to be participating in an event, the Joyce Theater’s “1 2 3 Festival,” that showcases dancers at the start of their careers? Or that the emotional and physical intensity of the four works they performed on Wednesday night was almost too much?"
Los Angeles Times

REVIEW: Paul Taylor Dance Company
With The Great Paul Taylor You Get Humor and the Human Condition
Aureole, Troilus and Cressida, Cloven Kingdom, Black Tuesday
USA, Seattle, Meany Hall
Dancers: Mazzini, Trusnovec
by R.M. Campbell
    "As one of the century's greatest choreographers, Taylor not only illuminates our world with evocative inventions and insights into the human condition, he can be vastly entertaining."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

PREVIEW: Spellbinding Dance in Moonlight
Cloud Gate DT at the Lowry
Manchester
By Kevin Bourke
    “Set to movements from Bach's Suites for Solo Cello, Moon Water is based on the eastern practice of tai chi, giving a natural rhythm and a visible pulse from the energy of breathing which propels one action smoothly towards the next.”
Manchester Evening News

Hulatitudes
Male Hula dancers to be profiled on TV
San Francisco
By Jim Provenzano
    “Outside of Hawai'i, the Bay Area has the largest concentration of hula dance companies in the world. The deceptively simple dance form is actually one of the most difficult of traditional ethnic dances around.”
Bay Area Reporter

Enduring Show Celebrates Undying Dance
Alluring, Riveting ‘Forever Tango’ Now a 14-Year Production
Eugene, Oregon
By Lewis Taylor
    “Writing in The New York Times, Jennifer Dunning jokingly called the show "a sultry Latin variation on Riverdance”. Bravo acknowledges that the tango is a sexy dance, but says one misconception is that the art form is based on sex.”
Charlotte Observer

BOOK REVIEW: About Mr B: A Compact Guide to a Master’s Works, by Nancy Goldner
Twenty-Two of Balanchine’s Ballets Explained
By Alastair Macaulay
    “If you like Balanchine, you must read Nancy Goldner’s ‘Balanchine Variations. Slim enough to fit into a jacket pocket, it surveys 22 of Balanchine’s most popular ballets; it’s good-humored, enthusiastic and undictatorial; it gives you numerous things to look out for in any performance; and it abounds with insights.”
New York Times

REVIEW:   Phoenix Dance Theatre
Javier de Frutos and Kim Brandstrup draw dance inspiration from Tennessee Williams and Dostoevsky
Chaconne, The Moor's Pavane, Blue Roses, Paseillo
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Fracchiolla, Lee, Mack
by David Jays
    '...there’s no excess gravity in De Frutos’s flirty-dirty Paseillo, which was in great shape. Dancers pursue snatched, panting intimacies: you can almost feel their warm breath on the back of your neck.'
The Sunday Times

REVIEW:   Royal Ballet
Javier de Frutos and Kim Brandstrup draw dance inspiration from Tennessee Williams and Dostoevsky
Serenade, Rushes, Homage to the Queen
UK, London, Covent Garden
Dancers: Acosta, Cojocaru, Morera, Nunez
by David Jays
    'A neatly constructed bill opened with Balanchine’s Serenade (1934), an early masterpiece... A swoon-some Marianela Nuñez led this gentle, sunny account, far more confident than New York City Ballet’s recent London showing.'
The Sunday Times

REVIEW:   Phoenix Dance Theatre
Sinuous movements to Tennessee Williams reading his own script make for a compelling merger
Blue Roses, The Moor's Pavane, Chaconne
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Hutchins, Hurst
by Jenny Gilbert
    '(In 'Chaconne') Dane Hurst gives a luminous account: austere, rooted and classical in the broadest sense.... A long, leaning, gently dipping and rising balance envisions a great gull negotiating thermals high above the earth. Its lonely grandeur, and its spareness, are terribly moving.'
Independent

REVIEW:   h2dance
We were only following orders
To Die For
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Anderson, Doehler, Gilgren, Green, Rustgaard
by Luke Jennings
    '..enlivened by the wit of a courageous cast of whom Laura Doehler deserves special mention. Not everyone could carry off a diagonal of grand jetés while stark naked and grunting like a pig.'
The Observer

