Ian Macmillan

Essentially the same as the Telegraph: http://www.theartsdesk.com/dance/royal-ballet-star-shock-resignation http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/star-dancer-quits-royal-ballet/

The Telegraph article: http://www.telegraph...yal-Ballet.html

Alison: Further to your #15, you're absolutely right on the lack of filtering and, as a matter of course, we did not use the major search engines for the most part given the sheer volume of material generated by using "ballet" or "dance" as a keyword - you've picked on a typical example. The bulk of a daily search used a substantial library of newspaper/magazine titles covering most of the English-speaking world that had been accumulated by Bruce and the others over the years. That said, a quick look at Google at the end of a morning's search could reveal items that had been put up in the intervening hours, and it is not uncommon for Google to list articles many hours before they appear where they 'should' on a newspaper's Arts/Dance page. Why that should be so, I really don't know - there must be nooks and crannies in cyberspace known only to the Google bots.

Review: Mariinsky Ballet in Washington DC Chopiniana, Firebird, Scheherazade by Alastair Macaulay "With the Mariinsky, both “Firebird” and “Schéhérazade” are now mere kitsch: insincere romps to effective music, with appealing costumes. Only in the light “Chopiniana,” a dream of sylphs and a Romantic poet in a wood at night, does Fokine’s original company give his dance theater any substance." NY Times Preview: Ivan Putrov's "Men in Motion" at Sadler's Wells The venerated ballerina had better watch her step – a new programme at Sadler's Wells shows that men could be about to steal the limelight for good by Jessica Duchen Independent Coming to a theatre near you? Review: Moscow City Ballet's "Swan Lake" by Jeffery Taylor "The performance was red-blooded and desperately sincere and if a bit rough round the edges, all the better for it. This tragic tale with a feelgood heart tours the UK until March and is not to be missed." Express Reviews: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company - "Story/Time" by Claudia La Rocco NY Times and Robert Johnson Star-Ledger Reviews: Keely Garfield - "Twin Pines" by Deborah Jowitt "Watching a piece by Garfield can be like entering someone’s disheveled home at a bad time and wondering, “What’s been going on here?” Or like entering Garfield’s brilliantly unkempt head." Arts Journal and Gia Kourlas "Yoga and Zen practices have become an increasing presence in the work of Ms. Garfield, a British choreographer who has long made New York her home." NY Times Review: Company C Contemporary Ballet Vespers, Akimbo, Footage, A World to Come by Mary Ellen Hunt "…a peppy, agreeable program showcasing works by a few of the latter-day choreographers with whom the troupe has cultivated relationships over a decade of performing." SF Chronicle And then there's: How to apply ballet to everyday life by Leah Garchik SF Chronicle And as you can't ever have too much of Thomas Tallis' "Spem In Alium" Ottawa Citizen

