January 2017 issue

Posted on December 21, 2016

Happy New Year! We welcome 2017 with an issue that covers everything from dance training to politics. Our cover stars this month are Ore Oduba and Joanne Clifton, this year’s Strictly Come Dancing champions – though their winning performance took place after our magazines had gone to the printers, so we also salute our editor’s gift of prophecy!

Releasing individuality

As Woolf Works returns to The Royal Ballet, choreographer Wayne McGregor tells Laura Dodge about curiosity, creativity and technology

“LD: Recently, there was a huge debate surrounding the quality of contemporary dance training in the UK – what do you think?

“WM: What was interesting about the debate is that there were a lot of discussions without many solutions. It’s fine to articulate problems but there need to be actionable outcomes or you’re just endlessly talking in a loop. I think a lot of training institutions do a great job – and they can’t do everything, but I do think that dance schools have a responsibility to understand the current economic climate and that opportunities for dancers have reduced due to a reduction in funding. This needs to be taken into account in the number of admissions each year. We need to look at training in a much wider picture.”

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Halcyon Days

Lee Knights on the dancing at the heart of ITV’s new period drama, The Halcyon

“‘This is the biggest cast I’ve ever worked with – music and dance play a bigger part in this series than any other television work I’ve done,’ explains choreographer Paul Harris. Key storylines feature a singer played by Kara Tointon (who won the 2010 series of Strictly Come Dancing) and a pianist played by Sope Dirisu (Humans). ‘There is dance and music in every episode,’ says Harris. ‘It’s so important some of the dancers have their own backstories.’

“…Conjuring up the spirit of the 1940s required more than simply being a good dancer. With some dancers featured regularly, harris had to winkle out those who could step back in time, adapting their style to the look and feel of the period. ‘Essentially, they had to be actors – but through dance,’ he says.”

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A Man’s World

Marianka Swain meets Alex Scurr, the founder of the Gay Men’s Dance Company

“The GMDC classes attract 20- to 60-somethings, and complete novices to those who danced as a child or are ex-pros now in other fields, ‘coming back to what they love. Lots have always wished they could dance, so it’s great having the opportunity now,’ says Scurr. ‘I throw in everything from jazz and hip hop to musical theatre, disco and lyrical, make classes as comfortable as possible and get people talking to each other – we do things like stretching in pairs. The guys who’ve been with me a while see a real progression. The most common one is “I touched my toes for the first time today!” It’s not about getting one dance perfect, but finding rhythm, coordination and confidence in how you move.”

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Also in the January issue…

Nicola Rayner hears from Latin dancer Zia James on leaping up the competitive ranks – and braving the dance floor without fake tan

Christina Gallea Roy visits the Princess Grace Academy, a dance school based in Monte Carlo

David Mead celebrates the 30th anniversary of Scottish Dance Theatre

Zoë Anderson speaks to Lynn Wallis, whose career has taken her from The Royal Ballet touring company to artistic director of the Royal Academy of Dance

Margaret Willis speaks to Andrew Monaghan of New Adventures, our Dancer of the Month

Our serialisation of the memoirs of ballerina Nadia Nerina continues with an account of her childhood and first dancing lessons

In this month’s Talking Point, Daniel Pratt on dance, politics and going high where others go low

We preview Move It 2017, the UK’s biggest dance event

Alison Gallagher-Hughes reports from the British National Dance Championships in Blackpool

Judith Reyn reflects on her career as a dancer and teacher, including work with Frederick Ashton and John Cranko

Debbie Malina on the benefits of swimming and water therapy for dancers

Tips on Technique: James Whitehead on improving your waltz

Our dance doctor, Phil Meacham, on jive timing

Simon Selmon compares the Hollywood and Savoy styles of swing dance

Same-sex dance: Marianka Swain looks back on a busy year and previews 2017

Royal Ballet soloist Olivia Cowley tells Zoë Anderson about her fashion website ballet.style

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Plus reviews of The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet in The Nutcracker, Half a Sixpence in the West End, Peter Pan at the National Theatre, James Wilton Dance’s Leviathan, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Hetain Patel’s American Man, Michael Keegan-Dolan’s Swan Lake/Loch na hEala, Ballet Cymru in Roald Dahl’s Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs, Eifman Ballet’s Up and Down, ballroom and Latin spectacular Burn the Floor

International reviews of the St Petersburg Leonid Yakobson Ballet Company’s The Sleeping Beauty, the Mikhailovsky Ballet’s La Sylphide, Nederlands Dans Theater in New York, Dorrance Dance in The Blues Project, the Royal Danish Ballet in Swan Lake and Giselle, Val Caniparoli’s new The Lady of the Camellias for Hong Kong Ballet, Ballet BC in works by Cayetano Soto, Hungarian National Ballet’s Don Quixote, Norwegian National Ballet’s new Nutcracker,

News of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Len Goodman’s farewell, the Maryinsky Ballet’s London season, Rosie Kay Dance Company, dance at the Southbank Centre, the Barbican’s 2017 dance season, Dutch National Ballet’s Dance for Peace fund and more

Obituary of Auriel Condon

Media Dance books and DVDS including Dancers after Dark and The Ballet Lover’s Companion

Education news of the Genée International Ballet Competition, Dirty Dancing dance classes, the Royal Academy of Dance’s new artistic director, Molly Lake Award, Trinity Laban Honorary Fellowships and Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund

The January issue is now in shops – including branches of WHSmith – or you can buy your print copy here or buy your digital copy from all good app stores

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.