DANSOX lecture: Alastair Macaulay ‘On Meaning in Swan Lake’, JdP Music Building, St Hilda’s College Oxford, 2nd March 2022 – Maggie Watson reports

Alastair Macaulay delivered the first face-to-face DANSOX lecture of 2022 against a background of loss and tragedy.  The loss was the death of the critic Clement Crisp at the age of 95; the tragedy, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.  Macaulay dedicated his lecture to the memory of the former, and  acknowledged his initial difficulty in speaking to a topic that might have seemed trivial against the background of the latter. 

He then delivered a talk that proved quite the opposite.  Taking inspiration from Arlene Croce’s assertion in 1973 that ‘Swan Lake is not a drama about birds – it’s a drama about freedom’, Macaulay cogently argued that it is a ballet about power and subjugation; bondage and liberation; trust and betrayal, which extends beyond the personal tragedies of Odette and Siegfried into the wider social and political domain.

 

Bolshoi Ballet: A Contemporary Evening, live transmission Phoenix Picturehouse 19th March 2017

For one evening, the Bolshoi takes on a bold new challenge performing  Hans Van Manen’s Frank Bridge’s Variations, Sol León and Paul Lightfoot’s Short Time Together and Alexei Ratmansky’s Russian Seasons. This encounter between some of the best dancers in the world and the masters of contemporary choreography results in an outstanding synthesis, raising Van Manen’s formal beauty, León and Lightfoot’s intensity, and Ratmansky’s witty brilliance to a new level.

Music: Benjamin Britten, Max Richter, Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonid Desyatnikov
Choreography: Hans Van Manen, Sol León, Paul Lightfoot, Alexei Ratmansky
Cast: The Bolshoi Principals, Soloists and Corps De Ballet

Performance:  Sunday 19th March, 3.00pm

Venue:  Phoenix Picturehouse, 57 Walton Street, Oxford OX OX2 6AE

Tickets:  Book online here or call 0871 902 5736

 

Bolshoi Ballet transmissions at the Phoenix: Le Corsaire on Sunday 17th November 2013

Another Boshoi Ballet transmission of one of the popular staples of 19th century ballet repertoire; a prerecorded performance of Le Corsaire on view at the Phoenix Picturehouse on Sunday 17th November.  Inspired by Lord Byron’s poem, Marius Petipa’s version of the ballet was part of the Bolshoi’s repertoire until the beginning of the 20th century.  In 2007 Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka presented a sumptuous new choreographic version for the company.  In the marketplace of Adrianople, the beautiful Medora is sold to Pasha by a slave dealer; but a pirate, hidden among the crowd with his companions, decides to ravish her… Thrilling suspense is at the core of this lavish exotic fable, an amazing production complete with pirates, kidnapping, a shipwreck, and a record 120 dancers on stage.  An intriguing opportunity to compare it with English National Ballet’s new production.