The New York dance scene is quiet this August with not much going on until the National Ballet of Canada performs Alice in Wonderland at Lincoln Center in September. However, the London dance scene is active.
Mariinsky Swan Lake
Luke Jennings of the Observer thinks Mariinsky’s Oksana Skorik has a great future. From his review of Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House: “From her first entrance, you know that you’re watching a potentially very fine dancer indeed.”
The previous evening, former Royal Ballet Corps member Xander Parish was outstanding, according to Jennings:
…Parish is nothing short of superb. He has come a long way in the four years since he departed the Royal Ballet for the Mariinsky, and Fateyev has turned him, as he promised to do, into a Russian danseur noble.
Mariinsky Mixed Bill
Sarah Crompton of the Telegraph has great things to say about the Mariinsky’s mixed bill at the Royal Opera House: “A rarely seen Balanchine ballet is a revelation – as is a young dancer from Hull – in the Mariinsky’s double bill at the Royal Opera House.” The young dancer from Hull is Xander Parish.
Under Yuri Fateyev’s watchful eye, the boy from Hull is becoming quite a dancer. Here he landed on stage like a bedraggled colt, finding his feet, his limbs splaying out of control. As the work progressed, he found punchy power and huge elevation in the jumps, humour in the games with his muses, and a boyish charm that vanishes when he accepts his godlike status.
Osipova and Vasiliev Panned
Jeffrey Taylor of the Express doesen’t have anything nice to say about about Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev in Solo for Two.
Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev are blessed with talents placing them among the world’s greatest of today’s dancers. But based on last week’s shudderingly embarrassing West End season, one virtue is absent from their considerable endowments – common sense.
As the couple failed to sense disaster before the curtain rose at all, my advice to them is sack your manager at once.