REVIEW:   Limon Dance Company
Dance Deja-vu
Dance for Isadora, The Traitor, Suite from a Choreographic Offering
USA, San Diego, Birch North Park Theatre
Dancers: Maxwell, Ruvalcaba, Frederickson, Wang
by Kris Eitland
    'Like Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey and a few others, Limón is a part of America's dance DNA. His movement and themes are historic building blocks that helped make dance the exciting art form we know today.'
sandiego.com

The Bloomsbury Ballerina
Clement Crisp reviews Judith Mackrell’s book on Lydia Lopokova:
’Cecil Beaton described (Lopokova) as "looking like Widow Twankey", but full of wisdom. She died in 1981, aged 90. She was, as Mackrell concludes, one of the 20th century's "true originals", and this narrative tells us exactly why.’
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ba34dc96-18ab-11dd-8c92-0000779fd2ac.html

Breathing Light into Ballet
This is the title of a fascinating piece by Roslyn Sulcas in the NY Times on lighting for dance, centering on an interview with the distinguished lighting designer Jennifer Tipton:
‘The way a dance or theater work is lighted affects the audience as crucially and subliminally as the swelling strains that cue a love scene or a frightening moment in a film. ..Like that film music, they critically affect the way we feel about what we see. (When the lighting is nondescript or tacky, as it can frequently be, particularly in story ballets, it can be notably detrimental.)’
NY Times

London Children’s Ballet
A lengthy piece from Jemima Lewis in the Sunday Telegraph on the LCB as they prepare for their opening of ‘Jane Eyre’ at the Peacock (15-18 May):
‘These children are not precocious, so much as fortunate: they have found something they love, and an opportunity to live out their dreams. They know how lucky they are, too. 'My friends get annoyed when I can't go out with them,' says Daisy. 'It's like, just miss a practice! And sometimes I do get fed up, but then when I'm here I think, I've got the rest of my life to go to the cinema. This is better than anything else.' ‘
Telegraph

Preview: Shaolin Dancers’ ‘Sutra’
Mark Monahan in the Telegraph goes to the Songshan Mountains in China to see the Shaolin dancers prepare for their Sadler’s Well appearance later this month:
‘Talking is forbidden, which contributes to the calm - but what I don't yet know is that one of these tranquil monks will soon come close to knocking me flat on my back.’``
Telegraph

REVIEW:   New York City Ballet
A Dream Landscape Littered With the Poet-Hero’s Memories
Watermill, The Four Seasons
USA, New York, State Theater
Dancers: Bouder, Hubbe
by Alastair Macaulay
    'Watermill” runs aground, curiously just as it reaches the material that ought to be most dramatically important. Our hero watches an intensely sexual male-female pas de deux take place in slow motion... This ought to matter, but by this point Robbins’s rhythm has become too dull.'
New York Times

REVIEW:   New York City Ballet
An All-Robbins Roundup
Fancy Free, Dybbuk, Watermill
USA, New York, State Theater
Dancers: De Luz, Hankes, Hubbe, Millepied, Peck, Shepherd, Stiefel, Taylor, Woetzel
by Joel Lobenthal
    'Rarely has a choreographer debuted as confidently as Robbins did with "Fancy Free" in 1944. This larky vignette of three sailors painting the town red is brilliant, and one doesn't imagine any way in which it could be improved.'
New York Sun

REVIEW:   Phoenix Dance Theatre
Blue Roses, The Moor's Pavane, Paseillo
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Darvill-Mills, Fracchiolla, Shelver, Sveass
by Zoe Anderson
    'De Frutos's Paseillo is a dance for naughty 18th-century people...Two men lift a woman into the air, then steal a kiss, still holding her overhead...Paseillo has no plot but plenty of character.'
Independent

REVIEW:   Paul Taylor Dance Company
A retrospective of Paul Taylor Dance at Meany
Aureole, Cloven Kingdom, Esplanade, Black Tuesday, Troilus andCressida
USA, Seattle, Meany Hall
Dancers: Trusnovec
by Spider Kedelsky
    'From the moment that the dancers skim across the stage (in 'Aureole') to the music of Handel in that distinctive Taylor loping run with arms and heads swinging side to side, you are caught up in the clarity of his vision of how movement can cleanly interpret music.'
crosscut.com