Triple Bill: Torsion, Alpha, Void Cambridge Arts Theatre Saturday 21 January 2012 “What ain’t we got? We ain’t got dames!” I fear that the lament of the USN Seabees in “South Pacific” had come to mind by the end of Saturday night’s performance by BalletBoyz – the Talent. I accept that it was an unreasonable reaction, as I had known full well that I had gone to see a show featuring an all-male cast, the 8-strong troupe formed in 2010 by Michael Nunn and William Trevitt to provide a follow-on second generation to the highly successful Boyz themselves. The thing was that, by the end, the predominantly downbeat and narrative-free aesthetic was getting to me, and the show seemed to be going nowhere. By the final number, set initially somewhere on a London bus route, I found my mind straying to Ken MacMillan’s “Judas Tree” set on an East End all-male construction site, where the introduction of a single woman character drives the entire action. So, for me, there was something missing, but that did not appear to be a feeling shared by a sell-out audience that cheered all three dances to the echo, albeit I’d hazard a guess that the much of the sound was both youthful and female in origin. The Cambridge performances on Friday and Saturday were the first of the company’s 2012 UK and Europe tour, and the generic programme infers that the same three numbers will figure at each location. The company has been drawn from a variety of sources, some members having considerably more formal dance training than others, but what they all have in abundance is athletic ability and strength and these characteristics were very much on display in the first piece, Russell Maliphant’s “Torsion.” Originally a Nunn/Trevitt duet, this piece has been developed for six dancers who demonstrate some considerable skills in balance and partnering. I did not care for the white noise type of musical background, but applaud Michael Hulls’ lighting effects, particularly the complete blackouts achieved in the opening solo sequences. (See the Arts Desk Q&A feature with Hulls in last Saturday’s Links.) A short video with material seemingly from the open audition held to find ‘The Talent’ through to recent rehearsal footage paved the way for Paul Roberts’ “Alpha.” I regret to say that the whining voice of the young guitarist used on the background tape did nothing to endear the choreography to me and, from what I could make out from his lyrics, he is not a happy man. A pity, for once again the dancers worked hard, occasionally launching one of their number well up into the air, but there was an essential sameness in tone to the Maliphant piece. After the interval, the scene was set for Jarek Cemerek’s “Void” by another video sequence, very grainy and in black and white, following a group of youths, hoodies much in evidence, around an inner city landscape. The film stopped somewhere on a bus route and one dancer, hood up, emerged onto a smoky stage, to be followed by a group of colleagues. What followed was, I would say, the nearest to narrative style seen all night and once again with a nondescript musical background tape. A series of antagonistic encounters of the “You lookin’ at me?” type ensued until, eventually, the group appeared to attack the single chap. He fell to the floor and we then had a routine not unlike the extended death of Mercutio, but minus Prokofiev and with solitary snare-drum beats instead. The gang finally lost interest and dispersed, whereupon the victim rallied strength and recovered – but perhaps I saw it all wrong. The young men in the company have talent, beyond question, and it was evident on Saturday that they have found an audience. Yet I wonder how long they will remain happy with a diet of work of the kind seen then? And the addition to their number of, say, a couple of girls could open up all manner of alternative choreographic possibilities. I wish them all well and hope that they continue to impress and succeed as they have already done in their first year. It’s just that I think I would enjoy seeing them more if some increased variety were on offer. Wasn’t George Balanchine, generally adamant that he did not create narrative ballets, once quoted as saying that just putting a man and woman together on a stage created a story? Worth considering, I’d say, and better to watch.

Rudi van Dantzig obituary Choreographer of socially aware ballets who became a novelist by Judith Cruickshank Guardian NYCB Review: Who Cares? by Apollinaire Scherr "Balanchine’s take on the Gershwin songbook is expertly interpreted by New York City Ballet – but it lacks a crucial emotional depth" Financial Times NYCB Review: "All Robbins" program by Brian Seibert Includes a button (at end of title picture caption) to a 9-photo Slideshow. NY Times And possibly as a result of our departure from the formal Links scene???? Alltopics.com Offers Hottest News on Ballet Yahoo! News

To ease any withdrawal symptoms: Ballet takes its cue from earth, myth and sky by Matthew Westwood A short feature as dancers from Australian Ballet and Bangarra Dance Theatre begin work on their third collaboration - with an interesting view of Sydney Opera House! The Australian And arguably some better pictures at: Adelaide Now and Telegraph Troupe to travel Vertical Road without leader by Victor Swoboda Preview: Akram Khan's company go to Montreal this week without him - he has snapped an Achilles tendon. Montreal Gazette Molly Glentzer looks at Houston Ballet's very interesting looking 2012-13 Programme Houston Chronicle Oakland Ballet to delay spring program by Mary Ellen Hunt A deficit reduction decision after a disappointing "Nutcracker" season. SF Chronicle Luke Jennings (Observer) reviews: Hiroaki Umeda: Haptic and Holistic Strata Observer

John: A glorious and possibly record-breaking last blast! And compliments too to the shade of young Master Thribb for his characteristic encomium - his alter ego, the somewhat more senior Mr Fantoni would no doubt approve.

Much to my surprise, and subsequent delight, having just placed a standard URL link in a What's Happening thread, on pressing 'Post' the relevant YouTube screen appeared, all ready to go. Nice to know - and a little more learned about this package!

I should have added this link to my last post: It is, of course, something of a brief mash of clips from across the ballet, but there is enough to indicate that it is substantially different in style and approach from the Cranko/MacMillan/Nureyev conceptions. I've looked at it a number of times to keep alive my memory of what a powerful night's theatre it was to witness, and seeing Paula (Julia/Juliet) with that glass shard at the end still makes me wince.

I'm always tickled by the annual coverage of SFB's neo-baroque Opening Gala - and I can only add that, this year, the Chairwoman's dress looks well worth its own airline seat all the way from Barcelona, Spain! (Photo No 11.)

