Wednesday, July 1

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A review of the Royal Opera House and Royal Ballet's third concert by Jann Parry for DanceTabs.

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Magri and Ball revealed that they’d had just five days to learn the pas de deux from Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, having never performed it before. It is one of four contrasting duets in an abstract ballet created for San Francisco ballet in 2008 and later performed by the Royal Ballet in diaphanous costumes designed by Jasper Conran. Here the pas de deux was danced in simple practice dress, with Ball bare chested. The performance was dedicated to the Italian composer, Ezio Bosso, who wrote most of the score for Within the Golden Hour and who died in May this year, aged just 48.

 

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A look at the potential consequences for companies of "Nutcracker" cancellations by Sarah L. Kaufman in The Washington Post.

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Yet the scrapped “Nutcrackers” are not just any performances. With its festive, recognizable Tchaikovsky music, nostalgic vision of family togetherness at Christmas, and broad appeal to all ages, “The Nutcracker” is generally the only ballet that makes money for a company. Its ticket sales dwarf those of other productions. This ballet alone can help keep a company afloat, its multiple weeks of revenue funding the year’s less-marketable and more adventurous works.

 

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A review of Smuin Contemporary Ballet by Heather Desaulniers for DanceTabs.

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Indigo is one of those dances that doesn’t seem totally abstract, yet doesn’t follow a linear path either. It’s more about concept and emotions. Layers and extremes. Just like the color indigo itself. Of course, we all know indigo as one of the seven components of the rainbow. But if you read more about the color, you discover that indigo’s hue is vastly complex, combining clarity, depth, vivacity, coolness, regality and more. From its opening moments through its internal chapters to the final blackout, Welch imbued Indigo with similar choreographic breadth and range. Staccato port de bras and mechanized upper body motions. Sweeping romantic spins and lifts. Courtly pas de basques. Whimsical flutters of the wrists, toes and torso. It all fit together beautifully – not a step felt out of place.