From a show inspired by zero gravity to a troupe making work in the world's most polluted city, this Italian festival shows an urgent new side to Russian danceItaly may have struggled to est…
Ethan Stiefel is a giant of US ballet. He tells Judith Mackrell why he's leaving the bustling Big Apple for a place with 4m people and 70m sheepThe capital of New Zealand was once thought of…
Hofesh Schechter: Political Mother " The Choreographer's Cut, LondonHofesh Shechter may be one of the UK's most serious dance creators but he also knows how to sell his material hard. Back i…
Sadler's Wells, LondonAt 46, Sylvie Guillem may have abandoned her former ballerina roles, but she is still one of the most astonishing dancers on stage today. Even though the youthful gloss…
Sylvie Guillem: 6000 Miles Away, LondonEver since Sylvie Guillem retired from the Royal Ballet stage, UK audiences have watched her reinvention through an extraordinary series of collaborati…
Sadler's Wells, LondonThe dance stage has seen few more fascinating casts than the transvestite and transsexual cabaret artists who perform in Gardenia, Alain Platel's latest work for Ballet…
Rex Levitates Dance Company: Fast Portraits, DublinLiz Roche is an artist with a serious track record in experimental work having performed with Rosemary Butcher, Jodi Melnick and others. Sh…
Sadlers Wells, LondonSol Picó, the Catalan dancer and choreographer, is 44, and El Llac de les Mosques (The Lake of Flies) is a tribute to her own mid-life crisis. At Sadler's Wells on Th…
On a short trip to the US, I found NYC stuffed to the gills with foreign ballet " plus a theatrical fashion show from the late Alexander McQueenThe spring"summer ballet season is always busy…
Hofesh Schechter Company: In Good Company, LondonThe dancers in Hofesh Shechter's company are excellent performers but they're also closely involved in the creation of their choreographer's …
Swan, High WycombeMaybe there is more to a name than PR. The mid-scale Welsh company formerly known as Diversions has significantly raised its ambitions since vamping up its title. Not only …
The Royal Ballet's decision to shun glitzier candidates in favour of O'Hare is sensible, as he arrives to his new post of director without any artistic ego"We have to talk about Kevin" is th…
English National Ballet: Strictly Gershwin, LondonWhile the Royal Ballet aims to fill 10,000 seats at the O2, English National Ballet is vamping the Albert Hall with Derek Dean's Strictly Ge…
Royal Albert Hall, LondonWhen Strictly Gershwin was premiered three years ago, it had the feel of a one-off novelty, a neat alternative to the arena-scaled classics with which English Nation…
Tate Modern, LondonMichael Clark's latest work was created for the vaulting industrial space of Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. It is a venue that can easily swallow up a choreographer (hence th…
Judith Mackrell picks her favourite extracts from the Seeing, Doing, Knowing project, which invited primary school children to review a dance showNiamh Forde, Catton Grove Primary School, No…
An invitation to discuss dance criticism with a group of primary school children left me reeling " but impressedRead extracts from the reviews hereI'm used to giving lectures on dance critic…
The Place, LondonFrauke Requardt's latest work Episode is simultaneously one of the most controlled and most violently bizarre dance events I've reviewed in a long time.It's an odyssey …
Nats Nus Dansa: Momentari, LondonChildren's dance-theatre is emerging as one of the more interesting new genres, moving a long way from the staple fare of the Nutcracker and the Snowman. In …
Sadler's Wells, LondonAs promised, the nudity in Dave St-Pierre's Tendresse is, literally, in your face. The evening has scarcely begun before a group of blonde-wigged naked men are scamperi…
What's it like to dance naked on stage? And how does it feel if the audience walk out? Seasoned nude performers talk to Judith MackrellWhen Sally Marie was told she had to strip off in the n…
Royal Opera House, LondonAshton's Scènes de Ballet comes as close to perfect as any ballet I know. Its choreographic patterns evolve with a miraculous, skin-prickling precision, and underly…
'After so many years, this theatre has become my life, it's almost family'Monica Mason was 20 and still a very junior member of the Royal Ballet when she was presented with one of the defin…
Dave St-Pierre: Un peu de tendresse bordel de merde!, LondonCanadian choreographer Dave St-Pierre has acquired a degree of notoriety: not only for the physical extremes to which he has pushe…
Linbury Studio Theatre, LondonTo say Cathy Marston runs Bern:Ballett with a fearless spirit is only half a compliment. The work she programmes is serious, impassioned and different " resisti…