Dance this week: Napoletango and more

Posted on August 3, 2011

Napoletango, a blend of Argentine tango and Neapolitan song, comes to the London Coliseum from Thursday until Saturday. The show has had sellout runs in Italy, and kicks off an international tour with these London performances. You can read an interview with Napoletango star Pablo Moyano (pictured) in the current issue of our sister magazine, Dance Today.

Fela!, a celebration of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti, is still running at Sadler’s Wells. The show was directed, choreographed and co-written by Bill T Jones, and is on until August 28.

Summer House, the festival of learning, sharing and performing, continues at The Place this week. Performances include Portuguese choreographer Rui Horta’s solo Local Geographic on Thursday and the lively London/Budapest collective Bloom! in the award-winning CITY on Friday.

Akademi’s song of the city will be performed in the Vault of Southwark Playhouse on Friday and Saturday, mixing ballet, bharata natyam and contemporary dance.

On Saturday, summerdance 2011 celebrates young dancers with a performance at the New Theatre, Cardiff. NDCWales Associates perform an excerpt from Stephen Petronio’s By Singing Light, followed by the premiere of Fair and Softly Goes Far, to a specially commissioned score by Elfyn Jones, played by WNO Young Players. Down the coast at The Riverfront, Newport, Ballet Cymru present an evening of favourites in Ballet for All, including excerpts from the company’s productions of Giselle, Beauty and the Beast and Under Milk Wood.

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.