Monday, November 8

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A review of Pacific Northwest Ballet by Moira Macdonald in The Seattle Times.

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Sometimes, a work of art comes along at just the right moment. At Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “Beyond Ballet” Friday night, that work was Ulysses Dove’s “Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven,” a ballet as heartbreakingly beautiful as its name. It’s not a new work — Dove, an acclaimed choreographer who died of AIDS in 1996, created it in 1993 as a response to profound loss, and PNB has previously performed it — but it seems newly poignant at this time, when so many of us have faced grief and struggle. Six dancers, looking like ballet angels in white unitards, move in and out of white spotlights. Bells toll — a welcoming? a farewell? — and Arvo Pärt’s music, played by the PNB Orchestra, shimmers expectantly, as if a celestial curtain is about to lift.

 

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A review of the Royal Ballet by Louise Levene in The Financial Times.

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In January 2021 Reece Clarke was a last minute partner for Osipova in John Cranko’s Onegin — the acid test of ballet partnering — but this night proved that the 26-year-old Scottish first soloist is much more than a safe pair of hands. His height (6ft 3), good looks and instinctive air of entitlement mark him out as an aristocrat among the bustling peasantry but Clarke doesn’t merely stand about shooting his cuffs (as Albrechts so often do). His clear, unhurried mime is all but audible and his manners are carefully calibrated, the ardour and hauteur of the opening flirtations congealing into despair and self-loathing during Osipova’s heart-rending mad scene.

 

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A review of Cape Town City Ballet by Lindsay Kruger for Broadway World.

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ALCHEMY's first work is George Balanchine's dynamic and iconic Concerto Barocco. As the starting piece, the plotless Concerto Barocco is high energy but also elegant. I was skeptical when reading that Concerto Barocco was an invitation to "see the music", but the meaning of this is soon realized. Set to Bach's Concerto for Two Violins, the corps de ballet was particularly unified throughout this performance and provided a graceful support for First and Second Violin. First Violin Tamlyn Higgins appears light and moves seamlessly onstage, making her movements fluid. Having last seen Second Violin Leané Theunissen in the title role in CARMEN last month, she brings a finesse with her to this piece that follows her throughout her dancing. Overall, Concerto Barocco was a well-chosen and masterful beginning to the ALCHEMY programme.