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[dirac]

Reviews of the Royal Ballet.

The Financial Times

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The programme is a fascination, even if its two novelties are second-hand: Liam Scarlett made his Viscera for the Miami City Ballet last year, using Lowell Liebermann’s piano concerto as score; Christopher Wheeldon created his Fool’s Paradise for his Morphoses troupe in 2007 to Joby Talbot music. But both are sprung from the Royal Ballet’s ethos, and both speak to the company’s dancers and to the company’s identity. They are at home on the Royal Opera House stage. The third part of the evening is Wayne McGregor’s Infra, which strikes me as entirely alien. Its cast is splendid, albeit deformed by McGregor’s manner.

The Guardian

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We're lucky to be here at the start of Scarlett's career. Even luckier that Scarlett is not the only in-house choreographer: the progamme's Wayne McGregor and Christopher Wheeldon have equally strong ties with the company. The centrepiece is a revival of McGregor's Infra, which looks better with every viewing. Perhaps it is because the extremes of McGregor's language – its startling dislocations and eerie fluency – have become secondnature to the dancers. Certainly Infra's narrative subtext, with its sad, angry, anxious vignettes of urban life, reads with a haunting legibility.

[dirac]

A story on Liam Scarlett'sappointment as artist in residence at the Royal.

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Elsewhere at the Royal Ballet, Mayuri Boonham and Alexander Whitley have been named as choreographic affiliates until 2014. They will produce work for the Linbury Studio alongside choreographic apprentice Robert Binet.

The Royal Ballet has also launched a bursary for young choreographers, which will be available for the next three years.

[dirac]

City Ballet of San Diego opens its twentieth season.

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City Ballet directors Steven and Elizabeth Wistrich decided to take a chance on the relatively inexperienced dance maker, and he “surpassed all of our expectations,” Steven Wistrich says. “I think a choreographic star is born here. I had the same feeling watching his work as I had when Jiri Kylian (now internationally known) first started choreographing at the Stuttgart Ballet.”

[Geoffrey] Gonzalez’s “Infinitus Terminus” is a contemporary piece in which, he says, he wants the 11 cast members “to go out there and absolutely fill the stage with everything they have. … I did a preview at our 20th anniversary gala, and a lot of people told me that I freed the beast when it comes to my dancers.”

[dirac]

A review of Pacific Northwest Ballet by Alice Kaderlan for Crosscut.

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...........On Saturday night, Carrie Imler and James Moore led PNB's talented troupe through a series of geometric patterns that showcased Morris' flair for sharp, angular movement. But the three other world premieres on the program, all by PNB dancers, justifiably generated far more enthusiasm. For all its technical proficiency, Kammermusik No. 3 is devoid of emotion, lacking Morris' hallmark humanity; in the end it's a series of well-executed steps but without visceral effect. Whether this was Morris' intent — the desire to create a "pure movement" ballet — or a lack of simpatico between him and the PNB dancers is hard to know; what is clear is that Kammermusik No. 3 is unlikely to be considered a standout in the Morris canon.

[dirac]

A review of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 'Moulin Rouge - the Ballet' by Sid Smith in The Chicago Tribune.

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There are modest aspects to both the company and this ballet. Some scenes are a bit sleepy, especially those staged in front of the inner curtain to allow for set changes, and there are times Morris' imagination flags. The fantasy episodes involving a green fairy during an absinthe binge were less than stellar — just as earlier, when Matthew, the artist hero, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, square off in a contest painting the same model, with choreographic results that are ho-hum.

[dirac]

Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre performs this week.

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The seven-piece concert features a variety of styles from contemporary to ballet. The dances are choreographed by Alabama faculty members Cornelius Carter, Rita Snyder, Sarah Berry, Ping Guo and John Virciglio.

Some previous ARDT alumni have gone on to become professional dancers after graduating.

[dirac]

A review of Pacific Northwest Ballet by Alastair Macaulay in The New York Times.

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What’s more, Mr. Morris’s choice of music, Hindemith’s “Kammermusik No. 3,” is a vehicle for a local cellist, Page Smith, not only a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra but also a friend of Mr. Morris’s from their school days. Mr. Bartee’s “arms that work” is to a commissioned score by Barret Anspach, a Washington State composer whose sister, Jessika Anspach, dances in the company. Although none of these four ballets are masterpieces, all are very watchable and skillfully made. The bill gives the Seattle audience four quite different faces of the art of choreography, all of them intelligent and absorbing.