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"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery

Up to date announcements of company seasons, featured artists and special programming as well as grant of awards such as Princess Grace, or artistic appointments

The Guardian Praises an Inclusive Company – and Its Female Programming – Birmingham Royal Ballet Continues To Shine

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Birmingham Royal Ballet: Unleashed review – ravishing risk-taking

By Laura Joffre

16 June 2019

We are used to seeing Birmingham Royal Ballet in traditional classical productions, in which they always excel. But this mixed bill sees the company in a more contemporary mode, experimenting with distinctive styles in pieces by three female choreographers.

Jessica Lang’s Lyric Pieces, created for the company in 2012, illustrates Edvard Grieg’s piano suites with pure classical ballet. It is not the most innovative work, but harmonious ensembles and flawless dancing, particularly from elegant Yvette Knight and sharp and precise Maureya Lebowitz, raise the overall effect.

Read the full review in The Guardian.

Chicago Tribune: Review: ‘Internal Geometry’ by Natya Dance Theatre is hardly radical but has women telling the story

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By Lauren Warnecke

15 June 2019

Perhaps I’ll start at the end. In the post-performance Q&A for “The Internal Geometry,” a world premiere by Natya Dance Theatre at Links Hall, artistic director Hema Rajagopalan spoke about the origins of Bharatanatyam. The traditional South Indian dance began in the temples as an artistic language imparted by the gods to communicate the scriptures though rhythm, expression and drama. It’s a tradition spanning 3,000 years, often used to depict stories steeped in Hindu mythology and part of many children’s cultural and spiritual upbringing.

It is a relatively new development that Bharatanatyam is performed in concert dance venues. And while Western audiences generally get that dance can be equally entertaining and enlightening, this is often less true about dance forms whose cultural origins lie outside the French courts.

So, while audience members (like this critic) unfamiliar with Hindu mythology or the meanings of each hand gesture or shift of the eyes in Bharatanatyam might be there to simply soak in the intoxicating physicality and mesmerizing rhythms of this extraordinary dance form, Rajagopalan reminded us that the goal isn’t entertainment, but “Rasa,” the spiritual enlightenment of the viewer and a deeper connectivity to the gods.

This is perhaps why transitions between the vignettes of “The Internal Geometry” are narrated on a gargled microphone from Rajagopalan’s perch in Links Hall’s light booth, and indeed, Natya often includes English translations or explanations of the stories to appeal to a wide audience. “The Internal Geometry” is a pared-down presentation, with recorded music and a few simple light cues, uncharacteristic for Natya, but typical of most things in Links Hall’s white box theater. Even the dancers were just a bit less adorned than usual, “The Internal Geometry’s” six women wearing relatively simple traditional costumes with characteristic make-up and ankle bells, plus a few personalized necklaces and bracelets.

Read the full article in The Chicago Tribune.

The Guardian: English National Ballet: She Persisted review – odes to Frida, Pina and Nora

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By Lyndsey Winship

5 April 2019

In 2016, English National Ballet director Tamara Rojo took a stand with She Said, a programme of all-female choreographers. She Persisted reassures us that Rojo is serious about showcasing women’s work, and it appears in a landscape that already shows signs of cultural shift.

This time there’s only one new work, by Stina Quagebeur, a dancer Rojo is nurturing from within ENB’s ranks. Nora is a stripped-back version of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, intended to illustrate the eponymous heroine’s emotional journey. It gets caught up tussling with the plot over Nora’s loan (various bits of paper passed back and forth) but as Nora, Crystal Costa morphs from blithe young woman to stifled, conflicted wife and finally to a woman of firm resolve, even if we don’t quite see why.

Quagebeur creates a distinct feel for the movement: urgent surging phrases, endless spooling circles. The speed is deftly handled by Costa and Jeffrey Cirio as her husband Torvald; he is a dancer of great finesse who never leaves a frayed edge. The whole piece is rather hampered by its score, Philip Glass’s Tirol Concerto, which so relentlessly implores us to feel something that it becomes meaningless. Nonetheless, Quagebeur has interesting ideas and – unlike her titular character – a clear sense of her own voice.

