Ballet.co Magazine
For October 2007

Previous Ballet.co magazine - September 2007
Next Ballet.co magazine - November 2007

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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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Features & Interviews



Rudolf Nureyev
'From Russia With Love'
Jeffery Taylor discusses the new BBC TV documentary unearthing fresh material about one of the greatest male dancers of all time



Gary Avis
Royal Ballet
Earlier this year the wonderful Gary Avis was a guest of the Ballet Association...



Dance Umbrella
Goes Outside in 2007
Graham Watts on tthe cutting edge festival that is on the move from theatres...


Kirov 'Swan Lake' DVD
with Yulia Makhalina and Igor Zelensky
Kevin Ng on a DVD that '...provides an excellent reminder of a golden age of the Kirov Ballet under the previous artistic director Oleg Vinogradov."


Pirouettes & Passions:
Growing up behind the curtain
Margaret Willis reviews Mia Nadasi's autobiography - a highly entertaining and candid read...


Frederick Franklin
A Biography of the Ballet Star
Renee Renouf reviews the newly released Leslie Norton book on a much loved elder statesman of ballet



Northern Lights
Why even think about London as dance Mecca when there is so much going on elsewhere - Ian Palmer on what's he's found in returning to his Northern roots.

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In the Galleries

Currently our Images Gallery contains over 3600 images.


Butoh Photographs by Michael Philip Manheim
To link with the New York Butoh Festival
New York, Sate-T-Gallery


John Ross Photographs
Albums added in 09/2007 ...


Morphoses / The Wheeldon Company
Programme 1
London, Sadler's Wells



Morphoses / The Wheeldon Company
Programme 2
London, Sadler's Wells



Estampas Portenas
'Tango Fire'
London, Peacock Theatre



Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre
'Firebird'
London, Sadler's Wells



Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre
'Night Creature' and 'Pas de Duke'
London, Sadler's Wells

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Diaries and weblogs


Helene Cooper Blog...
New Weblog - Helene Cooper is studying for an MA in Choreography at the Laban in London. This is her blog about all things dance   (Weblog Home)

Daniel Jones weblog...
'The Snow Queen' - This month Daniel has a special photo report about final rehearsals of English National Ballet's new production of The Snow Queen. It's a full call...  (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 final entry about last years 3 students...... (Weblog Home)

Other Weblog Writers
Carole Edrich
Madame Galina
Tiit Helimets and Molly Smolen
Jarkko Lehmus

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Reviews
Ballet.co reviews entered between 01/09/2007 and 30/09/2007 will be included here...

Russian Reviews

Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet

'Cinderella': Graham Watts

"This 'Cinderella' is performed with exactly the right mix of ingredients – humour, pathos, fantasy, all stirred with a touch of decadence – but it helps to have a Cinderella to truly believe in."

more reviews in Postings Reviews section


USA Reviews

Martha Graham Dance Company

'Graham's NY Joyce Season': Rachel Straus

"Orihara, who joined the company in 1987, is the troupe's veteran. When she pounded her heel into the floor like a judge with a gavel in Chronicle, her expression was all Graham: Don't mess with me."


Mark Morris Dance Group

'Mozart Dances': Renee Renouf

"I cannot say that Morris totally matched Mozart's acuity, but he certainly caught the amplitude of phrasing, the happy expansiveness and some of the dense interplay of passages."


Collaboration Dance and Music 2007

'Collaboration! Dance and Music 2007': Renee Renouf

"Uniformly, the level of musicianship was high. Choreographically and technically, the dozen ranged from the pleasant enough, slightly painful to technically proficient and genuinely exciting."


UK Reviews

Morphoses - The Wheeldon Company

'Programme 1': Jane Simpson

"...at the final curtain, the applause was warmly appreciative - an appropriate response, I thought, to an evening which seemed a promising beginning rather than a triumphant success."

'Programme 1': Jeffery Taylor

"Last Wednesday, the audience was packed with London's dance world, specialists to a man and woman, and at the final curtain they raised the roof in praise of one of their own. I would love to hear the reaction of 2,000 of the ordinary ticket buying public. ...I bet the silence of massed yawns would be deafening."

'Programme 2': Ian Palmer

Fools' Paradise: "Wheeldon exaggerates shape, pushing the torso further forward, arching the head back, creating a deeper curve at the small of the back, and the effect is a heightening in the lyricism of the body's movement and a sense of surging ecstasy that rushes through the stage."

'Programmes 1 and 2': Lynette Halewood

"Wheeldon should be congratulated on ensuring the high quality live music from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. He has put together a very talented group of dancers. Individually, some of these works are impressive. I wanted to like it all a lot more than I did. Wheeldon needs to think about the art of constructing a programme and the mix of works presented."

more reviews in Postings Reviews section


Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

'Ailey Jazz Programme': Jane Simpson

"The company has some fine dancers - Graf, Clifton Brown, Matthew Rushing and many others - and I thought they were all seen to better advantage elsewhere in the season, in better works."

