Best Dance of 2018
Difficult to pick a limited list of Best Dance of 2018, a year that brought us many good classical and contemporary programmes. However, here are some of the highlights
Matthew Bourne/New Adventures, Swan Lake at Sadler's Wells
The year ends on a high with the return of Mathew Bourne's epoch-making Swan Lake and its massed ranks of fierce male swans, now reworked for the 21st century. Bourne's Swan Lake is Sadler's Wells Christmas offering.
Read more ...Akram Khan, Xenos Review ★★★★★
In May Akram Khan said good-bye to full length solo performance with Xenos, his own homage to the Indian soldiers of World War I, in the year that marked the centenary of the Armistice
Read more ...Shobana Jeyasingh, Contagion Review ★★★★★
Also part of the commemorations of the 1914-18 period, Shobana Jayasingh's visceral Contagion remembered the 5 million victims of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic
Read more ...Review: Mark Morris Dance Group/Silkroad Ensemble, Layla and Majnun ★★★★★
The love story of Layla and Majnun, as told in an Azerbaijani opera adapted by the multicultural Silkroad Ensemble and choreographed by the American Mark Morris, dazzled at Sadler's Wells.
Read more ...Ballet British Columbia Review ★★★★★
A stunning London debut for Canada's Ballet British Columbia brought us a carefully picked triple bill of works by its alumna Crystal Pite, current artistic director Emily Molnar and the in-fashion Israeli choreographer, Sharon Eyal
Read more ...Semperoper Ballett, All Forsythe Review ★★★★★
Another stunning Sadler's Wells debut: this time from Semperoper Ballett Dresden, in a triple bill of works by William Forsythe, with whom the company has had a long a fruitful relationship
Read more ...Review: Boy Blue, Blak Whyte Gray ★★★★★
Boy Blue have done more to bring hip hop to diverse audiences than any other company. The welcome return of Blak Whyte Gray had the Barbican audience on its feet
Read more ...I INFINITE, Tom Dale Company Review ★★★★★
With the visually stunning I INFINITE the choreographer Tom Dale proved that real and virtual can coexist, complement each other and provide much food for thought
Read more ...Review: Scottish Dance Theatre, Velvet Petal ★★★★★
In a relatively rare foray into London, Scottish Dance Theatre enraptured the audience in the Southbank Centre's Purcell Room with Velvet Petal, choreographer Fleur Darkin's reworking of the punk era for the 21st century
Read more ...ENB, The Sleeping Beauty Review ★★★★★
2018 saw the welcome return to the stage of the delightful Romanian ballerina Alina Cojucaru, after the birth of her baby daughter. Her Aurora in ENB's Sleeping Beauty, garnered universal acclaim
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