The final week of April brought thought-provokingly contrasted dance performances to Oxford. On Tuesday 23rd at the New Theatre the BalletBoyz performed their latest programme Them/Us, shortly to be opening for their first West End season at the Vaudeville Theatre. This two-part programme involves all six male dancers in both pieces. Opening the evening Them was a collaborative choreographic venture by the dancers drawing on elements of their own individual movement, sharing them in a succession of often playful episodes and exchanges. Set in a twilight zone, a gleaming stainless steel tubular cube framework and sleek satin shell suits brought enlivening geometric dashes of light and colour, red, blue, green and purple. The cube defined shifting spaces which the dancers could manipulate, inhabit, swing from and climb up. Movement combined sharp crisp gesture with a lyrical contemporary idiom, integrating tumbling and floorwork in response to Charlotte Harding’s lively but dark toned score; suggestions of character and relationship were glimpsed and a feeling of camaraderie and group identity emerged, even if overall the episodic structure of the piece did not build a sense of narrative or situational development. The performers conveyed lithe fluidity and a smooth assurance, distinct from the rawness of previous BalletBoyz ensembles; no longer projecting a company narrative of emerging talent and inexperienced diamonds in the rough, but a polished professional group. (more…)
June 3, 2019
Boyz and Girls: BalletBoyz Them/Us at New Theatre Oxford, Rhiannon Faith Smack That at Burton Taylor Studio 23rd & 25th April, BBC Young Dancer of the Year 2019 final – Susie Crow reviews
Posted by susiecrow under reviews | Tags: ballet, BalletBoyz, BBC Young Dancer of the Year 2019, Bharatanatyam, Burton Taylor Studio, Charlotte Harding, Christopher Wheeldon, contemporary dance, dance theatre, Don Quixote pas de deux, Emma Gladstone, Keaton Henson, New Theatre, Rhiannon Faith, Smack That, street dance, Susie Crow, Them/Us |Leave a Comment
April 28, 2019
BalletBoyz present Them/Us, New Theatre, Oxford, 23rd April 2019 – Maggie Watson reviews
Posted by susiecrow under reviews | Tags: Arthur Mitchell, BalletBoyz, Charlotte Harding, Christopher Wheeldon, contemporary dance, Diana Adams, George Balanchine, Ieva Kuniskis, Keaton Henson, Maggie Watson, Matthew Bourne, New Theatre Oxford, Them/Us |Leave a Comment
BalletBoyz’ programme of two short works at the New Theatre on Tuesday showcased the hugely energetic talent of this all-male dance company. Them, a collaborative work between the dancers and composer Charlotte Harding, gave the cast an opportunity to display their considerable technical skills. Harding has worked with BalletBoyz before (she paired with choreographer Craig Revel Horwood for The Indicator Line), and this was an adventurous and exciting work built around the possibilities offered by a giant cuboid scaffold, which the dancers turned and manipulated about the stage. A prop, a piece of scenery, a climbing frame, or simply a space to dance in; it was all these things, and also a source of metaphorical and literal suspense as the dancers’ movement controlled, (or was controlled by) it. At one point, a dancer lay across its lower bar, and was lifted up, suspended like a rag doll; later, he gripped it with one hand and rose suspended in the air above the stage as the structure slowly turned over. (more…)
April 18, 2019
Ballet Boyz present Them/Us, New Theatre Oxford, 23rd April 2019
Posted by susiecrow under What's happening | Tags: BalletBoyz, Benjamin Knapper, Bradley Waller, Charlotte Harding, Christopher Wheeldon, Harry Price, Keaton Henson, Liam Riddick, Matthew Sandiford, New Theatre Oxford, Sean Flanagan, Them/Us |Leave a Comment
THE internationally lauded dance troupe BalletBoyz return to the New Theatre Oxford this Spring with Them/Us, an innovative double bill and a brand new collaboration from the company’s own critically acclaimed dancers and the Olivier Award-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. BalletBoyz are known worldwide for their ground-breaking live performances, films and TV appearances. The new productions are both set to original scores by world-class composers and asks where we see ourselves in relation to the “other”.
Marking a first for BalletBoyz, Them is the work of the company’s very own in-house talent, and set to a score by emerging composer Charlotte Harding. Us is inspired by the critically acclaimed Christopher Wheeldon duet featured in the company’s last show, Fourteen Days. With an extended score by cult singer/songwriter, Keaton Henson, Christopher Wheeldon develops this new work which explores the possibilities of before, during and after.
