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Diaries and weblogs

Giannandrea Poesio... Ballet.co welcomes Giannandrea Poesio. Our latest diarist is dance critic of The Spectator and Programme Director of the MA in Dance Studies at the University of Surrey. His weblog covers ballet, dance, opera, DVDs, books... and things we've not yet even thought of...

Cathy Marston... back from Austria and working with George Piper Dances and at the Royal Opera House


Christopher Hampson... the rest of the New Zealand R&J tour and a Masterclass class in Prague...

Ballet Black... August - September diary

Daniel Jones... Runaway     (weblog home)

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Edinburgh International Festival


Ballet.co does the festival, and Christopher Wheeldon, big time...



Christopher Wheeldon... Brendan McCarthy interviewed the ballet choreographer with an entire evening of work on show at only 30

Poesio on Wheeldon... Giannandrea Poesio spoke at the festival about Christopher Wheeldon

Wheeldon in conversation... with Mary Brennan of the Glasgow Herald. Suzanne McCarthy listened in

SFB Wheeldon bill... Jeffery Taylor 'this is a talent to be nurtured by us all.'

SFB Wheeldon bill... Bruce Marriott saw a masterwork

There was other dance at Edinburgh too...

Cullberg Ballet... Diana Loosmore, the Scottish Ballet dancer, went along to see the Swedish company. So what did a dancer think of the dance and dancers?


Tamasha Theatre's Strictly Dandia... 'Strictly Dull' thought Suzanne McCarthy

Bordeaux Opera Ballet, Picasso bill... Jeffery Taylor struggled with the strangely directed company

Bordeaux Opera Ballet, Picasso bill... 'Even if all the works didn't quite come off it was a dazzling view, and an introduction to an attractive company' - Lynette Halewood

Pasodos Dance's Tango Spell... some ' vision, determination and talent' on display in the fringe says Suzanne McCarthy

Pasodos Dance's Tango Spell... an exquisite little gem of a narrative dance says Graham Watts

Compagnie Francois Verret's Chantier-Musil... Suzanne McCarthy - 'not easy.. but devastatingly intriguing'


Shakti... a festival institution brought many works to this years festival - Trog saw them all

Mini-reviews... apart from Shakti Trog also caught up with The Housekeeper, Revolution - Sex Dance and Rock 'n' Roll, The Little Mermaid, Chantier-Musil and The Tango Spell

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Interviews and Features

Interviews with Christopher Wheeldon and Svetlana Zakharova appear in our special sections.



Johan Kobborg... On the eve of Johan Kobborg's much anticipated 'Out of Denmark' shows in London, Philip Bichard catches up with the much admired Royal Ballet Principal.

End of Season Poll... Before the next season gets going tell us about your highs and lows of 2002/03 by voting in our poll. ( the results of our earlier readers polls... 2001/02 results, 2000 results, 1999 results, 1998 results, 1997 results)


English National Ballet in Athens... or 'Travels with my Tutu' by Jim Fletcher, the ENB Head of Public Affairs, or the man with text message

So, You Want to Write a Review?... Anjuli Bai gives you the low down on how to write about dance - Ballet.co thrives on such contributions so do put pen to paper

Competition:
RB Leslie Edwards Book... Win ‘In Good Company - Sixty Years with the Royal Ballet' in our easy to enter competition

Ballet on the projector... Eugene Merrett tells you about the ultimate viewing experience - it's a year on and a lot has changed



So, You Want to Learn to Dance? Two more in the series from Anjuli Bai:
The First Class
Equipment? Etiquette?

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Kirov Special



In the last magazine issue we had lots of pieces welcoming the Kirov to London. In real time we tracked all the reviews and put strong readers' reviews on pages for all to rapidly see. Here collected together are all the reviews and part 2 of an important interview..


Svetlana Zakharova... Kevin Ng continues his interview with the ballerina who has just left the Kirov to join the Bolshoi in Moscow.

Rite of Spring, an historical perspective... some thoughts on the history of this challenging piece by Richard Jones

Jeffery Taylor's Kirov Reviews...
we exclusively run these reviews by the Sunday Express dance critic & arts feature writer.
Rite of Spring
Les Noces
Swan Lake and Le Corsaire


Serenade, The Rite of Spring, Etudes
Brendan McCarthy - 'life is neither necessarily symmetrical nor pretty'
Lynette Halewood - 'some great moments'
Kevin Ng - 'The whole cast coped well'
Phil Bremner - 'an absolute masterclass from start to finish'



Le Bayadere
Lynette Halewood - 'marvellous dance, but be patient'
Graham Watts - 'additional narrative adds richness'
Bruce Marriott - 'newer Bayadere productions should not worry'
Naoko S - 'seems more rational than previous version'


Les Noces, Chopiniana, Scheherazade
Brendan McCarthy - 'For a performance to work, dancers must be welded into a cohesive whole and live and breathe as a unity. This was utterly absent from the Kirov's performance.'
Graham Watts - 'This was one of those rare afternoons that came close to perfection.'
Bruce Marriott - 'the dancing looked very ragged and the dancers not at all convinced that they should really be there'


Le Corsaire
Graham Watts - 'something was missing'
Baletoman - '"Thank you" to all dancers, musicians, workers of the stage. They create such beauty and share it with us!'


