| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 31-Jan-2013 Barbican Theatre | Deborah Colker's Tatyana at the Barbican |
 There are at least three adaptations of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin being staged in London this month. With the Royal Opera House showing both John Cranko’s ballet and Tchaikovsky’s opera, the Barbican offers the most contemporary response: Deborah Colker’s Tatyana.
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| 16-Jan-2013 Southbank Centre: Purcell Room | London International Mime Festival: Circle of Eleven's Leo at the Southbank Centre |
 Leo is a gravity-defying solo directed by Daniel Brière and performed, in its most recent incarnation, by William Bonnet. The show is based around a single illusion: Bonnet’s live performance on one half of the stage is filmed, rotated ninety degrees and then projected back onto the other half. It’s like watching a tennis match as my eyes dart from side to side. On the left is the on-screen fascination of a gravity-less world. On the right is its concurrent “making-of”.Read full review... | |
| 19-Nov-2012 Sadler's Wells | Batsheva Ensemble: Deca Dance |
 Entering Sadler’s Wells theatre on Monday was like boarding a plane. Batsheva Ensemble’s UK tour has been plagued by protests and this performance was no exception with planted protesters disrupting the live performance using anti-Israel slogans. I intend to put the ugliness to one side and focus on the actual work.
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| 8-Nov-2012 Sadler's Wells | Rosas: Cesena at Sadler's Wells |
_Anne_Van_Aarschot8.jpg) Cesena is En Atendant’s more active counterpart. Whilst En Atendant, performed earlier in the week, was created to be performed at dusk; Cesena breaks in the day in more startling fashion. It was originally performed at Avignon’s medieval Palais des Papes at dawn, but is here shown at Sadler’s Wells at the more reasonable time of 7:30pm.
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| 5-Nov-2012 Sadler's Wells | Rosas: En Atendant at Sadler's Wells |
_Anne_Van_Aarschot1.jpg) En Atendant is rarely thrilling. It is slow and lacks obvious shape, choosing not to please its audience with clear climax and development. There are few major shifts of energy or scene as it remains calm and considered throughout, requiring patience from its viewers. Some certainly found it challenging, with many walking out, but it is not the most difficult work of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s career. It is densely packed, despite its tranquil exterior, with a fascinating array of patterns and combinations and some simple, beautiful dancing.
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| 11-Oct-2012 Sadler's Wells | Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet arrive in the UK |
 Here are a company of versatile dancers. In the course of an evening they shifted from the hunched choreography of Hofesh Shechter to the long-limbed legginess of Crystal Pite, and also funny man Alexander Ekman’s rhythmic and irrational use of the body. In their first UK visit, Cedar Lake bring buckets of American performing talent but borrow some more familiar European choreographic skills.Read full review... | |
| 2-Oct-2012 Sadler's Wells | Desh returns to Sadler's Wells |
 You may have seen Akram Khan recently at the Olympics, performing alongside Emeli Sande and some 50 dancers in his touching and often aggressive tribute to the victims of the 7/7 bombings. Or, for those of you tuning into NBC’s coverage, you will have been treated to an interview with Michael Phelps.Read full review... | |
| 28-Sep-2012 Sadler's Wells | Sasha Waltz and guests at Sadler's Wells: Continu |
 The first of Continu’s three distinct sections is a focused, musical study to Iannis Xenakis’ Rebonds B, a solo percussion piece performed live by Robyn Schulkowsky. Sasha Waltz animates the rhythms and patterns of the music, layering the individual movements of a group of dancers in irregular formations to build the complexity of the score. The dancers’ movements are angsty and staccato, occasionally receding into dervish-like whirls and punctuated by kathak-esque stamps.Read full review... | |
| 6-Sep-2012 Southbank Centre: Queen Elizabeth Hall | Candoco Unlimited at the Queen Elizabeth Hall |
 Candoco Unlimited is a varied and impressive offering from Britain’s foremost integrated dance company, set against the backdrop of the world’s largest celebration of disabled athleticism and physical achievement. Candoco Dance Company, after more than twenty years raising the profile of deaf and disabled dancers, covers new ground in commissioning the work of two disabled choreographers: Marc Brew, with his formal, technical Parallel Lines and Claire Cunningham, with the more theatrical 12.
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| 16-Jun-2012 Barbican Theatre | Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch at the Barbican |
 World Cities 2012 is a set of ten pieces created between 1986 and 2009, the year of Pina Bausch’s death. Each is a response to a different city on the globe. Ten Chi, just one chapter of this very alternative travel guide, marks time spent immersed in the day-to-day of Saitama, Japan.
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| 29-May-2012 Sadler's Wells: Lilian Baylis Studio | Noé Soulier at the Lilian Baylis Studio |
 Noé Soulier filled the first half of the evening with two pieces – Le Royaume des Ombres (“The Kingdom of Shades”) and D’un pays lointain (“From Another Land”) – both of which were experimental works, playing with and distorting the conventional construction of the ballet language.