Christopher Wheeldon, choreographer for Us, said: “I’m relishing the opportunity to work with BalletBoyz again to create a new work that expands on my previous work with the company, Us. It’s a pleasure to be working with Keaton Henson once again after his music for Us inspired me to investigate a new style of movement.”
The current BalletBoyz Company includes: Sean Flanagan, Benjamin Knapper, Harry Price, Liam Riddick, Matthew Sandiford and Bradley Waller.
Performance: Tuesday 23rd April 7.30pm
Venue: New Theatre, George Street, Oxford OX1 2AG
Tickets: £13.00 – £35.00 plus £3.65 transaction fee
Book online here or in person from the Box Office, or call 0844 871 3020
Running time: 1 hour 20 mins (more…)
November 18, 2016
Wrights & Wrongs: my life in dance, by Peter Wright with Paul Arrowsmith – Maggie Watson reviews
Posted by susiecrow under reviews | Tags: Brenda Last, Christopher Wheeldon, David Bintley, Giselle, Glen Tetley, Kenneth MacMillan, Maggie Watson, Matthew Bourne, Michael Somes, Oberon Books, Paul Arrowsmith, Royal Ballet, Sadler's Wells, Sir Peter Wright, Tatiana Leskova, Wayne McGregor, Wrights and Wrongs |1 Comment
This is ‘not a conventional autobiography’ but it is a fascinating and inspiring account of 75 years of work in dance and theatre. Immensely humorous, Wright seems to have known almost everybody in the ballet world, and he conjures up vivid images of dips in the freezing January sea with Henry Danton at Eastbourne in the 1940s, Princess Margaret backstage at the Birmingham Hippodrome holding her breath to avoid the whiff from the gents’ loo, or of Michael Somes who could be ‘very difficult’, ‘particularly at full moon’.
For those of us outside the professional ballet world, the book sometimes ‘joins the dots’, and fills the gaps that other, more discreet, accounts have left in obscurity. I imagine that Wright’s colleagues and acquaintances will have looked for their names in the index with some trepidation, for he is almost as frank about the living as he is about the dead. (more…)
December 31, 2015
The Language of the Soul: photographs by Rick Guest
Posted by susiecrow under What's happening | Tags: Christopher Wheeldon, dance photography, Edward Watson, Kevin O'Hare, Liam Scarlett, Marianela Nuñez, Melissa Hamilton, Nehemiah Kish, Olivia Pomp, Rick Guest, Sarah Lamb, Sergei Polunin, Steven McRae, Tamara Rojo, The Hospital Club Gallery, The Language of the Soul, Wayne McGregor, Zenaida Yanowsky |1 Comment
The Language of the Soul by photographer Rick Guest features images from his 2014 Exhibition at The Hospital Club Gallery, as well as many more in the series. Working in collaboration with stylist Olivia Pomp, and featuring such luminary dancers as Edward Watson, Tamara Rojo, Marianela Nuñez, Steven McRae, Sarah Lamb, Sergei Polunin, Zenaida Yanowsky, Nehemiah Kish and Melissa Hamilton, it also includes portraits of Wayne McGregor, Kevin O’Hare, Liam Scarlett and Christopher Wheeldon. With a foreword by Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, this book is in a limited first run of 1000 copies, exquisitely printed by PUSH Print, and is in a large format, 300mm x 370mm.
Rick Guest writes:
“Ballet as an art form has always been a collaborative medium, whereby composers, orchestras, choreographers, dancers, artists and impresarios have come together to create something new, something greater than the individual elements. With this in mind, I have deliberately turned away from using photography to document dance as it’s staged for the audience, as important as that is. Instead, I have concentrated on the bringing together of three separate disciplines, that of photography, fashion and dance, in an attempt to create something new and singular.
Away from the constraints of stage, role and costume, the dancers are able to demonstrate their breathtaking capabilities in an uninhibited atmosphere, one that ultimately leads to a purer portrait of the dancers themselves. These images aim to illustrate the key tenets of balletic technique; balance, strength and poise. They are lit and photographed to enhance each dancers’ power and beauty, both physical and emotional, and the images are infused with a fashion edge that is at the same time evocative and playful.”
The Language of the Soul is available from the 15th December 2015 from rg-books.com
Further work can be viewed at rg-dance.com
July 14, 2015
Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella, Dutch National Ballet at London Coliseum 8th July 2015 – Susie Crow reviews
Posted by susiecrow under reviews | Tags: Anna Tsygankova, Christopher Wheeldon, Craig Lucas, Dutch National Ballet, London Coliseum, Matthew Goulding, Nadia Yanowsky, Prokofiev, Remi Wörtmeyer, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Susie Crow |1 Comment
Grandstand seats surrounded by the Coliseum’s ornate ivory, gold and purple, a rare London visit by one of Europe’s major ballet companies showing a new production set to one of the 20th century’s most ravishing ballet scores played live by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia – what’s not to like? High expectations for a summer treat.
