Ballet.co Magazine
For May 2007

Previous Ballet.co magazine - April 2007
Next Ballet.co magazine - June 2007

---

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

---

Features


Persephone and Sacre:
Stravinsky’s Spring Rites at the Rome Opera
Kenneth Archer with Millicent Hodson on how a unique bill came together around Stravinsky’s 'masque or dance pantomime'. Associated gallery.

---

Interviews



Christine Sundt
Choreographer and Director
Graham Watts talks to a choreographer going places and about to see her latest piece premiered by London Children's Ballet

---

Diaries and weblogs


Jarkko Lehmus weblog...
the Scottish Ballet dancer who tells it like no other...
'Reflections On The Battlefield'
Jarkko gets back to work... "After months of seemingly endless time without a reason to get up or to go to bed the prospect of going back into full time work was a bit intimidating." (weblog home)

Daniel Jones weblog...
'My Ballet Shoes'... A man and his love affair with his Sansha 15W's   (Weblog Home)


Madame Galina weblog...
A noval emerges on life, parents and getting it in the neck...
(Weblog Home)


Ballet Central weblog
Each year we follow some final-year Central School of Ballet students through their final training, UK tour and hunt for jobs. A brief update from a touring Emma Chadwick this month... (Weblog Home)

Other Weblog Writers
Carole Edrich
Tiit Helimets and Molly Smolen

---

In the Galleries

Currently our Images Gallery contains over 3100 images.


Rome Opera Ballet
Persephone and Sacre
Many images of the Rome rehearsals, creative team and performances by Shira Klasmer


John Ross Photographs
Albums added 04/07...


Australian Ballet
Don Quixote
Sydney, Opera House



Royal Ballet
Seven Deadly Sins, Pierrot Lunaire, La Fin Du Jour
London, Covent Garden

---

Reviews
Ballet.co reviews entered between 01/04/2007 and 30/04/2007 are included here...

USA Reviews

Eifman Ballet

'Eifman Ballet Excerpts': Eric Taub

"...for all Eifman's irreverent sex, drama and rock'n'roll, and his dancers' undeniable strength and conviction, there's a touching and very Russian naivety in their unreserved embrace of kitsch masquerading as profundity."


San Francisco Ballet

'Program VI': Renee Renouf

"If I can make a coherent label for this program, I'd use the word quirky: Night for its exposition of the universal phenomenon, the nightmare; On Common Ground because of its unusual raspy music by Ned Rorem; Rodeo because of its plot about a tom girl turned woman in distinctly non-stylish garments. Most of it was beautifully danced if parts didn't register sense to me."

'Program VII': Renee Renouf

"The designated word for this program is bravura."


Paul Taylor Dance Company

'SF Bills A B and C (or some parts of)': Renee Renouf

"Promethean Fire is white heat, executed with great passion and belief by the dancers. The third time I am just beginning to appreciate its complexity. Taylor manages, with just sixteen dancers, to make one feel witness to a phalanx: it is awesome."


Lar Lubovitch Dance Company

'Love Stories' bill: Rachel Straus

"With world premieres Little Rhapsodies and Dvorak Serenade, the dancers had the daunting task of making textbook perfect choreography appear alive with possibilities..."


Limon Dance Company

'Recordare': Rachel Straus

"Using the whole stage, instead of the area around the set piece, Lubovitch set the dancers into patterns that ebbed and flowed and paused in tableaus a Renaissance perspective painter would admire. The dancers, at this moment, looked like humans again. And during these beautifully constructed and performed moments, they glowed."


Butler Foundation

'John Butler- An American Master': Eric Taub

"Today, when "new ballet" puts dancers through contortions which would've sent Graham running for a chiropractor (or bottle), Butler's work seems far from revolutionary, and that's ultimately the greatest measure of his success."

'John Butler- An American Master': Elizabeth McPherson

"Butler is a master at spatial use of the stage, moving the cast through and around each other in canons and complex patterns. His partnering choreography is inventive as wellfull of surprising drops of weight and intermingling of limbs. Unfortunately..."


City Ballet of San Diego

'Tchaikovsky Spectacular': Anjuli Bai

"It seems that San Diego finally has a ballet entity that has left behind any semblance to pre-professional dance status. One can only hope that the citizens of this area will recognize the opportunity and enjoy this gift of a company."


Danish Reviews

Royal Danish Ballet

'Napoli': Jane Simpson

"As intended, I left the theatre on a real high - but the surprise was that this time it wasn't the high spirits of the last act that did it, but the drama of Act 1 and the emotional tension of Act 2."

'American Mixture': Norman Reynolds

"American Mixture is a triple bill of new works by three North American choreographers, and fits in with the company's plan to include modern Danish music in its repertoire."


German Reviews

Bavarian State Ballet

'Le Corsaire': Ian Palmer

"The Munich staging is almost too serious, too scholarly to make enjoyable theatre, fascinating as it may be. We watch it as we might read a James Joyce novel: because it is Great Art rather than great fun."

'The Silver Rose': Ian Palmer

"...in The Silver Rose Murphy, rather than tempting fate, has staged something of a balletic coup and the result is a work of extraordinarily tender poetry that lives entirely separate from its operatic older brother."


Italian Reviews

Rome Opera Ballet

'Dedicato a Stravinskij' bill: Bruce Marriott

Persephone: "It is a work rich in the telling and unusually rich by design and in its operatic, dancer and compositional ingredients. In the search for new work and new experiences this way of combing much loved arts surely ought to be a winner...""


