August 2018

For people of my generation, it’s almost hard to believe Frederick Ashton, one of the greatest choreographers of the 20th century, died 30 years ago. This month, to mark his passing on August 19, 1988, we publish in Talking Point a tribute to him from Iain Webb, director of Sarasota Ballet, the man who has done more than anybody else in the 21st century to help keep Ashton’s ballets alive and on stage. In addition, we include an essay on Ashton’s legacy 30 years on from Alastair Macaulay, dance critic of The New York Times who first wrote for Dancing Times in 1978, and an examination of Ashton as innovator in relation to the ballet Jazz Calendar by Alex Simpkins, who is writing for the magazine for the first time. You will find other views on Ashton threaded throughout the magazine, too.

Also this month, Nicola Rayner talks to professional ballroom dancers Warren and Kristi Boyce, who announced their retirement from competition at the 2018 Blackpool Dance Festival, and Gerald Dowler concludes his fascinating series on Soviet Ballet from 1924 to 1941 with an account of the creation of Serge Prokofiev’s legendary Romeo and Juliet.

Inside this issue

Ashton after Ashton. Alastair Macaulay looks at the legacy of Frederick Ashton 30 years after the death of the choreographer

Keeping it in the family. Warren and Kristi Boyce talk to Nicola Rayner about their decision to retire from competitive dancing

Old and new. In part three of her series on Brazil, Fátima Nollén looks at Grupo Corpo and the São Paulo Companhía de Dança

Letter from St Petersburg. Igor Stupnikov hears from Maryinsky ballerina Viktoria Tereshkina

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