Alongside Nora is the return of Broken Wings, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Frida Kahlo ballet from the original She Said, slightly reworked. Katja Khaniukova brings spirit and sorrow to Kahlo, and, aside from a costume incorporating a stuffed monkey, the highs all come with the pas de deux, fully human and full of spark between Kahlo and philandering husband Diego Rivera (Irek Mukhamedov, playing him as a wild-eyed, soft-hearted old fool).

Read the full review in The Guardian.

The Guardian: ‘We need to step up!’ Five women pushing dance forward

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By Lyndsey Winship

13 June 2019

Ruth Brill

A Peter and the Wolf where Peter is a girl, the animals dress in streetwear and the pastoral setting becomes an urban playground: this is the world according to Ruth Brill. The 30-year-old has just made her second main-stage work for Birmingham Royal Ballet, the company she has danced with since 2012, and is now retiring as a dancer to concentrate on choreography.

Brill’s work has a sense of fun, fantasy and solid classical grounding. Her last piece, Arcadia, had nymphs and gods cavorting in the woods. In Peter and the Wolf – Prokofiev’s much-loved children’s piece, narrated here by poet Hollie McNish – the duck may be a hormonal teen in headphones, and the dancers wearing a mix of pointe shoes and trainers, but the steps are still steeped in classical tradition, just with character-driven inflections, diversions and quirks.

Seeking to connect with her audience, Brill has made dance for the Rugby World Cup and Birmingham flash mobs. Her next projects include working with London Children’s Ballet, New English Ballet Theatre and National Youth Ballet. “Now is when my generation needs to step up and prepare to become the next wave of leaders,” Brill said recently. “We have different life experiences, different stories to tell. And it’s time to push ourselves forward to inherit roles from the generation before us.”

Charlotte Edmonds

With her bleach-blond bob, Charlotte Edmonds looks the epitome of cool, and you could say the same about the 22-year-old’s dance. Plucked out of the Rambert school to become the Royal Ballet’s first Young Choreographer, Edmonds impressed everyone during a three-year association with Covent Garden, where she was mentored by Wayne McGregor, made choreography for Selfridges, a film for the National Gallery and a ballet with basketball that was inspired by the legendary choreographer Kenneth MacMillan.

Since going freelance, she’s made an underwater ballet about depression, featuring ballerina Francesca Hayward, and is keen to work more in digital platforms. She is doing post-production on a film she has directed about plastic pollution, is making a documentary series about dyslexia (a condition she has herself) and is working on a ballet about the climate crisis.

These might be serious subjects, but Edmonds is more and more drawn to fizzy, pop-culture-inspired choreography, closing the gap between the ballet stage and the dancefloor, such as a funky solo she made for the Royal Ballet’s Joseph Sissens and a new piece set to the music of Hot Chip.

Read the full list in The Guardian.

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET NAMES KELLY TWEEDDALE AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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San Francisco Ballet announced on June 5 that Kelly Tweeddale will take over as the company’s new Executive Director. Tweeddale, who comes by way of Seattle and Vancouver, will assume the position from Glenn McCoy, who held that position for over 30 years.

This news means that America’s three largest ballet companies are all led by women in the Executive Director position.

Read an excerpt from the company’s press release below:

SAN FRANCISCO, Wednesday, June 5, 2019—San Francisco Ballet Board of Trustees has named Kelly Tweeddale as the organization’s next Executive Director. The search committee, led by Chair of the SF Ballet Board of Trustees Carl F. Pascarella, made the unanimous recommendation to the Board after a five-month international search. Tweeddale has held previous executive positions at Seattle Opera and currently serves as President of Vancouver Symphony and VSO School of Music. Kelly Tweeddale assumes her new role at San Francisco Ballet on September 3, 2019.