This being well known fairy tale Cinderella, although I bought a programme I did not read the proffered synopsis before viewing. I also did not have access to a cast sheet until afterwards. A salutary test for any narrative work; what was the story made visible through the dancing and stage action? (more…)
April 30, 2014
The Royal Ballet in The Winter’s Tale: live cinema screening at Phoenix Picturehouse 28th April 2014 – Emily Romain reviews
Posted by susiecrow under reviews | Tags: Christopher Wheeldon, Edward Watson, Emily Romain, Joby Talbot, Lauren Cuthbertson, Phoenix Picturehouse Oxford, Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, The Royal Ballet, The Winter's Tale, Zenaida Yanwosky |Leave a Comment
It is a great privilege to see one of the great ballets of the 21st century so early in its history. I did not witness the original production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, nor of The Rite of Spring; but I have seen the very first production of Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale and that is a truly special thing.
To explain why this particular ballet is so special is very difficult. It was danced beautifully of course, to a standard of excellence which we have come to expect from the Royal Ballet, and the costuming and scenery were meticulous, as they so often are. And yet, I have struggled immensely to write this review. In desperate times I draw on my old friend, cliché: words cannot begin to describe the exquisite nature of this ballet; it has to be seen to be believed! (more…)
March 18, 2014
The Royal Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty; live transmission at the Phoenix Picturehouse Wednesday 19th March 2014
Posted by susiecrow under What's happening | Tags: Anthony Dowell, Christopher Wheeldon, Frederick Ashton, Marius Petipa, Nicholas Sergeyev, Ninette de Valois, Phoenix Picturehouse Oxford, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, The Royal Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty |Leave a Comment
First staged in St Petersburg in 1890, The Sleeping Beauty is regarded as the pinnacle of classical ballet: a perfect marriage of Petipa’s choreography and Tchaikovsky’s music, and a glorious challenge for every dancer on stage. It is also the Royal Ballet’s signature work. To mark the company’s 75th birthday in 2006, Monica Mason and Christopher Newton revitalised its landmark 1946 production, which re-established Petipa’s choreography as recorded by Imperial Ballet régisseur Nicholas Sergeyev, to a scenario and staging developed by Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet. With Oliver Messel’s gorgeous original designs wonderfully reimagined by Peter Farmer, and additional choreography by Anthony Dowell, Christopher Wheeldon and Frederick Ashton, today’s The Sleeping Beauty not only captures the mood of the original but shows that this is very much a living work for the Royal Ballet, growing and changing with the company while celebrating its past. (more…)
March 20, 2013
The Royal Ballet in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” screening at Phoenix Picturehouse 28th March 2013
Posted by susiecrow under What's happening | Tags: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Christopher Wheeldon, Edward Watson, Federico Bonelli, Joby Talbot, Lewis Caroll, Phoenix Picturehouse Oxford, Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, The Royal Ballet, Zenaida Yanowsky |Leave a Comment
For an Easter holiday treat why not take the family to see the live screeening of the Royal Ballet in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at the Phoenix Picturehouse? Those familiar with Lewis Carroll’s literary menagerie of colourful characters will enjoy the clarity with which Christopher Wheeldon portrays them in dance in this imaginative recent ballet, a feast of colour, music and choreography. (more…)
December 12, 2012
The gender agenda – Susie Crow reflects on recent choreography by female and male choreographers
Posted by susiecrow under reviews, the burning question... | Tags: Anamorphic, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Cecilia Macfarlane, Christopher Wheeldon, Emma Webb, Georgina Dean, Hans van Manen, Jessica Lang, Liam Scarlett, Royal Ballet, Wayne McGregor |1 Comment
Writing about the Female Choreographers’ Collective performance in October whetted my curiosity as to what might be discernible differences between the work of female and male choreographers; I approached other performances viewed recently with my antennae thus attuned…
To the Old Fire Station on 20th October to see Cecilia MacFarlane’s reflection on the tragic accidental death of her son “I’ll leave you to yourself then…”. A small, pugnacious figure with cropped white hair, Cecilia began encased in a fragile egg of white mesh with blood red ribbons, painfully hatching, her face contorted as she slowly emerged. (more…)