Ballet.co Magazine
For December 2007

Previous Ballet.co magazine - November 2007
Next Ballet.co magazine - January 2008

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Quick Links for this magazine
Interviews, Features, In the Galleries, Reviews, Postings Reviews, External Reviews, Photographic Copyright and Credits

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Interviews




Thomas Lund
Royal Danish Ballet
Lund, off with a bad injury, decided to write a book. Jane Simpson talks to the Royal Danish Ballet prinipal and reads the book...



Tamara Rojo
Royal Ballet
The much loved Royal Ballet star talked to Jeffery Taylor just before the start of the companies new season...



Daria Klimentova
English National Ballet
Jeffery Taylor talks to a less than domesticated Snow Queen on the eve of her London premiere



Mara Galeazzi
Mara in Motion - Africa 2007 and Dancing for the Children
Mara Galeazzi talks to Mandy Kent about her new Children's charity and tour to Africa



Alexandra Ansanelli
Royal Ballet
Alexandra was a guest of the Ballet Association back in August 2006 - a full report for posterity has recently emerged...

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Nutcracker Time

Two pieces with seasonal thoughts about the biggest Christmas ballet of them all...


Jeffery Taylor
With a full 'Nut' history and Quotes from those who put the productions on


Ian Palmer
A short history of the 'Nut' and thoughts on the UK productions

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Features



Nureyev: The Life
By Julie Kavanagh
Ian Palmer reviews the new 800 page book about the legend that is Rudolf Nureyev


Carlos Acosta
‘No Way Home –
A Cuban Dancer’s Story’
Simonetta Dixon reviews the newly released autobiography of a much loved star


‘Cambridge Companion to Ballet’
Edited by Marion Kant
Graham Watts on 400 pages of ballet companion (the academic type)


‘San Francisco Ballet at Seventy-Five’
by Janice Ross

 Renee Renouf reviews a book about 'her' company. Lots of names get mentioned...

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‘Gayne’
Latvian Opera and Ballet Company
Khachaturian's seldom performed ballet Gayne is just out on DVD - Charlotte Kasner has some thoughts, and also reviews...

‘Baiser de la Fee’ and ‘Lieutenant Kije’
Moscow Classical Ballet and Bolshoi Stars
Another new Vai release and According to Charlotte Kasner '...a must for the shelf'.

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Diaries and weblogs


Ballet Central weblog
New - Each year we follow some final-year Central School of Ballet students through their final training, UK tour and hunt for jobs. Introductions to ths years blogers - Brenda Lee Grech, Rym Kechacha and Tom Conlan. (Weblog Home)


Jarkko Lehmus weblog...
the Scottish Ballet dancer who tells it like no other...
It's Sleeping Beauty time: "The real bombshell of the show for me is the what I do in the second cast though. I am the Romanian Prince... Yes. A prince. I work in a ballet company and dance a role of a prince. That's the last of my street cred gone in a flash." (weblog home)


Madame Galina weblog...
Curry and the Arts Council (don't ask)...  (Weblog Home)



Carole Edrich Weblog...
Bits of the meaning of tango...  (Weblog home)


Helene Cooper Blog...
Helene Cooper is studying for an MA in Choreography at the Laban in London. This month some short quotes   (Weblog Home)

Weblog writers
Tiit Helimets and Molly Smolen
Daniel Jones

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In the Galleries

Currently our Images Gallery contains approximately 3700 images.

John Ross Photographs
Albums added in November 2007...


Royal Ballet - Jewels
London, Covent Garden



Rambert - Infinity
London, Sadler's Wells



Mara Galeazzi, Mara in Motion
Afica 2007

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Reviews
Ballet.co reviews entered between 01/11/2007 and 30/11/2007 will be included here...

USA Reviews

New York City Ballet

'The Nutcracker': Eric Taub

"I was looking forward to City Ballet's first Nutcracker of the season with the happy anticipation that I'd get to be a happy child again, at least for an hour or so, and I wasn't disappointed. Compared with recent seasons when Nutcracker has looked a little worn about the edges, last night's production was squeaky-clean perfection."

'Dancing for Lincoln - A Centennial Celebration Gala': Eric Taub

"I'm afraid I've made Graziosa sound better than it actually is. Sure, its great fun watching supremely talented and conditioned dancers toss off lickety-split, fiendishly hard allegro without, it seems, breaking a sweat, but the bravura fussilade was so relentless my head was aching by the time the curtain fell.""