REVIEW:   Ballet San Jose
Ballet S.J. stages a soaring 'Firebird'
Mendelssohn Symphony, The Firebird
USA, San Jose, Center for the Performing Arts
Dancers: Bo, Califano, Gabay, Jacobs, Linh, Meijer, Walker
by Rita Felciano
    'Maria Jacobs seems born to dance the half-bird, half-woman title role (Firebird). In the tiny staccatos, beautifully tapered feet counterpointed her fluttering arms...Jacobs' interpretation works'
Mercury News

REVIEW:   Smuin Ballet
Smuin's razzle-dazzle radiates in 'Gershwin'
Dancin' With Gershwin
USA, San Francisco, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Dancers: Cornwell, Griffin, Hurlburt, Linzer, Seiwert, Thayer, Thiessen, Touchet, White, Yarborough-Stewart, Yee-Chan
by Rachel Howard
    'I can't say I found either the steps or the emotional arc of any of these duets to be terribly notable, but I'm also not sure that matters. "Dancin' With Gershwin" flows over you in a wash of easy amusement.'
San Francisco Examiner

Preview: City Ballet of San Diego
Dancers of the San Diego company talk about the level of energy and fitness required for their forthcoming production of Don Quixote:
‘In this small company, everyone has multiple assignments. When Smith isn't playing Kitri, she has the secondary lead of Mercedes. That gives her two major roles to learn and more of the tendinitis that twinges every time she points her toe. “The good thing is, once I start dancing, the pain goes away.” ‘
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20080504-9999-1a04ballet.html

Book review: The Life of Heinz Poll
Elaine Guregian in the Akron Beacon Journal reviews dancer Heinz Poll’s autobiography:
‘New York Times dance critic Jennifer Dunning writes in her illuminating foreword that Poll once told her, ''An arabesque can have many textures. It can make the world stand still or make it tremble. And things have to make sense. You are not just writing lines to read between.'’ ‘
http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/18557429.html

Arts: Summer 2008 cultural highlights
The Sunday Times arts critics pick out their picks for the summer season. Scroll right down for the dance offerings (immediately after ‘Pop’…hmm):
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/whats_on/article3849594.ece

Preview: Scottish Ballet
The Scotsman ‘s Kelly Apter talks to the three dancers due to alternate in the role of Romeo in SB’s touring production of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ - Eric Cavalleri, Tama Barry and Adam Blyde:
‘ "Krzysztof (Pastor) is trying to stop us from acting too much," says Cavallari. "He's pushing us to be ourselves and go for a more natural style, which is hard because we've never done anything like this before. But I think it will make a massive difference for the audience to see something so natural."

The Scotsman

REVIEW:   Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant
Push, Two, Shift, Solo
UK, Salford, Lowry
Dancers: Guillem, Maliphant
by Ian Palmer
    "May there be more like this, and soon."
Ballet.co Magazine

REVIEW:   Nederlands Dance Theatre
Silent Screen, Toss of a Dice
UK, Salford, Lowry
Dancers: Lightfood
by Ian Palmer
    "Also on offer was a 2005 Jiri Kylian work, Toss of a Dice, whose singular effect was one of choreographic anaesthesia..."
Ballet.co Magazine

REVIEW:   Sankalpam
Bharata Natyam dance programme: Alarippu
UK, London, Purcell Room
by Carole Edrich
    "Despite the apparent inexperience of some of those on stage it was a pleasant, entertaining and educational evening. Whether by intention or design I’m unsure, but the performance left me wondering how seasoned professionals would perform the same pieces and I’ll be looking out for more."
Ballet.co Magazine

These are all now in the database - will add some pictures in later!

REVIEW:   Boston Ballet
Big pond, little pond
Swan Lake
USA, Boston, Wang Theatre
Dancers: Cirio, Combes, Dossev, Gurevich, Hough, Ichikawa, Kuranaga, Myers, Ponomarenko, Prouty, Redick, Rykine, Salamanca, Seneca, Whiteside
by Jeffrey Gantz
    "Everywhere she has balance, flow, and line; when at the end of her first duet with Siegfried Odile flings back a triumphant arms, Ponomarenko flings it not from her shoulder but from her core. Its that centeredness that gives her Odette such meticulous detail (not to mention economical mime)."
Boston Phoenix