I'm sure Cathy Marston would happily nip across from Bern and put on her very different "Juliet and Romeo" for any new Director wanting a change! (How different? There's a clue in the title.) And she might even use more than 13 dancers if given the chance.

Anjuli, I entirely understand your rationale. Your further point is also a good one, well made - and it may well carry a message.....

Anjuli: For now at least, if you have anything to post, please use "What's Happening" as of old. And don't restrict yourself to critiques if something else of potential interest crosses your horizon. Without trying to anticipate what the outcome of the next 2 months' worth of pre-paid time for the Balletco Forum package will be, I suspect that as a regular user you will have observed that use of "What's Happening" and "News" has reduced appreciably over that last year or so. (There are some clues to the current situation in the Topics & Replies statistics on the Forum's frontpage.) It may be that former regular posters now find Twitter and/or Facebook more to their taste. Perhaps so, but if the current relevance of the forum to active users is limited, that fact is bound to weigh heavily on decisions concerning what can happen beyond 20th March. (Regular lurkers might like to consider this and perhaps become active users.) Beyond that, as I understand matters, this package is primarily designed to provide a community forum and I am not at all sure that a 'magazine' format would be compatible with that. I see under the "Pages' button that there exists a possibility to promote certain posts to 'Article' status, thereby conferring some additional significance on them, but I suspect it is not enabled at the moment.

I've been pondering a bit on a detail from Judith Mackrell's interview feature with Ivan Putrov and Sergei Polunin in the Guardian on Monday. The link is repeated here for reference: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/jan/15/ballet-men-step-out-shadows?CMP=twt_fd What has struck me was Ivan Putrov selecting Nijinsky in "Spectre de la Rose" as the key moment in the emergence of the male ballet dancer. I respect his judgement, of course, but I do find it strange for, growing up in the 1940s and 50s, images of Nijinsky in Diaghilev roles - the "exquisite, perfumed, hovering creature" described by Ms Mackrell - were just the sort of thing that caused me to dismiss ballet as being worthy of consideration, and I would have expected any male dancer post-Nureyev to have chosen him as their point of reference. As a matter of history, I could not deny Nijinsky's significance. However, in terms of an aesthetic that would be recognised today, and that has influenced expectations of contemporary male dancers, surely Nureyev is the better choice? That said, I will now retreat below the parapet and await reactions!

Others amongst you might have picked up that the Porsche car company has entered into a formal partnership with Stuttgart Ballet - apparently they already had a similar arrangement with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra - under a "Premium meets Premium" banner. I doubt that it means Boxters or Carreras all round for the dancers, but there's an announcement at: http://www.wheelsunp...px?newsid=12520 Now, I can think of Cartier having an Opening Night thing with the RB when the company launched its full 3-part "Jewels" a few years back, and ENB seems to get involved with fashion designers and the like from time to time, but I can't think of anything as seemingly permanent as this Porsche/Stuttgart deal. So, can the imaginative amongst you come up with other suitable pairings ... as international or outrageous as you like? (Bruce might approve of ENB with Morgan.)

Personal highlights: Zenaida Yanowsky's zany and totally over the top Queen of Hearts in "Alice" (with thanks to Chris Wheeldon for the choreography that enabled her to let rip). With her unblinking resignation a few years back as the Bride in "Les Noces" at one end of the dramatic spectrum and this performance at the other, her range of characterisation is truly impressive. It's good to see her name appear again in castings for later this year. (And a very honourable mention to Lauren Cuthbertson for her Alice - revisiting the ballet on TV and DVD has brought home to me just what a demanding work it must be for the main character, who is hardly offstage for any time at all in some 2 hours.) Cathy Marston's "Clara" during her Bern:Ballett company's visit to the Linbury in May - as ever with Cathy, a strong and distinctive piece, requiring some engagement by the audience. Clear Disappointment: Carlos Acosta's show (with Zenaida, I'm afraid) at the Coliseum - grindingly repetitive choreography in the name of some concept. I kept track in the first half by virtue of noting the number of named items and listening for changes in music - others around me were totally taken aback as the curtain fell and thought that it had all been one work.

