Across the big stages and some smaller ones, here are some of the best dance and ballet productions happening this month...
Swan Lake by Liam Scarlett
The Royal Opera House, Bow St, London WC2E 9DD | 28th March - 28th June
Classical ballet's most powerful tale of love, treachery and forgiveness returns to the Royal Opera House stage; Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans while hunting and, when one of them turns into a beautiful woman named Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, and only able to regain her human form at night. The arbiter of Odette's curse, Von Rothbart, tricks the Prince into declaring his love for the identical Odile, thus breaking his vow to Odette. Doomed to remain a swan forever, Odette has but one way to break the sorcerer's spell...
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Danses Concertantes / Different Drummer / Requiem
The Royal Opera House, Bow St, London WC2E 9DD | Until 13th April
A celebration of leading choreographer Kenneth MacMillan in three varied works;
DANSES CONCERTANTES was MacMillan’s first work for Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet in 1955. Taking the structure of classical ballet, MacMillan added elements from jive, revue and the circus to a carnivalesque effect, enhanced by the designs of Nicholas Georgiadis.
DIFFERENT DRUMMER is a fragmentary retelling of George Büchner’s play Woyzeck about the plight of a soldier driven to despair and murder. Set to a score by Anton Webern and Arnold Schoenberg, the ballet’s themes of poverty, exploitation and infidelity stand as an unflinching and timeless portrait of fragility in the face of trauma.
REQUIEM is a moving elegy created for Stuttgart Ballet in memory of its late artistic director, MacMillan’s friend and former Royal Ballet dancer and choreographer John Cranko. Set to Faure’s poignant Requiem, this luminous ensemble work is a portrait of a ballet company – a community – coming to terms with the loss of its beloved leader - a universal evocation of grief and consolation.
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3. balletLORENT - The Velveteen Rabbit
Lilian Baylis Studio, 183 Rosebery Ave, London EC1R 4TJ | 5-6th April
A special production for the very youngest of audiences during the Easter holidays; The Velveteen Rabbit is a gentle, immersive performance and play experience led by a cast of six contemporary dancers with early years expertise.
A stuffed rabbit and a grown-up boy both wonder about the reality of getting older, and question what it means to be loved, discovering what it might take to be real.
Children can at times choose to interact with the costumed performers or they can continue to watch and wonder from a comfy cushion of their own.
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Dances Like A Bomb by Junk Ensemble
The Place, 17 Duke’s Road, London WC1H 9PY | 12 & 13th April
The Dublin-based, multi-award winning Junk Ensemble has built a reputation as one of Ireland’s leading voices in dance, and they frequently collaborate with artists from other disciplines to produce a rich mix of visual and performance styles; in Dances Like A Bomb, acclaimed actor Mikel Murfi and leading dance artist Finola Cronin are heroic, vulnerable, comedic and completely themselves as they celebrate the strength of mature bodies and challenge the cult of youth, caring fiercely for one another while each defends the other’s independence.
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Mehek by Aakash Odedra and Aditi Mangaldas
Sadler's Wells Theatre, Rosebery Ave, London EC1R 4TN | 12 & 13th April
Derived from the Hindi word for fragrance, Mehek alludes to the enduring power of memory and the essence of love itself, in the first ever duet of Aditi Mangaldas’ illustrious 50-year career. She and Aakash Odedra are renowned as the great South Asian dancers of their respective generations, and this captivating performance gives a voice to an unspoken and overlooked love story centred around a mature woman and a younger man delving deep into their intricate characters, challenging norms and redefining the very essence of love.
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Solera by Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company
Sadler's Wells Theatre, Rosebery Ave, London EC1R 4TN | 17-20th April
World-renowned flamenco guitarist Paco Peña joins forces with young flamenco dancers to explore the nature of flamenco, a tradition that is not written, but rather handed, down from one generation to the next. Enter their rehearsal room as they explore the genre together and then take to the stage with a unique performance that is both quiet and celebratory, soulful and full of life.
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Fault Lines by Lila Dance
The Place, 17 Duke’s Road, London WC1H 9PY | 20th April
Lîla Dance make family friendly and visually dynamic, narrative-driven dance productions with messages of equality, acceptance, kindness and a fair world. Fault Lines explores the environmental damage we have inflicted upon the planet, asking: what happens when we stand together with hope? What will it take for us to do that?
With new writing by Nick Walker (award winning writer, BBC), an original score by Dougie Evans, the projection of digital imagery by Zach Walker (MakeAmplify) and digital moving illustrations by Courtney McCarthy, the natural world enters the space to create a rich sensory world for the performers, who give voice to existential panic alongside the everyday problem solving needed to live on a hotter, more crowded, and less predictable planet.
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Disco-TECA
The Place, 17 Duke’s Road, London WC1H 9PY | 26 & 27th April
He Qi-wo, aka ErGao, is a dancer, choreographer, director, and curator from Yangjiang, Guangdong, and his ErGao Dance Production Group explores topics relevant to mainland China, dealing with socio-cultural identity, sex, and gender through the medium of the body.
Disco-TECA brings to life a unique moment in history, when a wave of Disco music took 1980s China by storm. This performance explores how China opened up to embrace the ecstatic power of disco dancing with its sequins, bell bottoms, and batwings.
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The Protecting Veil by Trinity Laban String Ensemble and Dancers
The Great Hall, 23 Lee Rd, Blackheath, London SE3 9RQ | 29 April
Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance is a breeding ground for UK talent, and it is often a treat to catch one of their performances.
This collaboration is told across eight continuous chapters depicting various moments in the life of The Mother of God (represented here by the cello, which plays throughout the performance); it offers a visual representation of the mystic spirituality of John Tavener’s work which speaks to the power of motherhood, the giving of life and its subsequent journey.
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