Category Archives: Ballet

Pulsating and poetic: Akram Khan’s terrific Giselle returns to Sadler’s Wells

Posted on September 21, 2017 by Mark Pullinger

Giselle ***** English National Ballet, Sadler’s Wells, 20th September 2017 Giselle’s tale of love, betrayal and redemption has been entrancing audiences since 1841, but in Akram Khan’s version for English National Ballet, now receiving a pulsating first revival at Sadler’s Wells, Marius … Continue reading →

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Tolstoy speed read: Ratmansky’s Anna Karenina with the Mariinsky Ballet

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Mark Pullinger

Shchedrin: Anna Karenina *** Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera House, 3rd August 2017 How does one condense a Tolstoy epic for the stage? Prokofiev squeezed War and Peace down to a four hour opera, although it still contains some 70 named characters in … Continue reading →

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Tereshkina and Kim add fire to the Mariinsky Ballet’s dusty Don Quixote

Posted on July 25, 2017 by Mark Pullinger

Minkus: Don Quixote *** Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera House, 24th July 2017 The fireworks – when they came – were explosive, Viktoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim igniting the Royal Opera House stage in a frenzy of effervescent footwork. Tereshkina whipped out her fouettés and Kim’s double tours … Continue reading →

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Poisoned with absinthe: Ravel dances with death at the Garnier

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Mark Pullinger

Ravel: La Valse; En Sol; Boléro Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris, Palais Garnier, 17th May 2017 The spectre of death loomed large over this Ravel triple bill at the Palais Garnier. Erich Kleiber once described La Valse as “poisoned with absinthe”, an … Continue reading →

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From libertine to Enlightenment Man: Casanova’s life charted in Kenneth Tindall’s whirlwind biographical ballet

Posted on May 10, 2017 by Mark Pullinger

Northern Ballet: Casanova Sadler’s Wells, 9th May 2017 Debauchery, political intrigue, illicit liaisons… but enough about Islington on a Tuesday evening and on to Sadler’s Wells for Casanova, Kenneth Tindall’s first full length ballet on the final week of its … Continue reading →

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