There are two sections of such exciting poetic and visual beauty in Another Kind of Blue performed by this Netherlands-based contemporary dance company it’s unmissable. David Middendorp is the founding artistic director whose choreography and visual presentations teem with ideas and imaginative connections. He creates an incredible visual interplay between his dancers and their context using drones to connect what is being performed on stage to a screen on which stunning images of them moving … [Read more...]
Soweto Gospel Choir: INALA a Zulu Ballet at The Peacock Theatre
There’s the Soweto Gospel Choir dancing and singing in Zulu, a five-piece band lit as shadows against an African sky as ten ballet dancers performing classical steps in bare feet choreographed by the award-winning Mark Baldwin, who’s worked with Ballet Rambert as their Artistic Director and at Sadler’s Wells as resident choreographer. The question is does this mix work? The enthusiasm of the on its feet audience at the end of the opening night suggests it does as entertainment at any rate. … [Read more...]
Israel Galván’s La Fiesta at Sadler’s Wells | Review
Israel Galvan’s La Fiesta is genuinely creative, transcending the categorising genre of Flamenco in its anarchistic deconstruction of rhythm and expectations in front of your eyes, to build it up to something different, something modern while acknowledging its root. It all starts with nine performers mixed in age and talents and a cafe background, summoning a village in Spain, Pina Bausch’s Cafe Muller. Galvan, who conceived, choreographed and performs in this work says it was conceived as a … [Read more...]
Russell Maliphant & Vangelis – The Thread at Sadler’s Wells
The ending was thrilling, the dancers' bodies had become whirling tumblers on precipices thrown by Michael Hulls' clever lighting as Vangelis’s music brought a compulsive frenzy of rhythm and tune still resonating when walking away through the dark streets of Islington. Finally, the work was moving, the choreography was exciting, the dancing stunning but it turned out the show was over. Send the audience out with something stunning and maybe they’ll forget the rest. Perhaps The Thread was … [Read more...]
BalletBoyz’ Them/Us at Sadler’s Wells | Review
Us, the piece which constitutes the second half of this show is choreographed by Royal Ballet artistic associate Christopher Wheeldon and is unmissable contemporary dance. From the outset, the ensemble section is thrilling in its dynamism using repetition, pirouettes and intricate footwork. Designed by Katherine Watt the costumes of oversized grey tailcoats complement the movement dynamics perfectly. There’s a short lapse in energy or perhaps it's just audience resistance as the compelling … [Read more...]