Swan Lake
Sim - 'A word about the corps....wonderful.'
Naoko S - 'Zakharova has emerged to me as a dancer of an extraordinary strength'
Baletoman - 'The third act was mesmerizing'

End of Season thoughts... London summed up by reader Natasha R. 'Did I enjoy the season? Yes indeed, and yet… '

The Kirov in Austria
Viviane saw the company on a fleeting visit to the Graz, Opera House
Swan Lake
Romeo and Juliet
Jewels: Rubies, Emeralds, Diamonds
Don Quixote

Kirov Nureyev Tribute... a host of gala Kirov gala pieces caught at Ravenna in Italy by Susy

In addition there are 8 readers reviewes in the Postings Pages reviews section below

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More Reviews

See above special sections for Edinburgh International Festival and Kirov reviews

We are pleased to hold on the web the reviews of former dancer Jeffery Taylor, the Sunday Express dance critic & arts feature writer...

Kirov reviews - Jeffery's reviews are in the special Kirov section

English National Ballet, ‘Melody on the Move’ bill

Tap Dogs, ‘Tap Dogs Rebooted’

Carlos Acosta, ‘Tocororo - a Cuban Tale’

Adam Cooper and Company, ‘On Your Toes’

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Royal New Zealand Ballet, ‘Romeo and Juliet’... Mark Wilson, of the NZ Press, saw the company in Christchurch at the end of is sell-out tour. 'The cheers at curtain-call said it all - bravo!'

Adam Cooper and Company
‘On Your Toes’...
Many readers flocked to see this best selling show.
Mandy Kent, Anneliese Handley, Graham Watts

Adam Cooper and Company and the Exeter Festival... Karen Ritchie made the annual pilgrimage to see some great dancers do rare things. When will they repeat in London?

Moscow International Festival Grand Pas... mix European contemporary dance companies and a classic gala and you get the Festival Grand Pas - Olga Larionova explains all

Paris Opera Ballet, Maurice Bejart Quadruple Bill...
Ali Mahbouba was there to see the packed houses and vigorous applause

Manuel Legris and Stars of the Paris Opera Ballet... Anne-Fabienne Raven was mightily impressed by Legris and his 6 dancers when she saw them at Baux de Provence

American Ballet Theatre, ‘Don Quixote’... '...a ballet that is interrupted by a story' says Anjuli Bai who saw the company in Orange County

San Francisco Ballet at Stern Grove... Renee Renouf (in San Francisco) and seeing ‘Allegro Brillante’ and others in the semi-shivers

Northern Ballet Theatre, ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’... Bruce Marriott spent a midsummer night in Leeds seeing a very witty and inventive show

Arena Ballet, ‘Don Quixote’... ABT princpals spied in Verona where the 'audience threw roses and cheered loudly.' says Susy

Royal Ballet School, Annual Performances... Lynette Halewood at the Royal Opera House seeing some of the stars of tomorrow

Carlos Acosta, ‘Tocororo - a Cuban Tale’... 'really fantastic show, full of tremendous energy and wit.' says Mandy Kent

Birju Maharaj, ‘Concert’.... 'As evocation of cultivated Indian life style, it simply could not be bested.' says Renee Renouf

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Ballet.co Postings Reviews

SFB Wheeldon Bill, Edinburgh - Clare
K Ballet, Japan - Satoko Kamatani, report 1, report 2
Adam Cooper, On Your Toes - Ann Welsh
Carlos Acosta, Tocororo, a Cuban Tale - Sim
Kirov, Les Noces - Lynette Halewwod, Jane Simpson
Kirov, Chopiniana (Les Syphides) - Baletoman
Kirov, Swan Lake - MarkE, Baletoman
Kirov, La Bayadere - Ami Shah
Kirov, Rite of Spring bill - Eugene
Kirov, Le Corsaire - Zoe

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External Review Links

Each day Ballet.co scour the world for Review links (and news and interviews ones too) and put them in our database along with our own reviews. You can see the last few days links on our TodaysLinks page

In this last 2 month period we have hundreds of links for you:
Hundreds of Review Links

Alternatively try searching for exactly what you are after with our:
Reviews Advanced search page

All our links list dancer details, a full list of pieces performed and a brief quote that gives the flavour of the review. Sadly not all papers maintain their links and so we cannot absolutely guarantee any particular url. Enjoy and if you think we have missed a review do send us a link.

The ballet.co Screensaver

What professional site would be complete without a screensaver! Courtesy of Louis we bring you the ballet.co screensaver and its absolutely free.

You need to be running Windows 95 and we can deliver it in 2 ways depending on if you have the capability to handle zip files (or not). Zip files are smaller and hence load much quicker, but you need special software to decode them. If you are not sure best to use the larger exe file.

Once its on your machine, double click on install.exe, it will tell you the screensaver is installed, then go into the control panel, double click on display and follow your nose to the screensaver section where you should find our ballet one listed. Here are the links to get the screensaver;

      ballet.co screensaver as an zip file (1132Kb)
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These are not small files and might take more than a few minutes to load. The screensaver has been produced using professional software and as such should work on all (Windows95) machines. We can't however offer guarantees (though we would be gob-smacked if there are any probs). Enjoy!