Bizet’s Carmen Inspires Bourne’s Raunchiest Work I’ll be honest. The first time I saw Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man at its London premiere at the Old Vic in 2000, I disliked it intensely. Since then, Matthew Bourne’s tale of sex, sleaze, jealousy and murder among car mechanics in 1950s small-town America, very loosely inspired by […]
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare’s Globe
Flirting and Flamenco in a Bailar of the Sexes Why isn’t Love’s Labour’s Lost a better loved Shakespeare play? It borrows familiar components audiences know from other pieces – the disguises of Twelfth Night, the “play within a play” antics of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and plenty of romantic chicanery and silliness. Less frequently staged […]
The Royal Ballet School Performance
A Glowing Centenary Performance by the UK’s Premier Ballet School What a year 1926 was! It witnessed the births of Sir Peter Wright, dancer, choreographer and director extraordinaire, Glen Tetley, the American choreographer who first married classical ballet and contemporary dance, and (not forgetting naturalist and UK national treasure David Attenborough and Queen Elizabeth II) […]
Cross Current
Two American Dance Companies Share a Bill at the Place Two American contemporary dance companies that use movement as a vehicle to build community, Matthew Westerby Company and Ariel Rivka Dance, shared a bill for a one-off show at The Place entitled Cross Current. It marked the London debut of the former and the latter’s […]
Steps Toward Tomorrow
English National Ballet School Summer Performance 2026 There was plenty of talent on display in Steps Toward Tomorrow, English National Ballet School’s summer performance, presented at the small Bloomsbury Theatre. Steps Toward Tomorrow consisted of five tailor-made pieces, followed after the interval by Act III of The Sleeping Beauty in simplified form – a […]
Songs of the Bulbul, Aakash Odedra Company
An Ancient Sufi Story Brought to Life in Dance The bulbul, or nightingale, is a central figure in Persian culture, its bewitching song representing a spiritual seeker, yearning for union with the divine. It is, then, particularly troubling that the ancient Sufi myth of the bulbul tells of the bird’s increasing confinement, so that its […]
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 […]
London Children’s Ballet, Anne of Green Gables
Budding Ballet Dancers Charm and Delight Picture this: a hard-boiled critic, who has seen a lot of dance and over many years has been privileged to marvel at the talent of some of the greatest dancers in the world, sits in a darkened theatre with a goofy smile of sheer pleasure on her face. She […]
Phoenix Dance Theatre, Interplay
A Varied and Engaging Mixed Bill Funny, clever, engaging and thoroughly entertaining – Interplay, Phoenix Dance Theatre’s new mixed bill, brought a breath of metaphorical fresh air from its Leeds home to London’s Sadler’s Wells East (which, it’s only fair to point out, is itself delightfully air-conditioned). A mixed bill of works by international choreographers, […]
Acosta Danza Yunior – Next Generation
Carlos Acosta’s Young Dancers Strut Their Stuff Cuba remains, despite unimaginable deprivations, an extraordinary crucible for dance talent. Year after year, its dance schools turn out wave after wave of exceptional dancers, and by virtue of his international prestige, Carlos Acosta, Cuban ballet superstar, has the pick of the best. Acosta’s latest project is Acosta […]