REVIEW:   Boston Ballet
Flight delight: Grace, power on display in ‘Swan Lake'
Swan Lake
USA, Boston, Wang Theatre
Dancers: Atkins, Bauzys, Dossev, Gurevich, Kuranaga, Mathis, Ponomarenko, Prouty, Redick, Rykine, Leeth
by Iris Fanger
    "Beneath that aura of virginity and spirituality, lies the strength of steel girders that allow her [Ponomarenko] to suspend a leg out into arabesque and hold it forever, or pull out her movements ever so slowly in her second act pas de deux with Prince Siegfried, taking her own tempo over the measures of Tchaikovsky’s beloved score."
Patriot Ledger

Overview: Dublin Dance Festival
In Dublin, Seeing Irish Dance of a Different Sort
by Roslyn Sulcas
    "The 2008 edition, which opened on April 17 with the Forsythe Company, and ended on Saturday with Tere O’Connor’s 'Rammed Earth,' is the first year of the newly named and newly annual festival. It’s also the first indication of what Ms. Uprichard might do with the festival after a 15-year tenure at Danspace ..."
New York Times

REVIEW:   Festival Ballet Providence
Big pond, little pond
Swan Lake
USA, Providence, Veterans Memorial Auditorium
Dancers: Akulov, Burov, Martinez, Putrius, Di Marco, Kennedy
by Jeffrey Gantz
    "Putrius gave a creditable performance that was emotionally nervous and technically unstable; she didn’t let the side down, but it wouldn’t pass muster in Boston."
Boston Phoenix

REVIEW:   Stars Of The 2lst Century
Backstage panic? You'd never know it
Light Rain pas de deux, Arpino pas de deux, Grand Pas Classique, Don Quixote pdd, Les Bourgeois, Petipa pdd, Carnival in Venice, and others
Canada, Toronto, Centre for the Arts
Dancers: Konvalina, Calmels, Gershman, Hamanaka, Kish, Lopez, Obraztsova, Ogden, Pykhachov, Robin, Simkin, Utkin
by Paula Citron
    "The audience loved 20-year-old technical monster Daniil Simkin, currently of Vienna State Opera Ballet, but who has been snapped up by American Ballet Theatre. Right now, he looks like a fragile, skinny, short 13-year-old. The kid, however, is surprisingly strong ..."
Globe and Mail

REVIEW:   Taylor 2
Six Without Fear: Sharp Jumps, Angular Poses and Youthful Rigor
1 2 3 Festival: Runes, Roses, Profiles, Arden Court
USA, New York, Joyce Theater
Dancers: Ceynowa, Cook, Eirich, Walker, Wilson, Kahan
by Gia Kourlas
    "as the dancers soared through space, their joy was palpable, most impressively Ms. Wilson’s and Mr. Eirich’s. Spreading the gospel of Mr. Taylor never looked so easy and free."
The New York Times

REVIEW:   Smuin Ballet
Smuin's razzle-dazzle radiates in 'Gershwin'
Dancin' With Gershwin
USA, San Francisco, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Dancers: Cornwell, Griffin, Hurlburt, Linzer, Seiwert, Thayer, Thiessen, Touchet, White, Yarborough-Stewart, Yee-Chan
by Rachel Howard
    "I can't say I found either the steps or the emotional arc of any of these duets to be terribly notable, but I'm also not sure that matters. Dancin' With Gershwin flows over you in a wash of easy amusement."
San Francisco Chronicle

REVIEW:   Ballet San Jose
Nahat adds twists to 'Firebird'
Mendelssohn Symphony, The Firebird
USA, San Jose, Center for the Performing Arts
Dancers: Bo, Califano, Dugger, Gabay, Jacobs, Linh, Meijer, Namey
by Mary Ellen Hunt
    "Nahat's choreography can tend toward the complicated, but a welcome simplicity rules the day in most of 'The Firebird's' group scenes. The corps of eight princesses - along with Bo and a girlish and very sweet Karen Gabay as Princess Irina - create a lovely, meandering pattern to the strains of the famous romance in the enchanted forest, which ranks as one of Nahat's loveliest choreographic sequences."
San Francisco Chronicle

REVIEW:   Pilobolus Dance Theater
Swimming alongside NZ dance
Aquatica, Solo from the empty suitor, Gnomen, Day Two
New Zealand, Auckland, Aotea Centre
Dancers: Herro, Kuribayashi, Mendez, Minniefee, Olvera, Sheaff
by Felicity Molloy
    "The last piece of the programme, Day Two (1980), is not really just a dance to stage but staged to produce expanded movements into dances ... Both the women, Sheaff and Mendez revealed movements at their very best unclothed. Both women: feline, dynamic and strong. I wanted to see them by themselves."
NZ Theatrereview

