Photo: Gilles Tapie ballet.co interview Guillem Appreciation Upcoming performances? Reviews "Guillem" in postings Guillem website Interviews and views

The rest of the page remain untouched and as consequence some links may no longer work.

This page is to be updated in August 2000. As part of this Lynette Halewood has recently produced an appreciation of the Guillem. Pending the update you can read the Guillem Appreciation in postings (and respond even). Here are our current words on the great lady...

A guest with the Royal Ballet and a dancer who polarises opinion; for the majority she is the tops. Her technique is dazzling with perfect control of her long limbs. Sylvie is also an excellent actress and every performance is exciting. Sylvie looks good in most things. Maybe not the best at Ashton - her staggering extension (she is effectively the benchmark for the ballet world in this) jars with Ashton's restrained choreography. That said, she's appealing in his Cinderella. The two best things that come to mind are Romeo and Juliet (with Jonathan Cope as Romeo) and also as the lead in two modern pieces by Forsythe "In the Middle Somewhat Elevated" and "Herman Schmerman". The Opera House is always full when Sylvie dances. Jim Fowler's all things Sylvie page is well worth a visit.

There is also a Sylvie Guillem Interview originally on the Electronic Telegraph site but now held by Jim Fowler. Sylvie does not generally give that many interviews and as ever she is quite candid at times. Whether you loathe her or love her this is worth a read. {Royal Ballet Principals}

Nicholas Dromgoole, the Sunday Telegraph dance critic, has a thing about Sylvie. As you see he writes with more than a little passion, yet a more straight and sober suited man you could not wish to meet...

In the long final pas de deux with an attentive Adam Cooper, Guillem mesmerised the house as only true ballerinas can. The electronic score by Thom Willems was not perhaps an ideal note on which to end the evening, but with dancers of this calibre, who cared?" {top}

July 1996 - Grand Pas Classique
"Sylvie Guillem had chosen a show-off piece by Victor Gsovsky to music by Auber, run-of-the-mill choreography to put it mildly, but when shot through with her gleaming intelligence, it was transformed. It became a vehicle through which she captivated us, conveyed the fun of moving with incredible virtuoso skills, wrenching the music out of context and making it a part of something else: dance, nothing but lovely dance.

Habitual readers of this column will know that I have this appalling tendency to wax lyrical over Guillem, over her feet, her arms, those incredibly high extensions, those fabulous balances, the body that not only looks deliciously erotic but also seems able to do impossibly athletic things with brio and a wonderfully imperturbable air. Gsovsky's steps really amount to little more than choreographic junk, a frayed piece of very old rope, but Guillem seems to be saying, "Yes, of course it is old rope, but just watch what I can do with it, and now, and this will surprise you, I am going to try this..." and her audience sits elated with surprise and delight.

She is a phenomenon, and we are extraordinarily lucky to have these chances to enjoy her." {top}