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Review: 28 January 2012
Canadian Outsider Dazzles
as Onegin
Replacing an injured Nicolas Le Riche, the
Canadian-born Evan McKie of the Stuttgart Company took over the title role
shortly before the opening performance.
Film Review: 27 January 2012
Balanchine in
Paris
Drawing on highlights from his previous films on
Alicia Markova, Nina Vyroubova and Violette Verdy, film maker Dominique
Delouche adds new footage of former Paris Opera étoile and Balanchine muse
Ghislaine Thesmar.
Review: 9 December 2011
Boris Charmatz:
Enfant ('Child')
In a
provocative and disturbing new work, French enfant terrible Boris
Charmatz tackles the horror of child physical and sexual abuse.
Review : 28 November 2011
La Source:
When Fashion Meets Its Muse
With costumes by Christian
Lacroix and jewels by Swarovski, the Jean-Guillaume Bart choreographed
ballet La Source at the Opéra National de Paris combined
the chic, the elegant and the spectacular into a flamboyant, scintillating
evening of dance.
News: 11 November 2011
Kabuki Star Wins 2011 Kyoto
Prize
Famous for his interpretations of female roles, the
Japanese Kabuki actor, Tamasaburo Bando V, is a veritable legend in
Japan.
Review: 21 October 2011
When Made in France
Verges on the Embarrassing
While the the retro-chic of
Mad Men ruled at the recent Paris Fashion Week, this trend, alas,
did not translate as well for the gala opening of the new Paris Opera
Ballet season.
Feature: 19 October 2011
Villella and His Miami
Dancers Triumph in Paris
Interview with American mega
star Edward Villella and review of Miami City Ballet's marathon run of 14
different ballets in the French capital.
Review: 14 September 2011
The Bolshoi Ballet in
Paris Shows Mixed Results
Despite the brilliant and
sensational technique of the Russian dancers, unequal casting and a
sometimes incoherent production sadly marked Alexei Fadeyechev's new
version of Don Quixote.
News: 22 August 2011
Adios José
Martinez!
Spanish danseur étoile José Martinez bowed his farewell to
the Paris Opera Ballet at 42 years and six months as French law
requires.
Review: 1 August 2011
Wayne McGregor on Francis
Bacon: Anatomy of a Failed Idea
Patricia Boccadoro
reviews British choreographer Wayne McGregor's new work for the Paris
Opera Ballet.
Review: 25 July 2011
The Last Testament of Pina
Bausch
The work, inspired by a song by Violeta Parra, was
the result of Pina Bausch’s two week stay in 2008 at the Villa Grimaldi in
Chile where Pinochet’s army imprisoned and tortured thousands of people in
the 1970s.
News: 12 July 2011
Roland Petit: 1924 -
2011
Dance critic Patricia Boccadoro assesses the work
and legacy of the great French choreographer who died suddenly in Geneva
on Sunday.
Interview: 7 July 2011
Manuel Legris and Dominique
Meyer at the Vienna State Opera Ballet
Before the arrival
of Messrs. Meyer and Legris at the sumptuous Vienna Staatsoper, both
dancers and public were suffering from acute indigestion and dance was
clearly on the downward slope.
Review: 13 June 2011
Is Nureyev's Romeo and
Juliet the Best Version?
How does Rudolf Nureyev's
version of Shakespeare’s tragedy stand up to those of Kenneth MacMillan
and John Cranko.
Review: 27 May 2011
Paulo Ribeiro and the Ballet
of Lorraine
Despite recent cutbacks by Portugal's
President Anibal Cavaco Silva, a man indifferent to culture in general,
Portuguese talent continues to thrive abroad.
Review: 13 May 2011
The Tightrope
Walker
Jean Genet's meditation on the loneliness and
solitude of artists, as well as his great passion for a young male acrobat
are the source material for this spoken word solo work by Angelin
Preljocaj.
Review: 5 May 2011
Paris Opera Ballet School
Annual Show
"It was very hard to realize that the dancers
on stage were still children and not yet young professionals", writes
critic Patricia Boccadoro of the emerging talent at the legendary ballet
school.
News: 4 May 2011
Patrice Bart Bids Bizarre Farewell to
Paris Opera Ballet
Some consider Ballet Master Patrice
Bart's 1996 restaging of Coppélia little more than strange and an
unfortunate choice as a tribute to his long career at the Paris Opera
Ballet.
Interview: 6 April 2011
Akram Khan: The Making of
Vertical Road
A strange encounter with a taxi-driver in
Australia two years ago acts as a catalyst for the Bengali artist's latest
creation.
Comment: 9 March 2011
The Frye-ku Folio: 37,
38, 39
Canadian humorist and illustrator Arcangelo
Frye offers up pages from his folio of Haiku for the age of Flickr,
YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. This latest trio include his take on the
world of "the dance.".
