Current Issue

June 2021

So theatres are finally open again in the UK. Despite the potential new threat of an “Indian” variant of COVID-19 spreading across the country, dance companies were able to return to the stage from May 17 after an absense of more than five months. Those performances took place too late to be included in this issue of the magazine, but I am pleased to announce that Dancing Times will be publishing reviews from Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet, Rambert and The Royal Ballet next month in Dance Scene International – it seems a very long time to have been deprived of live performances of dance in an indoor venue, but now they are back, let’s hope they will remain so. 

There is a lot to read in the magazine this month: Laura Cappelle talks to Hugo Marchand, an étoile at the Paris Opéra Ballet; Fátima Nollén discovers how Ballet Nacional de España has been managing to continue performing on stage despite the pandemic in Spain; Vikki Jane Vile finds out what some of the Strictly Come Dancing professionals have been up to in lockdown; and Northern Ballet’s Gavin McCaig recounts what it has been like to create a new children’s ballet during the past 12 months. I write this during a torrential downpour, but despite the inclement weather outside, it really does feel like spring has finally arrived!

JONATHAN GRAY

Inside this issue

Nicola Rayner hears about Him and Me from Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice

Deborah Weiss visits Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance

Margaret Willis interviews Scottish Ballet’s Rishan Benjamin

Graham Watts talks to music directors Koen Kessels and Gavin Sutherland

Jane Pritchard highlights the career of stage designer Claud Lovat Fraser

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