American Ballet Theatre

'City Center season roundup': Eric Taub

"In the choreographic Battle of the Decades which was ABT's just-concluded Fall Season, the Seventies pretty throughly kicked the Ought's butt. With company premieres of George Balanchine's 1978 Ballo della Regina and Twyla Tharp's 1979 Baker's Dozen, and a revival of Antony Tudor's The Leaves are Fading, made for ABT in 1975, ABT waxed my nostalgia for the days when the phrase "new ballet choreography" didn't fill my heart with dread."

'Ballo della Regina' bill: Renee Renouf

"Physically and technically, his (Hallberg) lines are etched in space like a textbook manual: high grand jetes, clear double tours with no hint of hunching in a pair of sloping shoulders, port de bras neatly finished in unfussy hands, attentive partnering."


Martha Graham Dance Company

'Appalachian Spring' bill: Oksana Khadarina

Chronicle: "In the opening solo, titled Spectre – 1914, featured Jennifer DePalo bathing in the multi-layered black and red fabric of her voluminous skirt, with her gorgeous blond hair falling down like a golden waterfall. She created an image so visually striking and astonishing in its beauty and power that it was undoubtedly one of the most memorable moments of the evening."


Pennsylvania Ballet

'Serenade, Carmina Burana' bill: Eric Taub

"After the intermission, there was a wonderful recital of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana... Unfortunately, time and again the concert was nearly ruined by some distracting nonsense which kept on taking over the stage. OK, I'm being more than a little snarky here, but if we can pay farmers not to grow soybeans, perhaps we can also pay choreographers not to do Carmina Burana?"


Tanz Theater Wuppertal Pina Bausch

'Ten Chi': Renee Renouf

"For once, a noted choreographer didn't provide us with a remake of Cho-Cho San or double suicide; the cascading snow flakes, however, did evoke Yasunari Kawabata's evocative novel Snow Country, a sub text to the episodic qualities of arrival, dalliance and departure of the superb Bausch dancers."


Ballet Hispanico

'Palladium Nights': Oksana Khadarina

"In all, it was an immensely satisfying performance, and the audience loved every moment of it."


Alonzo Kings Lines Ballet

'Irregular Pearl, Rasa' bill: Renee Renouf

Rasa: "Expectedly, the dancers ended with individualized jam sessions to the rapid-fire tabla beat. It would be interesting if King helped his dancers extend their port de bras vocabulary with lessons in Indian mudras..."


Nashville Ballet

'22nd Season Openening bill': Pamela Gaye

"...I was made abundantly aware of the rich versatility, musicality, and fluid classical style of a company wherein each member excelled individually whether in corps or as soloist, imbuing a broad range of choreographic style with a richness that gave a thrill-of each moment feel throughout the performance."


Diablo Ballet

'The Magic Toy Store': Renee Renouf

"Diablo Ballet manages to provide a program which entertains and displays individual talents; even though chamber-sized ballet companies have to struggle for it, this one has been a haven for story telling as well as experimentation."


BalletX

'Once Again' bill: Ellen Gaintner

"The company shone. Across the board, the dancing was excellent: clean and well-rehearsed, but not lacking passion or excitement. This is thanks in part to the choreography, which was solid enough and beautiful enough to elicit performances of depth."


Ballet San Jose

'Carmina Burana, Summerscape' bill: Renee Renouf

"To return to Summerscape as opener, Movements I and II displayed trios - Mirai Noda, Maria Jacobs and Ramon Moreno in I, Catherine Grow, Alexandra Mejier and Maximo Califano in II, with Maykel Solas and Le Mai Linh completing Movement III. Ramon Moreno and Solas are from the same Cuban city."




San Francisco
Hip Hop Dance Fest
Reviewed By Renee Renouf...


Chicago FootworKINGz:

"...seven young men from Chicago struck reality notes with prison fatigues and realistic confrontations..."

DS Players:

"...sustaining syncopated and broken movement with great skill."

Future Shock:

"...amazing cohesion, managing a united expression and setting the program off with a positive high."

Kenichi and Takahiro:

"...they worked together like a well-fit glove."

Live in Color Dance Collective:

"...plenty of strong abs, if lacking in invention and taste."

Lux Aeterna:

"...their collective self-conscious frontal focus straight from Marvel Comics."

