Frederick Ashton Foundation with DANSOX present An Evening with Frederick Ashton at Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, 24th April 2024

An evening not to be missed, celebrating the great British ballet choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton: for the next Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX) event the Frederick Ashton Foundation presents an Ashton masterclass with dancers from the Royal Ballet introduced by Alastair Macaulay, and a screening of Lynne Wake’s film Frederick Ashton: Links in the Chain. The event will be followed by a Q&A and refreshments.

Date: Wednesday 24th April, 6.30-8.45pm

Venue: Jacqueline du Pré Music Building (St Hilda’s College), Cowley Place, Oxford OX4 1DY

Booking: Free of charge, but please book your place online via Eventbrite here

Find out more about the Frederick Ashton Foundation here

And about Dance Scholarship Oxford here

 

Sylvia: The Royal Ballet at Royal Opera House, Saturday matinées 2 & 16 December 2017 – Maggie Watson reviews

These two performances of Sylvia, Ashton’s flawed but lovely ballet, felt like Christmas presents in beautifully presented parcels, each containing completely different interpretations of the leading roles. I saw Lauren Cuthbertson and Reece Clarke as Sylvia and Aminta on 2 December, followed by Natalia Osipova and Vadim Muntagirov on December 16.

 

Royal Ballet Ashton triple bill, live transmission Phoenix Picturehouse 7th June 2017

Another live transmission of masterworks from the Royal Ballet‘s historic repertoire coming up shortly at Oxford’s Phoenix Picturehouse, essential viewing for ballet lovers.  This gorgeous mixed programme, part of celebrations of the company’s 70 years of residency at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, demonstrates the great creative vision of Frederick Ashton, Founder Choreographer of The Royal Ballet.  The Dream is Ashton’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s riotous comedy in which a forest sprite plays havoc, armed with a love potion.  Symphonic Variations was Ashton’s first work after World War II, and one of the Company’s first to be performed on the huge main stage of the Royal Opera House, in 1946. With six dancers performing a series of quartets, duets, sextets and solos to Cesar Franck’s brooding Variations symphoniques, this seminal masterpiece celebrates the pure beauty of movement.  Marguerite and Armand is Ashton’s beautiful and emotional retelling of a well-known story, familiar to us through Verdi’s opera La traviata.  Ashton famously created this poignant ballet on Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in 1963.

Date:  Wednesday 7th June 2017, 7.15pm

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

Tickets:  Adults £22, student or retired £17.50, child £10, family ticket for four £64

Book online here or call 0871 902 5736

This transmission will also be screened at The Vue Cinema, Kassam Stadium, details available here and at the Odeon Magdalen Street, details here

 

The Great Gatsby, Northern Ballet, Sadler’s Wells, 25th March 2015 – Susie Crow reviews

Northern Ballet has a longstanding repertoire tradition of narrative ballets, often based on iconic works of literature, and David Nixon’s 2013 realisation of Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has coincided happily with a wider audience’s hunger for the nostalgic glamour of this perennial classic generated by the film version starring Leonardo di Caprio.   This production returned this week to Sadler’s Wells following its first sell-out run and garlanded with award nominations. Having missed it the first time round I seized a last minute opportunity to catch up with this popular company’s doings.