Backstage at the Ballet, an exhibition of photographs by Colin Jones, opened yesterday 11th February with a well-researched and entertaining presentation by Jane Pritchard, Curator of Dance at the Victoria & Albert Museum, on Photographing Dance and Dancers. Pritchard spoke interestingly and informatively about dancer-turned-photographer Colin Jones, the history of dance photography, and Jones’ photo-journalism, focusing on his work with dancers. She drew attention to the wealth of social and historical information in his images, from evidence of the terrible quality of studio floors in the 1960s, to the way in which dancers used to spend their ‘down time’ knitting before there were mobile phones. (more…)
February 13, 2020
Jane Pritchard talk Photographing Dance and Dancers, exhibition opening of Backstage at the Ballet, The North Wall Arts Centre, 11th February–7th March 2020 – Maggie Watson reports
Posted by susiecrow under reviews | Tags: Backstage At The Ballet, Colin Jones, dance photography, Daria Klimentová, Elizabeth Anderton, exhibition, Jane Pritchard, Lesley Collier, Maggie Watson, Margot Fonteyn, Photographing dance and dancers, Rudolf Nureyev, Tamara Rojo, The North Wall Arts Centre, Victoria and Albert Museum, Winifred Edwards |Leave a Comment
April 22, 2013
“Agony and Ecstasy: my life in dance” by Daria Klimentová with Graham Watts – Maggie Watson reviews
Posted by susiecrow under reviews | Tags: Agony and Ecstasy BBC documentary, ballet, Daria Klimentová, Derek Deane, English National Ballet, Graham Watts, Maggie Watson, Prague State Conservatoire |1 Comment
English National Ballet (ENB) is the only major UK ballet company regularly to visit Oxford, and it is a great pleasure to read the memoire of a dancer who is so familiar to audiences here.
Klimentová states, “I became a ballet dancer by accident rather than by design”. Born in Prague in 1971, in true Eastern Bloc style, she was picked out at kindergarten as a potential gymnast. Thanks to the percipience of a ballet teacher at Sparta Prague, she was redirected to the Prague State Conservatoire, where she was schooled in the Vaganova style and fast-tracked to become a soloist. Klimentová benefitted from the best training and professional start possible in Czechoslovakia before political change enabled her to build a career in the UK. (more…)