Feature: 8 March 2011
A Century of Dance:
From Swan Lake to Trisha Brown
Patricia Boccadoro reviews the Paris
Opera Ballet's eclectic winter season at the Palais Garnier and the Opera
Bastille.
Review: 14 February 2011
Passion, Depression and
Carla Bruni Inspire Young Choreographers
Patricia
Boccadoro on new experimental dance works in Paris.
Cinema: 1 February 2011
Review: Black
Swan
Melynda Nuss on Darren Aronofsky’s "psychosexual
thriller." set in the world of New York City ballet.
Review: 18 December 2010
Paquita: Version
3.0
Set in Spain under the Napoleonic occupation, this
brilliant reconstruction tells the story of Paquita, a girl of noble
birth, who, as a small child, the sole survivor of the massacre of the
Valley of the Bulls, was taken away and brought up by gypsies.
Review: 6 December 2010
Neumeier Stumbles in
Quest for Holy Grail
In his new ballet, Parzival:
Episoden und Echo, John Neumeier and his Hamburg company present a
choreographic journey of one of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round
Table.
Review: 15 November 2010
Murder and Suicide Return to
the Palais Garnier
Roland Petit is back at the Palais
Garnier with a string of murders followed by yet another suicide.
Review: 12 August 2010
A Luminous
Evening at the Opéra Bastille
The Paris Opera Ballet
offers up their exquisitely light, yet deeply moving, production of
Kaguyahime, Jiri Kylian’s retelling of the Japanese fable, The Tale of
the Bamboo Cutter.
Review: 28 July 2010
Sex and
Marriage in the Gardens of Versailles
"Watching six
women weaving their way around the stage with their underwear around their
ankles and their private parts blowing in the wind was not particularly
uplifting," writes Patricia Boccadoro from the Chateau of Versailles.
Review: 28 June 2010
More is Less: A
Documentarian Bungles a Rare Opportunity
In his much
ballyhooed documentary La Danse – Le Ballet de l’Opera de Paris,
filmmaker Frederick Wiseman focuses obsessively on mundane details, only
hinting at the compelling treasures they support and surround.
News: 26 June 2010
Nureyev’s Bayadère
Confirms New Male Star
Despite past rumours and
speculation, the nomination of Stéphane Bullion to the highest rank in the
Paris Opera Ballet has caught the dance world by surprise.
Review: 21 May 2010
Ten Years
After, Robbins Still Going Strong in Paris
A fusion of
classical and modern dance, with snappy jazz overtones, Robbins still
seems ideally suited to the Paris dancers with whom he used to work.
Review: 22 April 2010
Mucking
Through The Profane With Little Sacred Payoff
In Angelin
Preljocaj’s Siddartha, the opportunity to contrast the seedier
side of the future Buddha’s life with its transcendant conclusion is
sadly, and confoundingly, missed.
Review: 22 March 2010
Made in Siberia
Closed
to foreigners by Stalin in the 1930’s, Perm, the gateway to Siberia,
didn’t open to outsiders until the 1990’s.
Review: 21 March 2010
Rudolf
Nureyev’s Casse-Noisette
"Choreographically, it
is one of Nureyev’s outstanding achievements," writes Patricia Boccadoro
in Paris.
Feature: 22 February 2010
Ballets Russes:
1909 - 2009
As part of Europe’s flagship events
celebrating the centenary of the Ballets Russes, the Paris Opera Ballet
programmed four of Diaghilev’s legendary works. Patricia Boccadoro offers
her review.
Review: 3 February 2010
Young
Choreographers Without Borders
A Frenchman from New York
City Ballet, another fom the Paris Opera Ballet and a young Brit who hails
from Stockport in the U.K. offer a mixed, star-studded programme at
the Palais Garnier.
Feature: 20 January 2010
A Paris Tribute to
Merce Cunningham
Three French choreographers celebrate the
90th birthday of the late Merce Cunningham.
DVD Review: 14 January 2010
Stravinsky
and Les Ballets Russes
Two of the greatest ballets of the 20th
century — The Firebird and The Rite of Spring —
are given luscious and definitive productions on a new DVD. Patricia
Boccadoro offers her review.
Review: 14 December 2009
Diamonds Are Still a Dancer's
Best Friend
Dance critic Patricia Boccadoro on the
holiday Paris Opera Ballet production of the Balanchine three-act work
inspired by the jewellery stores of New York's Fifth Avenue.
Interview: 2 November 2009
Mathias
Heymann
Born in Marseilles and brought up in Africa where
his father was a Maths teacher, Mathias Heymann did not have a typically
French childhood.