REVIEW:   Ballet Preljocaj
Angelin Preljocaj: Myth, Muscle, but the Wrong Music
L'Annonciation, Centaures, Eldorado
France, Paris, Theatre de La Ville
Dancers: Galli, Michaux, Randrianantenaina, Shirai, Wang, Caussin
by Patricia Boccadoro
    "L'Annonciation is a very beautiful, ambiguous pas de deux which delves with sensitivity into the relationship between the Angel and the Virgin Mary. Noted for his exceptional musicality, the choreographer set the work to excerpts from Antonio Vivaldi's Magnificat ..."
Culture Kiosque

REVIEW:   Zoe Scofield and Juniper Shuey
Super Animalistic
The Devil You Know Is Better Than the Devil You Don't
USA, Seattle, On the Boards Studio Theatre
by Sandra Kurtz
    "Scofield seems to be tugging at her own dance background, particularly her years in ballet. By peeling away some of the conventions of that tradition, by shifting its context, she shows a world that is as strange as it is beautiful."
Seattle Weekly

REVIEW:   Leine and Roebana
Netherlands troupe finds new energy in old pieces
Sporen
USA, Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art
by Janine Parker
    "'Sporen (Traces)' ... suffers not from a surfeit of unrelated material, but rather from an occasionally benumbing lack of movement variety. Fortunately, much of that movement is striking, and the seven hard-working dancers are beautiful performers, a pleasure to watch."
Boston Phoenix

San Francisco Ballet's 2008/09 programme
New 'Swan Lake' in S.F. Ballet 2009 lineup
by Rachel Howard
    " San Francisco Ballet will unveil an all-new production of Swan Lake by Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson in 2009 as the centerpiece of its 76th season, along with a world premiere by resident choreographer Yuri Possokhov ..."
San Francisco Chronicle

Australian Ballet's finances
Nutcracker squeezes ballet
by Corrie Perkin
    "The Australian Ballet's lavish pre-Christmas production of Peter Wright's The Nutcracker is responsible for the company's $1.8 million operating deficit, its 2007 annual report reveals. But a growing endowment fund and strong investment returns enabled the AB to post a surplus of $1.436 million ..."
The Australian

The Joyce Theater's 25th birthday bash

REVIEW:   Lar Lubovitch Dance Company
Wishing Happy Birthday to a Place Where Art Is Made
Jangle
USA, New York, Joyce Theater
by Claudia La Rocco
    "It goes down easy. But there are precious few points at which the movement seems inventive. Worse still, at no point does it seem necessary."
New York Times

REVIEW:   Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet
Wishing Happy Birthday to a Place Where Art Is Made
Decadance
USA, New York, Joyce Theater
by Claudia La Rocco
    "an aggressive crowd pleaser that unfolds like a greatest-hits album."
New York Times

REVIEW:   Breakin Convention
Breakin' Convention 08
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Jonzi D, Sandy
by Donald Hutera
    "The festival's finale was an unpredictable and unforgettably cheeky critique of dictatorial governments ... Topical, comic, shambolic and, like the festival that hosted it, fantastic."
The Times

4 from the Performance Mix Festival, NY

REVIEW:   Karen Bernard
The Joy of Intimacy: The 22nd Annual Performance Mix Festival
Performance Mix Festival: Surfing the Shadow
USA, New York, Joyce SoHo
Dancers: Bernard
by April Greene
    "her wit and creativity carried the show on their own."
Brooklyn Rail

REVIEW:   Laura Thompson
The Joy of Intimacy: The 22nd Annual Performance Mix Festival
Performance Mix Festival: The Warrior
USA, New York, Joyce SoHo
Dancers: Thompson
by April Greene
    "Though vibrant and stylish, the dance became repetitive ..."
Brooklyn Rail

REVIEW:   Nathalie Claude
The Joy of Intimacy: The 22nd Annual Performance Mix Festival
Performance Mix Festival: Cerveau Fele 101 (Broken Brain 101)
USA, New York, Joyce SoHo
Dancers: Claude
by April Greene
    "After the show, my friend said, 'The crazy lady was my favorite.'"
Brooklyn Rail

