The Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards for 2012 were held at The Place on Monday, January 28. Hosted by Gary Avis of The Royal Ballet and KennethTharp of The Place, the awards celebrated a broad spread of dance performances in Britain, from hip hop – with a spectacular double win for ZooNation – to narrative ballet. Tharp and Avis opened with a touch of showbiz, dancing on with a flourish. This year’s awards were dedicated to the memory of critics John Percival, Charles Hedges and Freda Pitt.

Jonathan Gray journeyed to Tbilisi in Georgia, to see the celebrations marking Nina Ananiashvili’s 30 years on stage. Here, he offers a personal tribute to a great ballerina

 

Not so very long ago, it was not unusual for a ballerina’s career to last well into her forties and beyond – just think of some of the great names from the past, like Anna Pavlova, Galina Ulanova, Margot Fonteyn, Maya Plisetskaya, Antoinette Sibley or Lynn Seymour.

It was hard to convince oneself that Unleashed, the new show by Spanish dance heartthrob and media celebrity Joaquín Cortés, was a dance recital rather than a pop concert. Held for just two nights at Camden’s The Roundhouse (not a particularly good venue for dance on this viewing), the arena area around the centrally placed stage platform was packed with standing figures supping pints or attempting to capture the performance on their mobile phones. The atmosphere was hot, sweaty, noisy, and heavy with anticipation whilst an onstage flamenco band wailed, stamped and clapped their way through a musical introduction.

Matthew Bourne’s dance works have undoubted popular appeal, and his latest production, a version of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is no exception. The show broke box office records when it was premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival and its season at Sadler’s Wells from September 2-14 was completely sold out. I saw Dorian Gray at Sadler’s Wells on September 12, and the theatre was packed with an audience very different from the usual crowd of contemporary dance enthusiasts – here were people, young and old, buzzingly eager to see Bourne’s latest creation and were just the sort of audience you are more likely to see at the National Theatre or at a West End musical. And, because of Dorian Gray’s subject matter, it was also noticeably gay. It is wonderful that Bourne can reach out and attract new audiences like this to dance, but I wish they could have had the opportunity to see something better than the tedious work on offer.

 

The 11th National Dance Awards took place at Sadler’s Wells, London on Monday, January 24. It was an afternoon of celebration, congratulation and Black Swan jokes.

 

The 11th National Dance Awards took place at Sadler’s Wells, London on Monday, January 24. It was an afternoon of celebration, congratulation and Black Swan jokes.

Dancing Times and Dance Today celebrated its 100^th anniversary on October 19, with a party held at The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London.

Dancing Times and Dance Today celebrated its 100^th anniversary on October 19, with a party held at The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London.

Prosper Mérimée’s legendary novel Carmen, aided and abetted by Georges Bizet’s famous opera, has spawned innumerable international dance productions, including the fondly remembered creation by Roland Petit, and the not so fondly remembered version by Mats Ek. The latest incarnation of the story, which arrived at Sadler’s Wells on June 20, following “widespread critical acclaim overseas”, is by the choreographer and director Ramón Oller for the Compañía Metros of Barcelona. The production promised to be the first ever to combine “contemporary dance mixed with flamenco”. That may be so, but I have never before seen a production of Carmen that offers the audience such a dearth of choreographic ideas and dramatic tedium. (Even the Ek production managed to get some kind of audience reaction when performed in London a few years ago.)

Union Dance appeared at the Linbury Theatre on October 14 for one performance only as part of Black History Month. The house was full of enthusiastic young people, and there was an air of anticipation as disco music played over the loudspeakers. Consisting of seven dancers, and directed by Corrine Bougaard, Union Dance aims to “…shift perspectives by exploring and expressing an identity that reflects the growing cultural fusion of contemporary society”.