Tuesday Links - 17 January 2012 The Boss: Personal Indulgences No. 21 A career in dance criticism by Tobi Tobias "Bill Como, Dance magazine’s editor in chief….rescued my maiden efforts from the pile of unsolicited manuscripts about to be returned to sender and said, “Have this girl come in and see me.”" Arts Journal NYCB Preview: Revisiting Romeo + Juliet Sterling Hyltin and Robert Fairchild return to the roles they originated in Peter Martins’ production by Terry Trucco "Looking back, Hytin and Fairchild marvel at the freedom Martins gave them in shaping their characters." Playbill REVIEW: Hofesh Shechter Survivor UK, London, Barbican by Sarah Frater "Survivor is not as theatrically coherent, and it often rambles, but it is surely a think-piece that will fuel further stage creations." Stage REVIEW: Twyla Tharp Sin City-charged revue 'Come Fly Away' does right by Ol' Blue Eyes Come Fly Away USA, Chicago, Bank of America Theatre Dancers: Dibble, Esquibel, Miles, Selya, Todorowski by Chris Jones "But for all the show's contrasts, there are few moments when the bodies of the dancers relax. There is nary a second when anyone admits defeat or even the chance to let down their guard." Chicago Tribune REVIEW: Ishmael Houston-Jones Wayward Children Of the ’80s American Realness Festival: Knife/Tape/Rope USA, New York, Abrons Arts Center Dancers: Pheiffer, Walsh by Brian Seibert "Yet the tongue-in-cheek framing of the work as a cautionary tale about the dangers of drugs and heavy metal only underlined the age of the material." New York Times REVIEW: Yvonne Meier Wayward Children Of the ’80s American Realness Festival: Mad Heidi USA, New York, Abrons Arts Center Dancers: Wexler by Brian Seibert "But each section was slack internally, one underdeveloped idea strung onto the next." New York Times REVIEW: Joseph Mills Brief flight before the fall of ‘Angels’ Questions About Angels USA, New York, Theater for the New City Dancers: Mills by Leigh Witchel "“Angels” has a few simple, lovely effects ......But there’s a lot of padding and the choreography is in one gear...." New York Post English National Ballet takes steps to help sufferers of Parkinson's by Rob Parsons "ENB hopes its Dance for Parkinson's scheme will improve patients' quality of life….The scheme has now been backed with £97,000 from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation which will see it expand from London to four satellite programmes across Britain." Companion video clip: BBC News And, for my last and final link, try this for a Firebird: NZ Herald

The Inside Out programme tonight (BBC 1, 7-30pm) will have an item on ENB dancers working with Roehampton University staff on helping Parkinson's sufferers. There's a sample at: http://www.bbc.co.uk...london-16573752

Monday Links - 16 January 2012 REVIEW: Royal Ballet A couple off-stage bring Latin blood and smells to the evergreen ballet classic Romeo and Juliet UK, London, Covent Garden Dancers: Cervera, Hamilton, Hristov, McGorian, McNally, Mendizabal, Nunez, Soares, Whitehead by Ismene Brown "While Nuñez is the finer stylist of the two, Soares is one of the most talented stage creatures the Royal Ballet has had for years, and the two of them danced it as if for the last time." The Arts Desk Ballet's men step out of the shadows No pointe shoes, more freedom and very big leaps… why men are having a moment by Judith Mackrell ""Over the last 100 years, there has been a transformation. Men are no longer just princes – they can be anything."" Guardian REVIEW: Hofesh Shechter 2 stars Survivor UK, London, Barbican by Richard Fairman "Given the combined talents of its two creators ...... Survivor offers thin pickings for a show that lasts almost an hour and a half." Financial Times San Francisco Ballet plays to its strengths in 2012 season Interview with Director, Helgi Tomasson by Mary Ellen Hunt ""There is no formula," he says tilting his head back after thinking for a moment, "there is really only gut instinct. I like taking chances on people, on new choreography and choreographers."" SF Chronicle Companion piece: San Francisco Ballet 2012 season at a glance Programs 1 - 8 SF Chronicle REVIEW: Parsons Dance Choreographer Parsons tames his wild impulses Round My World, Swing Shift, A Stray's Lullaby, Caught USA, New York, Joyce Theater Dancers: Bourne, D'Amario, MacDonald, Bloom, Ilisije by Robert Johnson "How wild is choreographer David Parsons? When his dancers leap onto the stage of the Joyce Theater, they have a breezy air." Newark Star Ledger REVIEW: Jennifer Lacey Trying to Divine the Future Despite a Few Limitations American Realness Festival: Gattica USA, New York, Abrons Arts Center Dancers: Lacey by Brian Seibert "Ms. Lacey created it for a festival in Vienna in 2008, but this version seemed perfectly matched to the family reunion, artists-performing-for-artists atmosphere of American Realness." New York Times Sydney Preview: "Beautiful Burnout" A melding of dance and drama reveals the beauty and brutality of a much-maligned sport by Elissa Blake "…Frantic Assembly's fighting-fit actors punch, skip, jump and dance through a fiercely aggressive show that lays out the beauty and the horrors of the sport." Sydney Morning Herald Sydney Preview: "Beautiful Burnout" Dance to music of boxing by Tim Douglas "Directors and choreographers Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett bring Lavery's work to life in a production that blurs the line between movement and method." The Australian

