Monday, March 13

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Obituaries for Lynn Seymour.

The Times

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Yet Seymour seemed always to be yearning to break free. In 1971 she portrayed a drug-crazed Janis Joplin for Alvin Ailey’s ballet Flowers, staggering on stage in a frumpy red dress and scruffy red wig while flashbulbs popped and a rock score blared.

Broadway World

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Born on 8 March 1939, she took her first dance lessons in Vancouver and went on to complete her dance studies in London, where she soon joined the Touring Royal Ballet. Her singular talents, rare expressive abilities, and masterful acting -all combined with her flawless technique- would quickly see her carve out an extraordinary career, both within the UK and beyond.

 

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A review of Tiler Peck's new show by Louise Levene in The Financial Times.

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Turn It Out was a quadruple bill curated and part-choreographed by Peck herself and featuring 12 dancers, including tap choreographer Michelle Dorrance. The “and friends” format can sometimes feel like so much parsley round the salmon (as a critic once complained of Nureyev), but Peck’s associates were all first-rate and the star herself danced three of the four numbers in an almost superhuman display of stamina and technique.

 

[dirac]

 A review of Houston Ballet by Molly Glentzer in The Houston Chronicle.

Quote

The sex vs. saintliness theme of Tennessee Williams’ “Summer and Smoke” probably resonates differently now than it did when the play premiered in the mid-20th century, no matter who is telling it. 

In her new version for Houston Ballet, the celebrated British choreographer Cathy Marston gently filters Williams’ narrative through a contemporary feminist lens that feels provocative at a time when conservative ideologues appear to be winning their war against women who want the right to control their bodies.....

 

[dirac]

A review of Northern Ballet in "The Great Gatsby" by Louise Levene in The Financial Times.

Quote

The corps de ballet, looking keen and sharp under new director Federico Bonelli, are given logical pretexts for some serious dancing (and singing) in the gin-crazed party scenes with a nifty variation for scene-stealing new boy Jun Ishii in the white tie Charleston. The score, a jazzy patchwork of Richard Rodney Bennett and 1920s popular song, is played by the Northern Ballet Sinfonia in dance band mode under Daniel Parkinson’s frisky baton.