REVIEW:   Cynthia Hopkins
The Joy of Intimacy: The 22nd Annual Performance Mix Festival
Performance Mix Festival: The Success of Failure (or The Failure of Success)
USA, New York, Joyce SoHo
Dancers: Hopkins
by April Greene
    "She is a joy to watch."
Brooklyn Rail

REVIEW:   Gallim Dance Company
I Can See Myself In Your Pupil
USA, New York, Joyce SoHo
Dancers: Besant, McGuire, Miller, Ogilvie, Romo
by Margaret Fuhrer
    "Miller is beginning to develop an appealing choreographic voice of her own. And Miller’s cast is hypnotic in its unmitigated commitment to her work. If I must be watched, I want these dancers to be the ones watching me."
Brooklyn Rail

REVIEW:   Laura Peterson
Electrolux
USA, New York, Dance New Amsterdam
Dancers: Harris, Hutchings, Martel, Peterson
by Ryan Tracy
    "The best moments of Electrolux seemed to be when the bodies really fell into the music (sometimes literally). But that could have just been the music."
Brooklyn Rail

REVIEW:   BalletMet Columbus
Romeo and Juliet
USA, Columbus, Ohio Theatre
Dancers: Sarver, West, Wolfe, Suslov
by Unnamed
    "The dancers were brilliant, highlighting BalletMet’s extraordinary abilities with choreography. Dmitri Suslov especially, who in his last showing with BalletMet before retirement performed Romeo with an intense sexuality ..."
CentralOhio.com

REVIEW:   Harvard Ballet Company
Highs, Lows Mark ‘Wings’ Ballet
Swan Lake excerpts, The Dying Swan, Contra Finem, Suffered Silence, Euridyce, Playtime, Leavings, and others
USA, Cambridge, Harvard Dance Center
Dancers: Kenney, Martin, Moore, Fuller, Love, Lynch, Mueller, Schreier
by Giselle Barcia
    "Though 'From the Wings' featured some disappointing moments, the company ultimately shone most when it was producing original work in contemporary ballet."
Harvard Crimson

Ballet's approach to weight is an ugly tragedy
by Sarah Wilkinson
    "According to David Kinsella, the director of a groundbreaking new documentary, A Beautiful Tragedy, if I wanted to be ballet dancer in Russia, I should weigh 39kg (6 stone, 1lb). I am 5ft 5in."
Guardian blogs

Interview: Marie Chouinard, choreographer
Marie Chouinard has spring in her dance steps
by Bob Clark
    "Q: You've said your inspiration comes from a 'profound sense of consciousness.' A: Its starting point can be the act of just standing in the middle of the studio and then finding the very delicate things that can happen inside the body - and that can be the beginning of an approach for the choreography."
Calgary Herald

Wahington Ballet's next season
'Cinderella' a marker of success
by Jean Battey Lewis
    "The Washington Ballet's final program of the year, 'Cinderella,' ... and its just-announced repertoire for next season paint a broad picture of what the city's major dance group has accomplished and where it is headed under Septime Webre's direction."
Washington Times

Slideshow of Taylor 2's recent programme at the Joyce
New York Times

It will be interesting to see whether there is any response to this from the ballet companies, as there was with the ethnicity issue recently.

Slideshow: Wilfried Romoli and the Paris Opera Ballet
New York Times

REVIEW:   Birmingham Royal Ballet
Dante Sonata, Small Worlds, Elite Syncopations
UK, Poole, The Lighthouse
Dancers: Antonucci, Gittens, Mackay, Sakuma, Sardo
by Gerald Dowler
    "The greatest achievement of David Bintley’s directorship so far is the resurrection of Dante Sonata, one of Sir Fred’s wartime ballets. It is Sir Fred in unfamiliar vein – bare feet, loose hair and expressionistic movement – and a precious example of this side to our greatest choreographer."
FT

REVIEW:   Ballet National de Marseille
Metamorphoses
UK, Brighton, Brighton Dome
by Judith Mackrell
    "Flamand's muscularly imaginative choreography - spurting through the dancers' bodies in jagged, spiralling lines - works well with the Campana's designs to create both the terror and excitement of transformation. What it does not do is establish a clear theatrical arc for this 75-minute piece."
The Guardian