Sunday Links - 15 January 2012 Dennis Nahat removed as AD at Ballet San Jose A graceful transition still eludes the embattled company by Mary Ellen Hunt "Now, founder Dennis Nahat, whose future with the company had been in question, confirmed this week that he has received a letter from Executive Director Stephanie Ziesel removing him as artistic director." SF Chronicle REVIEW: Hofesh Shechter The spaciousness and daring are wonderful Survivor UK, London, Barbican by Kate Kellaway "It was for this reason alone that I tried not to lean too heavily on the title as a guide. Yet I was struck by one thing: Survivor is in the singular in what is an overpoweringly plural piece." Observer REVIEW: Royal Ballet Romeo and Juliet UK, London, Covent Garden Dancers: Acosta, Rojo by Jenny Gilbert "....Carlos Acosta (40 next birthday) and Tamara Rojo (known to be planning her next move), who together set the bar for later casts. Both are at their stupendous peak as the teenage lovers – no suspension of disbelief required." Independent REVIEW: Replica Dance Company Resolution! 2012: 414 UK, London, The Place Dancers: Bendell, Pickard by Luke Jennings ".... reworking of Brief Encounter covering ground that has long been trodden flat." Observer REVIEW: Ffin 2 Resolution! 2012: The Art of Riot UK, London, The Place by Luke Jennings "..... promised to say something about last year's disturbances, and then didn't. " Observer REVIEW: Eithne Kane and Dominick Mitchell Bennett Resolution! 2012: When Kane Met Conspicuous UK, London, The Place Dancers: Bennett, Kane by Luke Jennings "....won its audience over by dint of sheer gutsiness." Observer REVIEW: Twyla Tharp ‘Come Fly Away’ too over-the-top Come Fly Away USA, Chicago, Bank of America Theatre Dancers: Dibble, Esquibel, Miles, Molina, Selya, Todorowski, Burrell, Fitzgerald by Hedy Weiss ".... a revue masquerading as dance theater. Its greatest sin is that it wastes the talents of dancers with Olympian bodies and technique to spare, showcasing them only as fabulous but soulless machines." Chicago Sun-Times REVIEW: San Diego Dance Theater Intrepid San Diego Dance Theater kicks off 40th season Ruby Red Cabaret Dances Mixed Nuts, I Don't Want To Be There, One Among Many, By George/By Jean USA, San Diego, Neurosciences Institute Dancers: Barton, Burree, Carney, Diaz A, Isaacs-Nollet, McPherson by Kris Eitland "It is a sexy, intelligent, and darkly humorous production...." sandiego.com Alabama Preview: Dance Theatre of Harlem Program to welcome the curious by Lawrence F. Specker "Tuesday evening the ensemble will take a different approach for a show that is open to the public. But even though the balance of this later show puts more emphasis on performance, it’s still designed specifically to help newcomers appreciate what they’re seeing." Mobile Press-Register Film Review: "Pina" 3-D takes ‘Pina’ to perfection by Hedy Weiss "…Wenders has made what might very well be the most extraordinary dance film created to date. It is an astonishing, altogether masterful 3-D documentary…." Chicago Sun-Times Dancers improvise to survive in L.A. The area may not be the easiest place for professional artists to make a living, but the determined often work multiple jobs to make it happen. by Laura Bleiberg "So what makes a dancer come to and stay in L.A.? And what are their lives like? The dancers interviewed for this story moved here for various reasons. But they have stayed, quite simply, because they have found artistically stimulating opportunities here." LA Times Book Review: Joan Myers Brown & the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina by Brenda Dixon Gottschild A Biohistory of American Performance by Lewis Whittington "…about the visionary founder and artistic director of Philadanco, the internationally renowned dance troupe that is still going strong after 40 years and that embodies the spirit of Philadelphia." Philly.com

