Out of 148 dance performances at 27 different venues across London during 2014 as well as another 22 performances around the UK and in Russia, Poland, Spain, France and Belgium – Graham Watts from Londondance gives a month by month run down of his highlights in 2014…
JULY
The Russian Seasons of XXI Century
London Coliseum, 8 – 13 July
The jewel in the crown of this excellent season, (a co-production of the Natalia Sats Theatre Moscow and the Maris Liepa Foundation) vying for our attention in the final days of the Football World Cup, was the opulent recreation of Rimsky-Korsakov’s satirical opera-ballet, Le Coq d’Or, by former Bolshoi Ballet star dancer, Andris Liepa, and opera director, Georgiy Isaakyan. The sumptuous, colourful designs, delicious music and glorious singing outweighed the more modest descriptive dancing but the production brought back to life a significant piece of arts history. Later programmes included delightful performances of Petrushka, Chopiniana and Scheherazade in stellar evenings that were concluded by the rip-roaring finale of the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin’s opera Prince Igor with Pavel Okunev becoming a human crackerjack in delivering Nijinsky’s famous role as the Polovtsian warrior, criss-crossing the stage in an explosion of leaps and somersaults.