REVIEW:   Ballet National de Marseille
Metamorphoses
UK, Brighton, Brighton Dome
by Zoe Anderson
    "Drawing on Ovid's poem, Flamand chooses nine changes, starting with people emerging from stones and ending with Medea's rejuvenating spells."
Independent

REVIEW:   Compagnie Marie Chouinard
Chouinard springs an erotic fantasy
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, The Rite of Spring
Canada, Calgary, Grand Theatre
Dancers: Prieur
by Bob Clark
    "That Prieur's engagement of her whole body in the role is so complete only adds to our fascination with the sense of a sometimes jarring displacement that comes with hearing one thing while seeing another - at hearing the sensuality of the music, for example, while watching the dancing of a basic male urge."
Calgary Herald

REVIEW:   Compagnie Marie Chouinard
Marie Chouinard conjures stunning tour de force
bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS
Canada, Vancouver, Playhouse
Dancers: Roque
by Alexander Varty
    "displays of strength, beauty, and weirdness occurred throughout bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS, rendering its very occasional failings irrelevant to its overall success."
Straight.com

REVIEW:   Breakin Convention
Breakin' Convention 08
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
by Zoe Anderson
    "Hip-hop, based on street dance, has instant impact. Speed and excitement come naturally in this style, which works brilliantly in music videos or in competitions. Turning it into a theatre art is still a work in progress."
Independent

REVIEW:   New English Contemporary Ballet
S(c)ent, Turret, .com, C Sharp Minor
UK, Harrogate, Harrogate Theatre
Dancers: Garrigos, Munoz
by Kevin Berry
    "There is aching emotion in their expression and again and again there is the thrill of watching these dancers move as a swaying, rippling unit. This company has a touching freshness about its work, and its dancers excel."
The Stage

REVIEW:   Pilobolus Dance Theater
Experiment in organic chemistry
Symbiosis, Pseudopodia, Aquatica, Gnomen, Day Two
Australia, Adelaide, Her Majesty's
Dancers: Herro, Kuribayashi, Mendez, Minniefee
by Alan Brissenden
    "Bodies are often in close contact, enfolded, encircling, clinging, opening out, wrapping around. The seven dancers perform the movement, based on balance and weight-shifting, with ineffable grace and skill."
The Australian

REVIEW:   Battery Dance Company
Dance Crew Shows its Modern Moves
Mixed bill
Mongolia, Ulan Bator, State Drama Theatre
by Sh. Batmonkh
(Our first ever dance review from Mongolia!)
    "The performance featured uniquely eclectic and highly original choreography and music. It is inspired by worldwide sources and reflects the diversity of cultures that make up American society."
UB Post

Preview: Krzysztof Pastor's Romeo and Juliet for Scottish Ballet
History repeats itself in a modern tragedy
by Mary Brennan
    "while this production may retain the play's Italian setting, its radical time-shifts, and its focus on how feuds and schisms are passed on from generation to generation, make it very much a two-act drama for the present day."
The Herald

Book review: Balanchine Variations by Nancy Goldner
Decoding Balanchine
by Marcia B. Siegel
    "Preserving their original intent as a kind of primer for balletgoers, the essays also constitute a lesson in how many ways there are to write about ballet."
Boston Phoenix

Preview: 4x4: The Ballet Project (White Bird)
by Heather Wisner
    "“But we didn’t really do ballet,” King said. So he phoned the artistic directors of four West Coast companies—San Francisco Ballet, Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet, Eugene Ballet Company and Oregon Ballet Theatre—and proposed a shared bill. They liked it."
Williamette Week

My Favourite Things: Zdenek Konvalina (National Ballet of Canada)
by Matthew Coutts
    "5. His painter’s easel. Splattered with bright paint smudges from top to bottom, the nicked brown easel was passed to him by an elderly neighbour who learned of his hobby."
National Post

Preview: Ballet Austin debuts at the new Long Center with Don Quixote
Grand production will be final performance for four retiring dancers
by Clare Croft
    "'I wanted something big and splashy with gorgeous sets and costumes — a real celebratory event,' says Stephen Mills, Ballet Austin's artistic director."
American-Statesman

Brit shows dominate Rose D'Or awards
by Leigh Holmwood
    "Channel 4's Strictly Bolshoi, made by Ballet Boyz Productions, scooped the Golden Rose for arts documentary ..."
The Guardian