Saturday Links - 14 January 2012 Washington DC Preview: Mariinsky Ballet’s Fokine works History revisited by Sarah Kaufman "We may think of these works, well-known as they are, as omnipresent in the ballet world. But it has been nearly a quarter-century since “Chopiniana” was danced at the Kennedy Center, and more than 30 years since the Fokine “Firebird” (many others came after him) or “Scheherazade.”" Washington Post When will David Cameron make a song and dance about song and dance? The Week in Arts by David Lister "This isn't a little niche area. Dance is massively popular. But can you imagine the astonishment if Mr Cameron were to follow up his visit to Pinewood and his film speech with a visit to a Royal Ballet class at Covent Garden to hold forth on extending the repertoire?" Independent REVIEW: Hofesh Shechter An army of drummers cannot save this experiment between the choreographer-composer and the artist, which is let down by Shechter's score Survivor UK, London, Barbican by Judith Mackrell "It was the music critics, in the end, who were asked to write the official reviews of Survivor, Hofesh Shechter's collaboration with the artist Antony Gormley.....But Shechter's music, however powerfully intrinsic to his dance works, isn't strong enough to carry the full 75 minutes of the work. Nor does it impose a sufficiently taut structure.......Survivor does feel like a true and interesting experiment, one from which both its creators are likely to profit in subsequent work. But in its current form it's just a pot boiler – certainly not a reason for Shechter to give up the day job as one of his generation's most interesting creators of dance." Guardian REVIEW: Hofesh Shechter 3 stars Survivor UK, London, Barbican by Mark Monahan "What follows is a grand, sprawling, chaotic piece with some truly stunning sequences, a fair old bit of padding and a drizzle of pretension. ......In fairness to Shechter, he always insisted that Survivor would be more a beefed-up concert than a dance show. " Daily Telegraph REVIEW: Hofesh Shechter 2 stars Survivor UK, London, Barbican by John L Walters "His newest piece, Survivor, a 75-minute audiovisual work, is a collaboration with Antony Gormley, and is not so much dance as live art or minimalist "opera"." Guardian REVIEW: Royal Ballet 4 stars Romeo and Juliet UK, London, Covent Garden Dancers: Acosta, Avis, McGorian, Rojo, Stepanek by Louise Levene "Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta have been cast together as Shakespeare’s lovers for six years now, and while the fit is as perfect as ever, there’s something slightly ‘‘married’’ about the great pas de deux, which offered none of the grabby desperation one sees in the thrilling early days of a partnership." Sunday Telegraph REVIEW: English National Ballet Derek Deane and the ENB bring the swing to the London Coliseum very successfully Strictly Gershwin UK, London, Coliseum Dancers: Berlanga, Cao, Chalendard, Glurdjidze, Konvalina, Muntagirov, Streeter by Louise Levene "Deane’s routines may not be the ideal showcase for Zdenek Konvalina and Vadim Muntagirov, but these pedigree princes give a thoroughbred classical gloss to their material, and the jazz idiom obliges them to dance brighter, louder and sexier. Who really could ask for any more?" Sunday Telegraph Bolshoi administration steps into dancer scandal The Bolshoi’s director general refutes Tsiskaridze’s dismissal claim by Alina Lobzina "“No one is going to fire Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who was, and is, to remain Bolshoi Theatre’s soloist,” Iksanov told the news agency Itar-Tass. The discharge of Tsiskaridze’s pedagogical part-time contract was in order to give a full-time job to an instructor, he added." Moscow News REVIEW: Scottish Ballet The Sleeping Beauty UK, Edinburgh, Festival Theatre Dancers: Robertson by Josie Balfour "Bringing a meditative quality to the classic work, choreographer Ashley Page has focussed on melding a number of different tellings of the work into one evolving piece..... Thus the dancers take centre stage rather than Tchaikovsky’s often eccentric narrative." Scotsman REVIEW: Kate Weare In the Garden Focus Dance: Garden USA, New York, Joyce Theater Dancers: Gillespie, Kraus, Murphy, Wheeler by Deborah Jowitt "The dancing in Garden creates terrifyingly expressive, yet elusive images. Trying to interpret them is less important than soaking them up." Arts Journal REVIEW: Anneke Hansen Three Women Dancing youandyouandyou USA, New York, University Settlement Dancers: Hansen, Pierce, McAtamney by Deborah Jowitt "The three women move sensitively together, despite their individual qualities. Pierce, like Hansen, worked with Rudner at Sarah Lawrence, and is only slightly tauter than Hansen, while Irish, ballet-trained McAtamney is more introverted—a bit less at ease than the other two. I like watching all three." Arts Journal REVIEW: Ann Liv Young A Fairy Tale Princess Who Takes Bathroom Breaks Sleeping Beauty Part 1 USA, New York, Abrons Arts Center Dancers: Guerrero, Young, Van Dusen by Brian Seibert "....and after rising, sitting on the toilet again and drinking more water, Ms. Young went into a fervent lap dance for a blow-up Prince Charming doll tied to a seat in the front row.......And that was the show, followed by an opportunity to have your photograph taken with Sleeping Beauty for two bucks." New York Times REVIEW: Meg Stuart Forget About a Paper Moon: This Swan’s Cardboard Blessed USA, New York, New York Live Arts Dancers: Camacho, Hurtado, Nishiwaki by Claudia La Rocco "Ms. Stuart frequently plays with the oblique and the tedious, often with thoughtful results. But at a certain point on Thursday my experience shifted from feeling caught up within the poetic vagaries of a live work to constructing, from a remove, intellectual hypotheses about it." New York Times REVIEW: Contingency Plan The Contingency Plan's latest program shows off the troupe's versatility Las Tres Marias, Adhere Canada, Vancouver, Firehall Arts Centre Dancers: Goodman, Osborne, Fitzner by Janet Smith "And in the end, Adhere felt like a series of studies, an experiment in moods that was stronger in its lone bits than its final section of group work when it began to lose its simple, clear focus." Straight.com Preview: 7th Prague Ballet Gala Internationally renowned dancers pirouette into Prague by Johana Muckova "But Valdés is only one performer on the star-studded program; it is certain that the seventh annual Prague Ballet Gala will offer dance fans a great evening's entertainment." Prague Post