Mind Over Matter:

"...mini-skirted police girls waved batons like cheer leaders before receiving their come uppance..."

Mop Top:

"...the four jerked, halted, bounced in great style."

Nobulus:

"Their finish and level of excellence demonstrated graphically that nothing succeeds better than good choreography and well-rehearsed delivery."

Over The Influence:

"...manipulated work-related equipment as props for their number..."

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Danish Reviews

Royal Danish Ballet

'Napoli': Jane Simpson

"This year's season in Copenhagen started for me exactly where the last one left off: with Napoli, one of the Royal Danish Ballet's chief glories and at the same time probably one of its permanent problems..."

'Napoli': Janet McNulty

"What strikes me most is the sincerity with which all the dancers perform the roles and make the characters seem utterly believable and it was a splendid performance on all counts."

'Silk and Knife (Kylian programme)': Jane Simpson

"The audience loved the whole thing, to judge by the cheering and stamping at the end, and they seem to be telling their friends. The theatre's website shows future performances with a traffic light system to show availabity of tickets, and it's been very interesting - and a great relief to the management, presumably - to watch the greens (loads of seats) turning to amber and then to red as the run progresses."

more reviews in Postings Reviews section

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French Reviews

Paris Opera Ballet

'Le Songe de Medee, Genus' bill: Norman Reynolds

" Genus: "My general impression was that I liked this more than I had expected. It is well constructed and the various elements of design, music, video and dance work well together. The dance is well done, demanding, and could stand on its own."

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Hong Kong Reviews

Hong Kong Ballet

'Momentum Bill': Natasha Rogai

"Hong Kong Ballet has gone out on a limb with its new triple bill, Momentum. Premiering two works - one classical, one modern – notorious for their technical difficulty, plus a new piece choreographed by one of the company's dancers is a risky business. Happily, the risk has paid off and the programme shows HKB well on the way to Artistic Director John Meehan's goal of making them a world class company."


Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

'Programme 1 and 2': Kevin Ng

"The Alvin Ailey company's two programmes provided an intoxicating experience. I hope it won't be another three years before they return to tour Hong Kong."

'Programme 2': Natasha Rogai

Revelations: "This timeless work shows Ailey's choreography at its best, as he uses his dancers' bodies to express the themes of suffering, hope and redemption"


Moscow City Ballet

'Giselle': Natasha Rogai

"While their Giselle reflects the limited resources available to them, it is an honest, old-fashioned production which gives a full reading of the choreographic text and is danced to a decent standard."

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UK Reviews

Royal Ballet

'Jewels': Jane Simpson

"Diamonds is a strange piece: a genuinely magnificent pas de deux surrounded by much weaker choreography, with the finale in particular making me think that Balanchine has done this bit before, and better."

'The World's Stage Gala': Lynette Halewood

La Chatte metamorphosée en femme: "This is one of those little items that Frederick Ashton was so good at composing for galas. ...Good to have a piece on the program which felt complete in itself rather than an excerpt."

'Romeo and Juliet': Jeffery Taylor

"Small and dark with long neck and vulnerable shoulders, she (Marquez) naturally projects youth as much as Putrov with his boyish demeanour and floppy hair. Which solves a good chunk of the story's artistic reality, based as it is on the couple's innocence being convincing enough to transform sickly suicide to high tragedy."

'Romeo and Juliet': Alison Penfold

"Benjamin's Juliet has perhaps been a little eclipsed in the public eye in recent years by the performances of some of her more junior colleagues, but on the basis of this performance at least I completely fail to see why..."

more reviews in Postings Reviews section


Phoenix Dance Theatre

'Javier de Frutos Triple Bill': Ian Palmer

Paseillo: "It is, simply, the most beautiful new work I have seen this year and it reveals de Frutos to be not just an Enfant Terrible, but a poet."


Rambert Dance Company

'Infinity' bill: Jeffery Taylor

"....when it comes to sensational, Christopher Bruce's 1987 modern masterpiece, Swansong, is in a league of its own. ...An artistic triumph."

'Infinity bill': Charlotte Kasner

"What a pity then that such a strong evening ended with Gary Stewart's Infinity. The physchobabble in the programme was a forewarning of gloom duly delivered."


