An Emotion-Free Production of the Timeless Classic Here’s the good news: true love comprehensively defeated evil, the sorcerer Von Rothbart is dead, and Prince Siegfried and his beloved Princess Odette, freed from her cursed life as a swan, are poised to live happily ever after. And there’s more good news in the current iteration of […]
London Dance Previews – July to December 2026
The Very Best of Dance to Look Forward To From Summer specials all the way to Christmas staples, the coming semester brings an abundance of dance, both national and international, to London. What follows is not an exhaustive list, but rather a selection of highlights – the shows that stand out from the crowd. Royal […]
The Sleeping Beauty, English National Ballet
ENB’s Signature Classic Debuts at the Royal Albert Hall ==== The Sleeping Beauty will be screened in cinemas nationwide 13 – 18 October. To find a participating cinema near you and buy tickets click here ==== Kenneth MacMillan’s The Sleeping Beauty, entrusted in the UK to English National Ballet (ENB), is a glorious spectacle full […]
Next Generation Festival #2
Junior Company of Polish National Ballet joins Rambert School at the Linbury I don’t know whose idea it was to pair off students of Rambert School of Contemporary Dance and the Junior Company of The Polish National Ballet, for the fifth programme of Next Generation Festival 2026 at the Linbury Theatre. On paper, they were […]
Staging The Sleeping Beauty at the RAH
English National Ballet Director Aaron S Watkin Interview The Sleeping Beauty is one of the best-loved 19th-century classical ballets still in repertoire around the world. The Charles Perrault fairy tale about a Princess who is fated to sleep for 100 years until true love awakens her had its first ballet incarnation in imperial Russia, where […]
20th Century Masterpieces
Birmingham Royal Ballet Honours Three Choreographic Giants Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) ends its season on a high with a compact series of performances of a demanding triple bill entitled 20th Century Masterpieces. The weekend performances follow a one-off gala marking the 100th year of Director Laureate Sir Peter Wright, the man who steered the company’s […]
Ballet Black at 25 – Linbury Theatre, RBO
A striking double bill with a South African pedigree from Europe’s first black professional neoclassical ballet company, celebrating their 25th anniversary Dance is one of the most primal human urges, born out of a combination of raw emotion, atavistic response to rhythmic sounds and the urge of a community to move as one. There is […]
UK/Brazil Season of Culture Highlights
Promoting greater mutual understanding Mention Brazilian culture in the UK, and most people should be able to come up with, at the very least, samba, ‘The Girl from Ipanema” and extravagant Carnival parades. Oh, and Pelé, of course. I’m not sure what a counterpart inquiry in Brazil would yield. I hazard a guess at […]
Giselle – Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House – Review
In The Royal Ballet’s latest revival of Giselle, the dancing makes this performance unforgettable. Giselle is all about the dance. The eponymous heroine is in love and dances her way through the first act with youthful exuberance and through the second with devoted passion, with one male lead dancing himself to death and the other […]
Like Water for Chocolate Preview
The first reprise of Like Water for Chocolate since its 2022 premiere will bring back the original cast, as well as interesting debuts. Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sambé, return in the roles of Tita and Pedro, which they originated; Anna Rose O’Sullivan will alternate in the roles of Gertrudis, which she made very much her own with a rip-roaring performance in the first run, and her debut as Tita. Mayara Magri, a bit underwritten as the original Rosaura, will also get a turn at Tita, as will the promising First Artist Ella Newton Severgnini.