“We are extremely fortunate to have Kelly joining the Ballet in this critical role. Her vision and track record in leading major strategic projects that propels arts organizations into a future with growing audiences, community involvement, and sustained revenue will lead SF Ballet into an expanded era of financial and operational growth,” says Pascarella. “On behalf of the Board of Trustees I sincerely welcome Kelly to join us in furthering our mission, to share the joy of dance with the widest possible audience, to provide the highest caliber of dance training in our School, and to further our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusivity in the field of dance.”

Speaking from the Company’s current engagement at Sadler’s Wells in London, Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson shared: “I am very pleased to welcome Kelly to San Francisco Ballet. She brings an impressive caliber of arts leadership experience to oversee the administrative and operational aspects of the organization.” Tomasson added, “I look forward to working closely with her as we continue to grow the mission and artistic reputation of the Company.”

Read the full announcement here.

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s CREATIVE CONSORTIUM – An Exciting Aspect of Ballet Now

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In October 2017, Birmingham Royal Ballet announced Ballet Now, an initiative dedicated to commissioning not just new dance, but new art in every area surrounding classical ballet. David Bintley, the comapny’s former director said of the plan, “There’s not been a commissioning programme like this since Diaghilev.”

According to the company, Ballet Now’s purpose is “to provide a unique and enriching pathway to aid the development of choreographers, composers and designers who show originality and world-class potential. Each participant will create new works that will be shared with audiences throughout the UK and beyond, premiering at either Birmingham Hippodrome or Sadler’s Wells, London. Over five years the initiative will support 30 new artists, ten choreographers, ten composers and ten designers providing them with mentoring, resources and access to Birmingham Royal Ballet’s outstanding facilities. “

The average American company premieres around two to three new works a season – many of these are commissions of the same choreographers year after year. In the same amount of time, Birmingham Royal Ballet will support more than just a choreographer creating a new work. The company will bring in multiple artists in a plethora of areas critical to developing the art form.

This news comes at a critical time, when audiences are craving new work but companies are favoring the same few artists.

Ballet Now will be overseen by a roster of professionals called the Creative Consortium, the recently-announced experts are evenly split in terms of gender and come from a wide range of backgrounds, representing the company’s commitment to equity and diversity.

David Bintley, CBE

Alistair Spalding

Ted Brandsen

Sally Beamish

Sally Cavender

Koen Kessels

Cassa Pancho

Emma Southworth 

Read more about Ballet Now here.

Read the Creative Consortium members’ backgrounds here.

Ballet Now – Birmingham Royal Ballet Commission Announced

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Birmingham Royal Ballet is proud to announce a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the multi-awarding Ballet Black, a company dedicated to increasing diversity in ballet, founded and directed by Ballet Now Creative Consortium member, Cassa Pancho. Dancers of both Birmingham Royal Ballet and Ballet Black will appear in this exciting triple bill.

The bill opens with the fourth Ballet Now commission, from young choreographer and Queensland Ballet dancer Jack Lister and composer Tom Harrold. Second is Cathy Marston’s moving tale of a broken marriage, the critically acclaimed and National-Dance-Award-winning ballet The Suit, in its first UK performances outside London. The bill will close with Twyla Tharp’s sizzling tribute to Old Blue Eyes, Nine Sinatra Songs.

Learn more about the exciting initiative here.

Shropshire Star: Choreographer Didy Veldman talks ahead of [Un]leashed show Sense of Time in Birmingham

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By Rebecca Stanley

6 June 2019

Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman has created a brand-new piece for the [Un]leashed triple bill, Sense of Time has been commissioned by BRB as part of their Ballet Now programme and will receive its World Premiere in Birmingham.

“It’s a very physical work. Physical, theatrical, accessible, hopefully touching. A realisation of how we deal with time in our current society,” she says.

