Friday, February 7

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Carlos Acosta unveils his plans for Birmingham Royal Ballet.

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This will include the world premiere of a new duet for Acosta and Alessandra Ferri, choreographed by Goyo Montero, as well as Acosta’s production of Don Quixote.

The Guardian

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Acosta wanted the Birmingham job because “I felt the need to go back to my roots as a ballet dancer,” he says. “Ballet is my best friend. It was my refuge; it’s what I had when everything didn’t make sense. It was not just a job. I’ve been very privileged to perform with many companies and gain this wealth of knowledge that I want to pass on.”

The Daily Telegraph

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.......For Acosta, who retired from classical ballet in 2015, it’s the first role of this kind: he has signed up to run the company for five years, and has been in the job two weeks. Though the previous night’s production wasn’t part of his programme, he is intent on embracing the company as if it were a family, and has artful, ambitious plans....

 

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A review of New York City Ballet by Leigh Witchel for dancelog.nyc.

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On first glance, “Voices” felt strange and contradictory; a major departure for Ratmansky and utterly familiar. His works take time – usually around a year – to settle into form, and this one isn’t an exception. In some ways it was an analogue to Balanchine’s “Variations for a Door and a Sigh.” Ratmansky approached a non-traditional score with a similar note-for-step literalness. He used the piano as a road map and never strayed. Even though this music was not like anything else he’s used, he seemed more under the tyranny of the score than he’s ever been. And by inserting the men’s showy tricks to link the sections, he also wound up with something like an artsy cabaret act.

 

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A review of the National Ballet of Canada by Oksana Khadarina for DanceTabs.

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With her beautiful looks, innate artistry and solid technique, Ogden was a perfect fit for this technically demanding and highly theatrical role. The Canadian ballerina, who has been a principal since 2005, is well-known in Washington D.C. for her incisive interpretations of the leading roles in the works of George Balanchine – for many seasons, she was a star of the now defunct Suzanne Farrell Ballet. In the role of Aurora, Ogden demonstrated aplenty her excellent theatrical skills and her virtuosity as a classical dancer.

 

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Cathy Marston talks about the making of The Cellist.

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Instead, Marston has chosen to focus on Du Pré’s relationship with her cello. “I was drawn to the idea of this being a story of love and loss — not between two human beings, but between a person and an object.” She continues, “I also wanted to ask: if music had a spirit, how would that spirit feel, looking back on the relationship it had with a musician?” Accordingly, the score, by the composer Philip Feeney, features sections from Du Pré’s repertoire, with particular emphasis on her elevated relationship with Elgar’s Cello Concerto — a work now indelibly associated with her.