May 2014

Posted on June 26, 2014

This month in Dancing Times, three directors of dance companies – large and small – give insights into their working lives. Alexander Whitley talks to Zoë Anderson on page 15 about his life as a dancer and choreographer, and the new company he has launched; choreographer Jamie Thomson reveals to Laura Dodge on page 27 how he is funding new work for his company, Ampersand&nce, through a dance-based exercise class he has devised called Ballestics; and on page 21, Gerald Dowler travels to Dresden to talk to Aaron Watkin about his leadership of the Semperoper Ballet.

In Talking Point, dance critic Jeffery Taylor offers some views on classical ballet; and in “Dancing round the ballet dancers”, Fraser Brown gives his personal thoughts about the state of public funding for classical ballet, as opposed to contemporary dance, in his native Ireland. Debbie Malina investigates the positive impact dance can have on people living with dementia on page 67, and in Dance Scene we review Christopher Wheelson’s new full-length ballet for The Royal Ballet, The Winter’s Tale, as well as English National Ballet’s Lest We Forget and a new dance theatre production of Kes choreographed by Jonathan Watkins in Sheffield.
JONATHAN GRAY

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May 2014 Volume 104 Issue 1245

Cover stories
15 Broader thinking. Dancer and choreographer Alexander Whitley talks to Zoë Anderson about his new company

27 Making his own way. Laura Dodge discovers the innovative way choreographer Jamie Thomson is funding his own work

39 The Winter’s Tale. Jonathan Gray reviews Christopher Wheeldon’s new three-act work for The Royal Ballet

67 Language without words. Debbie Malina considers the benefits of dance and movement therapy for people living with dementia

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Features
18 MOVE IT 2014. Sophie Warner attended the UK’s largest dance event for the first time

21 A classic modernist. Aaron Watkin, director of Dresden’s Semperoper Ballet, talks to Gerald Dowler

31 Dancing around the ballet dancers. Ireland is a country without a national ballet company and an Arts Council that appears not to mind, says Fraser Brown

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Regulars

06 Dance Matters. The Royal Ballet 2014–15, Don Quixote DVD competition

11 Letters

12 Talking Point. Jeffery Taylor offers some thoughts on the art of ballet

34 Dance Scene. Reviews include Savion Glover, Kes and Boston Ballet

55 Variety Lights. Barbara Newman reviews Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

57 Letter from St Petersburg. Igor Stupnikov sees La Fille mal gardée

59 Notes from New York. By Jack Anderson

61 Dance Media. New CDs and DVDs

63 Dance People. Darcey Bussell exhibition

64 Obituaries. Maria de Avila, Marc Platt, Mickey Rooney

71 Dance Education. Back to the Barre, Urdang

75 Classifieds

76 Where to Learn

85 Calendar

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Into Dance
79 Dancers of the Month. Margaret Willis meets English National Ballet’s Guilherme and Vitor Menezes
82 Breakin’ Convention. By Zoë Anderson