1,004 stories by "Judith Mackrell"
Coliseum, LondonEnglish National Ballet has had Suite en Blanc in its repertory for nearly 50 years, and yet by some odd act of omission it hasn't performed this treasure of a work …
Phoenix Dance Theatre, On tourA company that started out as a few aspiring male dancers from Leeds now celebrates 30 years of near-continuous stage life. Despite having undergone several rad…
This year's 'achievement in dance' award managed to pass without a single dancer being honoured. Why does dance put up with playing the Cinderella among art forms?Do prizes matter? After the…
Pet Shop Boys & Javier De Frutos: The Most Incredible Thing, LondonNeil Tennant and Chris Lowe have released 10 albums, collaborated with artists as varied as Derek Jarman and Sam Taylor-Woo…
Pet Shop Boys and dance maverick Javier de Frutos have turned a Hans Christian Andersen story into a ballet. How did the moon landings end up in there?Javier de Frutos and Neil Tennant are o…
Linbury Studio TheatreHenri Oguike has always been brave in his musical choices, but with one of his latest works, Butterfly Dreaming, he displays a streak of wildness.Tan Dun's score, …
Les Ballets Trockadero De Monte Carlo, On tourThe wonderful Trocks are back on UK soil " taking their inimitable brand of classicism, camp and comedy on a nationwide tour. As always, their r…
Sadler's Wells, LondonThe Centaur and the Animal may not be an ideal way for the horsier elements of the British public to get their first introduction to Bartabas and his equestrian theatre…
Royal Opera HouseChristopher Wheeldon must have had moments when he identified strongly with the heroine of his latest work, given the chatter surrounding its creation. Alice is the first fu…
Grand, LeedsAnyone trying to put a version of Cleopatra on stage has the shadow of Shakespeare to contend with. Antony and Cleopatra still ranks as theatre's most extravagantly poetic lovers…
Northern Ballet Theatre: CleopatraFor choreographers of story ballets, finding that all-important accessible title or familiar score is a constant challenge. David Nixon has, in recent yea…
Sadler's Wells, LondonThe idea of turning 60 brought William Forsythe a small but shocking recognition of his own mortality. Yet the work he choreographed in response was neither powere…
Sadler's Wells, LondonEva Yerbabuena is a visionary, magisterial dancer, whose effects go far beyond technique. The stark, angular shapes of her arms are electric with emotion; long percussi…
The Forsythe Company: I Don't Believe In Outer Space, LondonThese days, it's always difficult to predict what a new work by William Forsythe will look like. After making his mark on the 21st…
Cambridge JunctionMaresa von Stockert has a choreographic sensibility that's all her own, a mix of intellectual and sensory scrupulousness that makes her work strikingly original. In Masquer…
State Of Emergency: Desert Crossings, On tourUK production company State Of Emergency has a fine record of commissioning new original works that engage artists of the African diaspora from a…
Linbury Studio theatre, LondonBallet Black deserve to celebrate as they stage their 10th-anniversary programme. This small, determined company have not only carved out a much-needed niche fo…
Royal Ballet: Swan Lake, LondonSwan Lake has been central to the Royal repertory, ever since the company was the fledgling Vic-Wells Ballet and could barely muster a full-size corps. Its cur…
Sadler's Wells, LondonAntony Tudor was a British original, choreographing his early ballets with a rare and lethally observational eye. But in 1939, Tudor left for the US, and it's now ABT w…
Sadler's Wells, LondonIt was, ironically, an exiled Russian, Mikhail Mordkin, who laid the foundations for the American Ballet Theatre's launch. Fifty-one years later, it's another Russian, …
Jerwood Dance House, IpswichLuca Silvestrini is the sharpest of comic choreographers; his satires on the shallowness and obsessions of the modern world were wickedly honed in works such as B…
American Ballet Theatre, LondonAmerica's national ballet theatre brings a rich mix of one-act ballets to London, showing off their distinctive repertory of 20th and 21st-century work. The fi…
Lilian Baylis theatre, LondonMy thesaurus has nearly 40 synonyms and slang variants listed under the entry for laugh. But in the light of Antonia Baehr's mad and brilliant show about laughte…
He's a major choreographic force in Scandinavia, but Danish Dance Theatre's Brummie artistic director is little-known over here. He talks to Judith Mackrell about his struggle for acceptance…
He shook up the Bolshoi. Now Alexei Ratmansky is shaking up American Ballet Theatre. The unstoppable choreographer talks to Judith MackrellTwo years ago, Alexei Ratmansky was 40 years old " …