Feature: 26 October 2009
Philippe Decouflé at
the "Crazy Horse"
After 50 plus years of presenting pretty
girls prancing naked on a tiny stage, Le Crazy Horse de Paris is trying
anything and everything to squeeze a little more life out of a stage show
that is, at best, a quaint souvenir of a bygone time or, at worst, a dead
horse that should be beaten no longer.
Review: 2 October 2009
Paris Opera Ballet:
Generation Y
European dance critic Patricia Boccadoro on the next
generation of promising young dancers in Paris.
Obituary: 6 August 2009
Merce Cunningham:
1919 — 2009
It is impossible to remain indifferent to
Merce Cunningham. One is either an admirer or detractor and so it has been
for the last sixty years
Review: 28 July 2009
Ashton Romantic Comedy
Ends Season on High Note
The restaging of Frederick Ashton’s
La Fille Mal Gardée, a ballet created in Bordeaux in 1789, proved
even more successful than the Paris production two years ago.
Review: 26 July 2009
Lithe Spirit:
Ailey Troupe Triumphs in Paris
Marking their 50th anniversary, the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to Paris, once again charming
an enraptured audience with their trademark lissome, stirring
ebullience.
Remembrance: 16 July 2009
The Death of Pina
Bausch
When an artist inspires both reverence and
revulsion in life, only their death — and the knowledge that the catalog
of their work has reached its denouement — can the mysteries they leave to
the world be unravelled.
Review: 28 June 2009
Not Quite
Rhapsodic: Good Morning, Mr. Gershwin is an Uneven Evening of
Dance
Montalvo and Hervieu’s new show starts strong, but the
second half may leave a wrinkle on your brow. Patricia Boccadoro
reviews.
Profile: 26 May 2009
Stéphane
Bullion
Despite an early bout with cancer, Stéphane Bullion has
emerged as one of the most exciting young male dancers in Paris.
Review: 12 May 2009
Ballet Review: Suites en
blanc
Three great choreographers intermingle chic, drama
and erotic ritual in a single evening at the Paris Opera Ballet.
Interview: 23 April 2009
Charles
Jude
"It was a total challenge to present the Italy of the
time, festive and joyous, but with the underlying, seething hatred between
the rival families," says choreographer Charles Jude about his new version
of Romeo and Juliet .
Feature: 9 April 2009
Gala: Carte Blanche to Agnès
Letestu
While landmark works from France’s greatest choreographers
were shown in Paris, a young generation of newcomers presented their
creations at a gala outside the city centre.
Review: 31 March 2009
Le Parc: The Art
of the French Kiss
Preljocaj's passionate three-act drama invites
us to rediscover the art and eros of loving in 18th century France with
all its gallant codes of seduction and intrigue.
Review: 9 March 2009
Pina Bausch: Lock,
Stock and Barrel
Dance critic Patricia Boccadoro on Pina Bausch
Tanztheater Wuppertal.
Review: 17 February 2009
Les Enfants du
Paradis: Extreme Makeover
Marcel Carné’s 1945 film Les Enfants
du Paradis (Children of Paradise) ranks as one of the greatest of
French classics. But will José Martinez' makeover for the Paris Opera
Ballet fare as well?
Review: 30 January 2009
Akram Khan Scores With The
National Ballet of China
"This is the kind of dancing that thrills;
pure dance so rarely seen in these days of empty intellectualism where
weary choreographers in search of inspiration strip their dancers naked,"
writes Patricia Boccadoro in Paris.
Review
The Fairest of All: A Soaring
'Blanche-Niege' by Angelin Preljocaj Transcends its Grimm
Origins
Magic mirrors, glass coffins, poisoned apples, wicked
stepmothers, attempted murder – not to mention dwarves…it takes a rare
artistic gift to combine these ingredients into a sublime and
sophisticated evening of
Review
Not Quite Dance
or Theatre - Call it Ars Gratia Binoche
Without the essential
ingredient of self-deprecating irony, actress Juliette Binoche and
choreographer Akram Khan serve up a program that has all the horrible
fascination of "Dancing With the Stars" with none of the kitschy, winking
fun - a recipe for disaster.
Review
New York City
Ballet in Paris: Great Expectations, Disappointment for
Some
European dance critic Patricia Boccadoro weighs in on the
first visit of the American troupe to the Paris Opera in 43 years.
Review
Les Grands Ballets
Canadiens de Montréal
The Canadian dance company marks the 400th
anniversary of the city of Québec.
Feature
Finland's Tero
Saarinen Triumphs at Paris Dance Festival
Attractive music,
extravagant staging, glamorous costumes and a particularly inventive use
of videos marked the recent Chatelet Dance Festival in Paris |
Dance