“It wasn’t a lightbulb moment, but it is something I’ve been interested in for a while. I am curious about how our society perceives time, why it is so difficult for instance to make time available for each other or for certain moments in our lives.

“Are we slaves to time, always running and catching up with the latest technology, or are we in charge of our own time? Are our dealings with time dependent on our surroundings and how does time manifest itself physically?

“These questions and many more are part of the inspiration of Sense of Time.”

Read the full article in the Shropshire Star.

New York Times: A Ballet ‘Jane Eyre’? Reader, She Dances With Him

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By Roslyn Sulcas

4 June 2019

“You feel trapped, like the walls are closing in,” said the ballet mistress, demonstrating a sequence of frantic, elbow-jutting arms. “Keep the legs low, it’s not about the height, it’s about wanting to get out of here.”

Devon Teuscher, Misty Copeland and Isabella Boylston, the American Ballet Theater principals who are all cast in the title role in Cathy Marston’s “Jane Eyre,” opening at the Metropolitan Opera House on Tuesday, listened intently as they copied the movements and tried to absorb the intentions behind them. It was February, and an early rehearsal for the full-length ballet, based on Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel.

With its first-person narrative and intense focus on an interior consciousness, Brontë’s novel isn’t an obvious candidate for a ballet. But Ms. Marston, 43, a British choreographer who has slowly forged a reputation for her ability to create narrative works, seems undaunted by the challenges of transmuting literary complexity into dance.

It was the strength and unpredictability of Jane’s character that attracted her, she said, adding that she was often drawn to strong women as protagonists, including Mrs. Alving in Ibsen’s “Ghosts,” Cathy in “Wuthering Heights” and Queen Victoria — all characters around whom she has created ballets.

Read the full article in The New York Times.

Pointe: How The Australian Ballet’s Alice Topp Went From Coryphée To Resident Choreographer

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By Marissa DeSantis

4 June 2019


Though Australian Ballet coryphée Alice Topp has been dancing since she was four, when it comes to choreographing, she’s just getting started. Topp created her first piece, Trace, on a whim in 2010 as part of The Australian Ballet’s annual Bodytorque program. Since then, she has gone on to make several main stage works for the company, as well as music videos for artists like Ben Folds and Megan Washington; in 2018 she was named one of the The Australian Ballet’s resident choreographers.

Topp plays what she calls “a fine Tetris” to balance her responsibilities as both dancer and choreographer. Yet despite her jet lag and packed schedule of rehearsals and sightseeing, she was bursting with energy when we met in New York during The Australian Ballet’s visit to the Joyce Theater last month, where her ballet Aurum was given its US premiere. “This is the first time my work is being performed overseas,” she says. “To be able to bring it to New York, which is my favorite city in the world—what a debut!”

…

“I think the lack of female choreographers in ballet comes down to a combination of things, and I can only share this from my own experience. It’s not necessarily that the women work a lot harder, but we tend to be there until the end of the night in a lot of those big classical ballets. In Swan Lake, the guys are done after Act III, and we’re there at the very end—it’s the same with Giselle and the Willis and La Bayadère with the Kingdom of the Shades. I think it can be more demanding as a corps.

“Another big thing is just the nature of the work doesn’t lend itself to the individual artistic voice, so you never really nurture that. Those big scenes—the swans, shades, snowflakes, flowers—are about the women dancing in unison, and the guys don’t do as much of that. I think the guys tend to get away with a bit more individualism, and if they’ve got a bit of chutzpah and cowboy attitude, they stand out and it’s rewarded. Whereas women are taught to conform and to fit in, and not to stand out for the wrong reasons. Your goal for the first few years in the company is about fitting in—if you’re one of 24 swans and you spend all day, every day, thinking, ‘Is my arm higher than the other person?,’ or ‘I’m not on the red mark,’ you’re not exploring and exercising that creative part of your brain that’s making different artistic choices.

Read the full article on Pointe’s blog.