Each day we add the latest links to reviews and interviews that we find on the major newspaper web sites around the world. If you find a link that we have missed do please post it up, preferably as a URL link. Last week's thread: See last weeks and earlier links here: http://www.ballet.co...ry/todayslinks/ Bookmarking this page: Click on the following link and then bookmark the links page that comes back - it's a special URL that will always bring you to the thread with the latest reviews: http://www.ballet.co.uk/todayslinks Reviews Database The review links we find go in a database - we have many thousands of entries and you can search it on company, dance, dancer, reviewer, publication, theatre, city or a combination of all of them! Just fill-in the boxes here: http://www.ballet.co...h/db_search.cgi Non Working Links: Some papers move pieces on their websites so it is impossible to guarantee links. If you find a recent link that does not work and you have found a working version by all means post it up. And thank you! Registering with papers: It's an increasing fact of life that papers ask readers to register before letting them have free access to pieces. Usually registration is a one off process and then, providing you've ticked any obvious boxes, you should be remembered as a registered reader and the links we give should take you straight to the pieces. In registering for papers many people get themselves a Yahoo or Hotmail email account and thus protect their main email from any inadvertent problems. Seeing Pieces Behind a Pay-wall Some papers have introduced a pay-wall. We don't generally list pieces we can't freely see. However some of the papers will show the article for free if the reader visits the page by way of a Google search. If we can do this then we list, but alas cannot give a 2 stage link - only the link that works if you are a subscriber. If you are interested but not a subscriber then use the details we give to search Google and take it from there. And Finally... We should not need to state this but these links are for our readers' use and not for other websites to take and pass off as their own. We ask all visitors to respect Ballet.co's site and the way it operates.

Further to my last, 40 minutes have passed since the original posting and the Edit function no longer appears to be available - so a 30 minute time limit, perhaps?

When posting under Today's Links, I found that I could edit but only for a limited time, and I think that time may be quite short and certainly less than the 6 hours or so we had on the old Forum. And I note that the brief mention under one of the Help topics is not specific about this. Edited after a couple of minutes to add that the word 'Edit' (and "Report') appears on posting but is very faint until you hover the arrow over it, when it becomes perfectly legible.