French Reviews

Paris Opera Ballet

'L'Allegro Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato': Norman Reynolds

"...there were boos for Robyn Orlyn, just a couple of attention-seeking pseudo-intellectuals, but booing is self-defeating and reinforces the applause, which was prolonged and real. This was about tolerance and humanity, and a couple of boos are neither here nor there. We had seen much more important things."

'Don Quixote': Azulynn

"One would need to write a long poem to translate into words what Myriam Ould-Braham and Emmanuel Thibault gave to the audience in both their performances. Generosity pours out of their every movement, and they turned Nureyev's version, often vulgar, into a jewel."


Hong Kong Reviews

Hong Kong Ballet

'Romeo and Juliet': Natasha Rogai

"But the ballet belongs to Juliet, and Faye Leung made it her own. Heartfelt and convincing in her acting, her dancing was not only beautiful in the duets which are her trademark, but showed a new brilliance in her solos, with scintillating bourrées and and soaring jumps."


Japanese Reviews

K Ballet

'Swan Lake': Satoko Kamatani

"I had never seen that Odile like Durante, Durante's Odile was so lovely and full of happiness to tempt the prince at all. And her balance of toe, keeping just 8 seconds as a needle's point was amazing. I really mean, even me as an audience, loved her Odile exactly as "Odette",so bright and fantastic!!"


UK Reviews

Royal Ballet


'Seven Deadly Sins bill': Jeffery Taylor

"But the evening belongs to William Tuckett as he comes of age with The Seven Deadly Sins."


'Seven Deadly Sins bill': Lynette Halewood

"It's odd to reflect on a triple bill where the MacMillan work seems the lightest, flimsiest and least sexualised piece on offer."


'Mayerling': Bruce Marriott

"But a bit of muttering aside whatever way I look at the overall package this is a company at its dramatic peak in Mayerling - and a wonderful cast that delivered sensationally - and with even more to come. Oh yes!"

'Mayerling': Margaret Willis

"While Acosta naturally exudes hot-bloodied charisma and emotion throughout his whole being, Watson is more reserved and lacks an inner sultry passion, relying instead on external acting."

'Mayerling': Jeffery Taylor

"...we daily breakfast on a diet of death by hypodermic, rifle, knife and explosives, often on a street nearby. History has taken the sting out of Mayerling. The three act ballet now feels too long, overpopulated and repetitive."

'Mayerling': Simonetta Dixon

"Considering the amount of debuts we had today, I cannot think of a better start to the current run of Mayerlings, and would like to congratulate everyone who was onstage this afternoon."

more reviews in Postings Reviews section


Scottish Ballet

'Othello Mixed Bill': Jeffery Taylor

"What a wonderful evening of dance. But going on last Wednesday's poor attendance, do our Scots cousins deserve it?"


English National Ballet

'A Million Kisses to My Skin' bill: Ann Williams

"The last of the pas-de-deux was outstandingly the best – Hans van Manen's 'Trois Gnossiennes' to the familar Satie music – the pianist was once again Christopher Swithinbank. This piece was simply a gem. Performed by the tiny, elegant Adela Ramirez and a confident, muscular Dmitri Gruzdyev..."

'A Million Kisses to My Skin' bill: Lynette Halewood

Trois Gnossiennes: "A very enjoyable piece, new to the company and perhaps an indication of Artistic Director Wayne Eagling's tastes for new acquisitions."


Richard Alston

'Fingerprint' bill: Jane Simpson

"With Alston's own new work, Fingerprint, I felt I was back on very familiar territory: lots more feeling in the programme note than on the stage. I think it's a real pity this happens so often. I do like much of what Alston actually does but he so often sets my expectations wrongly by what he writes."

'Fingerprint' bill: Jeffery Taylor

"The Richard Alston Dance Company is hugely popular in the regions. In London's glare of unforgiving reality one can only wonder why."


Hofesh Shechter

'In Your Rooms, Uprising' bill: Carole Edrich

"After the rigours of the first half In Your Rooms is softer on the psyche and more demanding of the intellect. Words interweave humour and perspective whilst following existential and philosophical themes."


Nina Rajarani - Srishtri

'Quiet Please!': Graham Watts

"'Quick!' sits uncomfortably within the new narrative so that the integration of the two storylines fails to produce a coherent whole for 'Quiet, Please!'. However, it still works well enough as a programme of two parts..."


Diversions

'Exposure' bill: Jeffery Taylor

Up Close and Personal: "Campbell-Moore creates a flow with and through the music and truly speaks with his dancer's bodies. His might be a broad brush stroke, but it's a refreshingly honest one."


George Piper Dances

'Encore': Janet McNulty

"The pieces that made up the evening showed that exciting works can be produced for more mature dancers who have still got so much to offer."


Ye-Gam Inc

'Jump': Ian Palmer

"The first part drags, but the second is of greatest fun and prodigious skill, especially so in its mad-cap capers involving the two bumbling thieves with all the subtlety of a machete..."


Stephen Clark and Nitin Sawhney

'Mahabharata': Graham Watts

"But where was the dance? Billed as 'a brand new piece of dance theatre', it sadly neglects the foremost element. Without it, this production serves only as a limited and confused introduction to one of the world's greatest stories and is in most respects a poor representation both of the greatness (Maha) and of India (Bharat) in the Mahabharata."

---

Postings Reviews section


Swedish Royal Ballet 'La fille mal gardee': John Svensson
Royal Ballet 'Mayerling': Clare Forsyth
Royal Ballet 'Mayerling': Ian Graham
Royal Ballet 'Seven Deadly Sins bill': DaveM
Australian Dance Theatre 'Held': Janet McNulty

---

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 April to 30 April (last update of this page) we have 303 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.

---

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.

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)
      ballet.co screensaver as an exe file (2293kb)

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!