Rick Guest’s stunningly beautiful photographs of Edward Watson vividly illustrate the impact on twenty-first century dance aesthetics of our renewed interest in the male body. On Friday night, in a conversation expertly chaired by dance critic Sarah Crompton as part of the National Portrait Gallery’s Friday Lates talks series, Guest described how he first came to photograph Watson as the result of a commission for The Economist’s Intelligent Life magazine. He was initially taken aback by how slight Watson seemed in rather flat light, then a sudden shaft illuminated Watson’s face, giving him the photograph he needed, and Watson the impetus to project his personality in response to the camera. (more…)
January 14, 2019
In Conversation: Edward Watson and Rick Guest with Sarah Crompton, National Portrait Gallery, London 11th January 2019 – Maggie Watson reviews
Posted by susiecrow under reviews | Tags: Arlene Phillips, ballet photography, Edward Watson, Friday Lates, In Conversation, Leanne Benjamin, Maggie Watson, Monica Mason, National Portrait Gallery, portraiture, Rick Guest, Sarah Crompton, Wayne McGregor |1 Comment
July 18, 2013
The Royal Ballet Dances Frederick Ashton, pre-recorded Summer Encore at Phoenix Picturehouse, 15 July 2013 – Maggie Watson reviews
Posted by susiecrow under reviews | Tags: Alexander Campbell, Frederick Ashton, La Valse, Leanne Benjamin, Maggie Watson, Marguerite and Armand, Meditation from Thaïs, Monotones, Phoenix Picturehouse Oxford, Sergei Polunin, Tamara Rojo, The Royal Ballet, Valeri Hristov, Voices of Spring, Yuhui Choe |Leave a Comment
The Royal Ballet’s summer season has drawn to a close, but on Monday we had the chance to see the company’s Frederick Ashton programme, recorded on the night of Tamara Rojo’s farewell performance in February.
The programme opened with La Valse, to music described by its composer Ravel as “a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz”. Originally choreographed by Ashton’s mentor Bronislava Nijinska, to a score that Diaghilev believed inimical to ballet, the sombre, slightly menacing, lighting obscured the dance too much and this did not work well in a cinema. (more…)
