October 2015 issue!

Posted on September 25, 2015

New season, new beginnings! With this issue, Dancing Times incorporates our sister magazine, Dance Today, which for nearly 60 years covered all aspects of social dancing. The new combined magazine goes back to our roots: from the beginning, Dancing Times covered all kinds of dance, from the ballroom to the stage. The new issue has favourite regular columns from both magazines, plus a host of features – including an interview with our cover star, Carlos Acosta…

All kinds of dance

Since announcing his retirement from ballet, Carlos Acosta has been busier than ever. Between rehearsals at the Royal Opera House, he speaks to Zoë Anderson about Carmen, Cuba and a new company:

“Acosta’s new company will have Cuban roots and an international slant; he hopes to build on his existing connections with Sadler’s Wells. ‘We’ve had auditions. It’s going to be a company of 20, 25 people, from all over the place: maybe half classical, half contemporary, folkloric. We’re in the process of creating repertoire. We have a few choreographers that we have approached. I’m very interested in using it as a platform for national talent, to choreograph things that are part of our culture.

“‘How can I create a company that is very distinctive in what it does? Like, when you see Alvin Ailey, you know that this is Alvin Ailey. In Cuba, our culture is very rich, there’s so much to say. There are so many musicians. If you could bring all these talents to collaborate, something unique could happen. Also, just to reach out to choreographers outside, merge them with the Cuban talent, and something unique might happen. That’s what I’m looking for, so it has its own authenticity…’”

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Not about the glitter

Nicola Rayner talks to Latin dance champions Michael Malitowski and Joanna Leunis, who are retiring from their competitive career…

“At Blackpool [Dance Festival, where the couple have won the Professional Latin championship a record-breaking eight consecutive times], Michael and Joanna were pipped to the post in the cha cha cha by their arch-rivals Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko. What would have happened if they hadn’t won? ‘We wouldn’t have retired,’ Michael says. ‘No, no, no.’ Of the cha cha cha result, he says, ‘It was a bullet in the heart – not for the result, but because, ‘Oh, I have to do another year.’ This makes me laugh, but Joanna adds, in all seriousness, ‘After such a heavy comp, you always feel like you can’t do it again.’

“The plan to retire if they won made the night all the more exciting for them. ‘It was on the line: are we going to retire? Are we going to win?’ says Michael. ‘This was nice because your performance is put on the edge – and this is when magical stuff happens. If we knew we were going to win, that would have been a different vibe.’ Presumably Marcus [Hilton, chairman of the adjudicators] was aware of the plan? ‘Yes, he knew he was not to mention it if we came second…’”

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Making connections

Maggie Foyer introduces the Royal New Zealand Ballet, which tours the UK this autumn, and speaks to its new artistic director…

“I first met Francesco Ventriglio in the company studios in Wellington in November 2014, a few days after he had arrived to take up his post as artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB). He was in high spirits, as he had just experienced the customary Kiwi welcome – a haka: “I will never forget it, he said, “it was an amazing moment with the dancers. We shared a deep, deep emotion and now we start to build a future together…”

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Also in the October 2015 issue

Royal Ballet principal Lauren Cuthbertson writes on dealing with injury

Gerald Dowler interviews Suzanne Farrell, ballerina and Balanchine muse, to mark her 70th birthday

Jenny Veldhuis reports on Hamburg’s National Youth Ballet

Marianka Swain’s first impressions of Strictly Come Dancing’s class of 2015

Nicola Rayner reports on the International Championships

Swing Dance: Fashion, music, culture and key moves An excerpt from the new book by Scott Cupit of Swing Patrol

Margaret Willis interviews Rambert’s Simone Damburg Wurtz, our Dancer of the Month

Debbie Malina opens a new Health Guide for dancers

James Whitehead looks at awareness and connection between partners in Tips on technique

Phil Meacham explores leading and following

Simon Selmon looks at how the jitterbug came to the UK

Marianka Swain asks if it’s time for same-sex dancing on Strictly

Jack Reavely remembers the very first International

Zoë Anderson reports from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers: A London Celebration 

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Plus news of the New Adventures Choreographer Award, Natalia Osipova, a new Jane Eyre for Northern Ballet, competition to win tickets to English National Ballet’s Le Corsaire, Dance Power for the British Red Cross, Cardiff Dance Festival, Kevin Clifton and Karen Hauer, Dane Hurst and more;

reviews of Tao Dance Theatre, Israel Galván, Ballett am Rhein, les ballets C de la B and Ballett Zurich at the Edinburgh International Festival, dance at the Edinburgh Fringe with VerTeDance, Tereza Ondrová and Peter Šavel, Caroline Bowditch, Company Chordelia, Al Seed, Claire Cunningham, Gandini Juggling, Ballet Revolución, EDx2, Ryukyu Cirque, Contemporary? and Tijmur Dance Theatre, the National Youth Dance Company’s Apex Rising, English National Ballet’s Lest We Forget, Northern Ballet’s new 1984, Kidd Pivot and Electric Company Theatre in Betroffenheit, Gennady Selutsky’s gala for Danil Korsuntsev, Igor Kolb and Evgeni Ivanchenko at the Maryinsky Theatre, the Joyce Theatre’s Ballet Festival with Ashley Bouder Project, BalletX and more, Cathy Marston’s Lolita for Alexander Kølpin’s Summer Ballet and Hong Kong Ballet’s Pinocchio;

reports from the Hampshire Dance Festival and the Dancers’ Forget-Me-Not Fund;

the latest book and DVD releases, including Carlos Acosta, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Alexei Ratmansky’s Cinderella, designer Lila di Nobili and social dance history book Going to the Palais;

education news including end-of-year shows from Tring Park School, Elmhurst School for Dance, Millennium Performing Arts, English National Ballet School, Laine Theatre Arts and more!

The October issue is now in stores – 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.