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| 26-Apr-2012 The Place | Agnes and Walter: A Little Love Story |
 Spring Loaded is The Place's platform for not-yet-established choreographers and companies, and has been a stepping stone in the way to success for artists such as Matthew Bourne and Russell Maliphant. Smith Dancetheatre appear as part of this year's programme with Agnes and Walter: A Little Love Story, their debut production. It is loosely based on the short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber, in which Mitty's dead-end lifestyle is punctuated by a series of fantastical daydreams, of which he is the daring protagonist.
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| 20-Apr-2012 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | La Fille Mal Gardée at the Royal Opera House |
 Laugh-out-loud comedy is a rare find in dance, which usually elicits no more than a polite, awkward titter. However it is such comedy that is one of the chief merits of this ballet. La Fille Mal Gardée is as anxious to show off bad dancing as it is to show off the good, pleasing the audience with all manner of buffoonery.
The ballet’s opening gives me a childish thrill. A clutch of chickens and their pompous rooster-ringleader perform a joyfully inelegant dance, bobbing and flapping around. Thankfully they continue to appear throughout the evening.
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| 19-Apr-2012 Sadler's Wells | Artifact at Sadler's Wells |
 Even at the ripe old age of 28 Artifact looks as original as ever. William Forsythe’s reverent alteration of the ballet technique shows great understanding of both its history and its potential; whilst his sense for theatre gives the work a poignant and characterful edge beyond mere movement. Artifact has no clearly defined plot but instead winds its way through a vague, ambiguous structure which always hints at some profound truth that is just beyond reach. In reality such a meaning is left up to the viewer.
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| 13-Apr-2012 The Place | A Celebration of Bob Lockyer |
.jpg) A Celebration of Bob Lockyer was less a celebration of the man than of his work. Lockyer has had a full career ranging from producer of award-winning dance programmes at the BBC, to chair of Dance UK and South-East Dance. His lengthy career has earned him the accolade of “one of the great heroes of British dance”. It is right that the celebration of a man for whom commissioning new work has always been of great importance was not a nostalgic affair but a forward-looking evening of commissions by - mostly - young choreographers.Read full review... | |
| 15-Mar-2012 The London Coliseum | Birmingham Royal Ballet: Coppélia |
 Coppélia is one of the more light-hearted of the full-length classical ballets. Based very loosely on Hoffmann’s more macabre short story Der Sandmann, the plot revolves around the tempestuous relationship of its protagonists, Swanilda and Franz; and the work of the inventor Dr Coppélius, who is both brilliant and barmy. The events of the first two acts are set into motion when Dr Coppélius leaves his latest creation, an extraordinarily lifelike doll called Coppélia, out on his balcony.Read full review... | |
| 13-Mar-2012 The Place | Tavaziva Dance: Sensual Africa |
 The evening kicks off joyfully, first with a curtain-raiser courtesy of The Grey Coat Hospital School, who are one of the latest groups to benefit from Tavaziva Dance’s extensive community and youth work; then, as the main event begins, with a vibrant drum solo which elicits whooping and dancing in the audience. The lone percussionist, holding a steady pulse with his foot, overlays virtuosic and complex rhythms, earning himself several rounds of applause in the process.
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| 20-Feb-2012 Royal College of Music: Britten Theatre | Cage in Motion at the Royal College of Music |
 Upon his death in 2009, Merce Cunningham left behind a huge footprint in the contemporary dance world. A stalwart of the American scene with a career spanning over 70 years, he created in excess of 150 original works and facilitated more than 800 improvised events.
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| 7-Feb-2012 The Print Room | Jealousy at The Print Room |
 Alain Robbe-Grillet’s 1957 novel La Jalousie, or Jealousy (though it could also be translated to mean ‘Venetian blinds’), has received a new translation into the media of art and dance at The Print Room in Notting Hill. The small-scale theatre and arts space is relatively new, set up in 2010. Since then it has promoted itself as a multi-disciplinary space. This, its latest comission, stands steadily in line with this ethos.
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| 5-Feb-2012 Sadler's Wells | The Rodin Project at Sadler's Wells |
 The curtains open on The Rodin Project to reveal a large, irregularly shaped set draped in flowing white cloth. It hangs from the ceiling in icy sheets, reflective of the snowy landscape of the theatre’s exterior. Characters begin to emerge in the growing light, crawling and scampering slowly across the jagged stage. Clad only in shorts the men’s highly-sculpted bodies are exposed – Maliphant’s first nod to Rodin. The men occasionally show off their strength, which is certainly impressive, whilst the women do little else than lie or slink siren-like around the space.Read full review... | |
| 4-Feb-2012 Southbank Centre: Queen Elizabeth Hall | Richard Alston and National Dance Company of Wales join forces |
 Saturday’s one-off double bill saw new work from one of Britain’s best, Richard Alston, paired with American Stephen Petronio’s creation for the National Dance Company of Wales. The show comes as part of the biennial British Dance Edition, a showcase of the top talents in British dance. While most events are exclusive to promoters and producers certain key performances such as this one have been opened to the public.
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