Australian Dance Awards nominees announced
    "The Melbourne dance company Lucy Guerin Inc tops the list with four nominations from the nine categories."
The Sydney Morning Herald

International Dance Prize for Cuban Maestro Fernando Alonso
    "Maestro Fernando Alonso, one of the most relevant figures in the history of Cuban ballet, received on Wednesday the Benois Dance Prize at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia, for his artistic career."
Mathaba

Streetwise Robots at London's Science Museum
Dance, Robot Snake Girl, Dance!
    "A ballerina from the English National Ballet dances next to a two-meter-high robot snake, which looks every bit as graceful as she does."
io9.com

Michael Nunn and Billy Trevitt were presented with their award on stage after the show at Sadler's Wells last night. Many congratulations to all those involved.

Edited to fix link

REVIEW:   Ballet Boyz - George Piper Dances
Greatest Hits: Broken Fall, Mesmerics, EdOx, Yumba vs Nonino
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Dzierzon, Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt
by Liz Arratoon
    "The end is nutty - Nunn on drums, Trevitt on guitar and Panchenko on bass with their rendition of Take That’s Shine. And shine is what they do."
The Stage

REVIEW:   Ballet Boyz - George Piper Dances
Greatest Hits: Broken Fall, Mesmerics, EdOx, Yumba vs Nonino
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Dzierzon, Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt, Watson
by Judith Mackrell
    "At least three of the works on show deserve a permanent stage life - especially Russell Maliphant's Broken Fall, which gets richer with every viewing."
The Guardian

REVIEW:   Ballet Boyz - George Piper Dances
Ballet Boyz Greatest Hits: let's hear it for the Boyz
Greatest Hits: Broken Fall, Mesmerics, EdOx, Yumba vs Nonino
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Dzierzon, Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt, Watson
by Sarah Crompton
    "... here they are: confident, clever and loved. Their unique mix of the popular and the pioneering is well displayed in this programme. which opens with two superficially similar but fascinatingly different pieces."
The Telegraph

REVIEW:   Ballet Boyz - George Piper Dances
Balletboyz at Sadler’s Wells
Greatest Hits: Broken Fall, Mesmerics, EdOx, Yumba vs Nonino
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Dzierzon, Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt, Watson
by Debra Craine
    "The strength and grace of Maliphant’s Broken Fall (2003,) never cease to amaze. Here danced by Trevitt, Nunn and Oxana Panchenko (who has been with the Boyz since the beginning), its fluent, power-sharing phrases are delivered with muscular charisma and a supple intimacy."
The Times

REVIEW:   Alina Cojocaru
Hospices of Hope Gala: Other Dances, Afternoon of a Faun, Flames of Paris, Bird as Prophet, Coppelia, Don Quixote
UK, London, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Dancers: Choe, Cojocaru, Kobborg, Maguire, Marquez, Pajdak, Polunin, Ulbricht, Walter
by Gavin Roebuck
    "The programme opened with them dancing Jerome Robbins’ Other Dances. Their warm, engaging, lyrical movements were a delightful start to the show ..."
The Stage

REVIEW:   Breakin Convention
4 stars
Breakin' Convention 08
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
by Sanjoy Roy
    "The levels of vigour and skill are astounding, but there are limitations: a lot of formation dancing, little partnerwork, too many medley-style numbers."
The Guardian

REVIEW:   Ivy Baldwin
Oral gratification drives 'nice' work
Could be nice ...
USA, New York, La Mama Club
Dancers: Cassella, Nelson, Workum
by Robert Johnson
    "Baldwin belongs to the 21st century and 'Could be nice ...,' which opened the La MaMa Moves Festival last weekend, is a dance that wallows in personal gratification."
Newark Star Ledger

REVIEW:   Karole Armitage
From a Greek Myth, Some Lessons on Crazy Love
Ariadne Unhinged
USA, New York, Abrons ArtsCenter
Dancers: Chiaverini
by Gia Kourlas
    "Ms. Armitage emphasizes line throughout, incorporating attitude turns and pristine arabesques that show, as when Ms. Chiaverini lowers to a lunge and lifts her arm with a slow, sure sweep, how seemingly rigid positions can melt and mold shapes (and emotions) like the voice."
The New York Times

Preview: Mariinsky Ballet in Manchester
Rare chance to see ballet institution
by Kevin Bourke
    "