'The Best of Ailey': Graham Watts

"Think of great modern American choreographers and Ailey doesn't usually figure up there with Martha Graham, Trisha Brown and Merce Cunningham but for me his signature work (Revelations) is on the highest platform with the very best of them all."

'The Best of Ailey': Lynette Halewood

Golden Section: "If they ever dispense with using Revelations as a closer, then this would be a good candidate for one. "What can they do to top that ?" said my neighbour in the next seat. Well, now you mention it..."

Ailey at Sadler's round-up: Graham Watts

"After witnessing great dancers struggle with generally mediocre choreography it was great to see them back interpreting the masters in the final programme, entitled 'The Best of Ailey'. The work of Béjart and Tharp alongside a reprise of Ailey's own well-trodden masterpiece delivered on the boast."

more reviews in Postings Reviews section


Estampas Portenas

'Tango Fire': Carole Edrich

"...although the show lacks depth, it is neither self indulgent nor irritatingly heavy. Go to be dazzled by the dancers' technique and you'll find that the pace and style generates a buzz of its own."


Northern Ballet Theatre

'A Midsummer Night's Dream': Ian Palmer

"Watching A Midsummer Night's Dream at the West Yorkshire Playhouse you are conscious of the “T” in “NBT”. As we sit in its intimate auditorium, feet away from the performers on stage, we see how drama and acting drive the show onward. Theatricality plays a huge part in the company's artistic vision..."

'A Midsummer Night's Dream': Janet McNulty

"There are thousands of good reasons to go and see this production ...I would urge you all to go and see it!"

more reviews in Postings Reviews section


CandoCo

'The Stepfather, And Who Shall Go to the Ball' bill: Charlotte Kasner

"Anybody who thinks that CanDoCo's mix of disabled and able bodied dancers is a mere worthy project should ditch their misconceptions within seconds of seeing this programme. CandoCo are mad, bad and dangerous to know."


Anurekha Ghosh and Company

'Noor': Trog Woolley

"Noor is a very slick presentation and I think is it the strongest of all the works so far created by Anurekha Ghosh. A must see!"


World Class Russian Ballet Stars

Clasical ballet excerpts bill: Ian Palmer

Nadezhda Gracheva: "Every moment is conceived with an eye to building detailed character through shape, not just gesture (she uses each of her fingers with exceptional clarity) and we watched a performance of striking artistry. The younger generation of dancers ought really to watch and learn from her, for she has much to give."

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Touch Wood Season


Sonia Sabri

'Touch Wood: Trail': Bruce Marriott

"...this has mileage in it and I'd like to see the finished work. Sabri, who seems such an undancerly figure when first spied, is a find..."


Colin Poole

'Touch Wood: Joyride': Bruce Marriott

"Poole is magnetic and too good a mover to miss, even when firing less-than-perfect shots."


Cameron McMillan

'Touch Wood: Quartet': Bruce Marriott

"...expansive, athletic and pacey it filled the stage and all of its six minutes. More."


Hubert Essakow

'Touch Wood: Voyage': Bruce Marriott

"...showed some new ways of combining and weaving bodies if in all-too-short a length of time."


Tom Dale

'Touch Wood: RISE': Bruce Marriott

"...a dingy world full of lunges, quirky hip hop and semaphores danced to an electronic soundscape of clicks and general grubbiness."


Katie Green

'Touch Wood: Box Clever': Bruce Marriott

"...singularly grim ... - sorry, but some experiments just don't work at all."


Jose Luis Vidal

'Touch Wood: Inventario': Helene Cooper

"However, all was not lost as the second half opened with 'Inventario' (Stocking) a quirky piece by Jose Luis Vidal that investigated structure within a piece."


Paula Conduit

'Touch Wood: Clique': Helene Cooper

"...refreshingly stimulating in terms movement vocabulary."


Jonathan Lunn

'Touch Wood: Fragments (Reading Room)': Helene Cooper

"...reminiscent of a student improvisation class..."


Satu Tuomisto

'Touch Wood: Heap': Helene Cooper

"...resembled more the showcase of a youth group than a clever assimilation of bodies and movement patterns."


Synapse Dance Theatre

'Touch Wood, Maybe We Were' bill: Helene Cooper

"...aesthetically pleasing but completely unoriginal in concept..."

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Postings Reviews section

Morphoses - The Wheeldon Company 'Programme 2': Michael LL
Morphoses - The Wheeldon Company 'Programme 1': Paul Bunton
Mariinsky Ballet (Kirov) 'Giselle' and 'Romeo and Juliet': Karska
Birmingham Royal Ballet 'Edward II': Janet McNulty
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 'The Winter in Lisbon' bill: Alison Penfold
Northern Ballet Theatre 'A Midsummer Night's Dream': 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 September to 30 September (last update of this page) we have 235 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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