Matthew Bourne

'The Car Man': Ian Palmer

"Where once the dancers tore into the choreography with full-throttle dramatic force, shaping its phrases with brute, hard-core energy, we now see the mass effect of going through the motions, of performers dancing by rote."


Michael Clark

'The Stravinsky Project': Bruce Marriott

"Clark is a mad professor and brilliant conjurer of movement, boldly stepping forward, and we are privileged to see his doodles. But if they were filtered and presented more coherently Clark would probably be seen as one of the greatest living choreographers."

'The Stravinsky Project': Norman Reynolds

"I have given only an outline and it is hard to say why, but one's final impression is one of great satisfaction. Only one more thing is needed, that it should tour extensively and not be allowed to fade away."


English National Ballet

'The Snow Queen': Bruce Marriott

"Sometimes in life we assemble the right ingredients and follow the right method but the recipe turns out unexpectedly flavourless. Sadly that's how I feel about the The Snow Queen."


Shen Wei Dance Arts

'Connect Transfer': Bruce Marriott

"Wei's dancers, when floor-based, are the most fluid creatures you can imagine: like mercury they seem to react to each other and unseen imperfections in the floor direct their random and quite mesmerizing, stop-start, travels."


Momix

'Greatest Hits!: Sputnik, Tuu': Lynette Halewood

"When a band starts putting out Greatest Hits albums, it can be a sign not just of the Christmas cash in but of creative juices running low. I hope this isn't the case with the Momix company. ...The dancers are a likeable lot, with a real relish for their work."


Garry Stewart and Nigel Jamieson

'Honour Bound': Bruce Marriott

"Ultimately this one-dimensional view, based on one set of facts, does not appeal to me. Swansong's power lies in showing something as wrong rather than looking to give you a skewed fact-sheet.""


CoisCeim Dance Theatre

'Knots': Ian Palmer

"Not, I would suggest, for those newly-wedded. For those more cynical amongst us, a work of biting dance theatre."


Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant

'Push' bill: Paul Arrowsmith

"At a recent interview at the Ballet Circle, Maliphant said it takes about 12-15 performances of a work till it is properly set in the body. Don't know how long he or Guillem will want to continue performing this programme, but while they do it's still a mesmerising show."


Chris Clow

'Memories of Three: In a Place of Uncertainty': Graham Watts

"Having seen this now twice in very different circumstances I would happily see it again tomorrow. Like the memories it invokes, it's a work that deserves to live on, especially in such capable and sensitive performers."


Maria Korsnes

'Memories of Three: Human Echo': Graham Watts

"The work was atmospheric and contained interesting layers of movement flowing between the two dancers but the interest it aroused was no more than transient."


Hagit Yakira

'Memories of Three: Somewhere Between a Self and An Other': Graham Watts

"...an exercise which moulds personal identity in a clever use of space and ritual behaviour, partially bound around interrupted versions of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow'..."


Live Screen

'Live Screen - Dance on screen live performance and cinematic motion': Charlotte Kasner

"This was truly one of the most dispiriting evenings that I have ever spent in the Lilian Baylis theatre. ...The rest of the audience presumably concurred. Nervous titters followed the first film. Grunts and sighs the remainder as the audience dwindled in numbers to leave only a handful of stalwarts as the clock headed towards 11pm."

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Postings Reviews section
Royal Danish Ballet 'Silk and Knife (Kylian programme):': Janet McNulty
Royal Ballet 'Romeo and Juliet': Simonetta Dixon
Royal Ballet 'Romeo and Juliet': Anna Merrick
Royal Ballet 'Romeo and Juliet': Tony Newcombe
Royal Ballet 'Romeo and Juliet': Alison Penfold
Royal Ballet 'Jewels': Ian Palmer
Royal Ballet 'Jewels': Wulff
Royal Ballet 'Jewels': Michael LL
Royal Ballet 'Jewels': Mijosh
Royal Ballet 'The World's Stage Gala': Jules_Skichick
Royal Ballet 'The World's Stage Gala': Jenny Taylor
Royal Ballet 'La Bayadere': James Wilkie
Scottish Dance Theatre 'Sorry for the Missiles' bill: Janet McNulty

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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 the:
TodaysLinks page

In the period from 1 Nov to 30 Nov (last update of this page) we have 364 links for you.

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.

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Photographic Copyright and Credits

All photographs are copyright and cannot be taken and/or used elsewhere. Click on an image to be taken to the associated page where appropriate credits are stated.

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