Lauren Cuthbertson and Vadim Muntagirov lead a charismatic cast in Ashton’s poignant and heart-warming reflection on love, The Two Pigeons, based on an old French folktale and first performed on Valentine’s Day 1961 and not seen at the Royal Opera House since 1985, In his story of a wayward young man blind to the value of what is right in front him, Ashton explores the nature of love in one of his most charming, elegant and moving works.

Lauren Cuthbertson and Vadim Muntagirov lead the cast in Ashton’s poignant and heart-warming reflection on love, The Two Pigeons

Two Pigeons

Bella Figura is a one-act ballet by Jirí Kylián, first presented in 1995 by Nederlands Dans Theater.

This performance captures the masterful choreography, flowing as if it inhabits the music, while the dance space is strikingly defined by light and darkness, with black drapes used to frame the dancers in unusual ways.

Music includes compositions by Vivaldi, Giuseppe Torelli and Lukas Foss.

Jirí Kylián’s one-act ballet, Bella Figura, sets flowing, masterful dance to the music of Vivaldi and more.

Bella Figura

With Sarabande Kylian expresses both the humorous and aggressive side of his nature. Six male dancers attempt to prevail over a painfully loud acoustic wall of screams, cries, clattering instruments, and violent sounds of respiration.

Six male dancers attempt to prevail over a painfully loud acoustic wall of screams, cries, clattering instruments, and violent sounds.

Sarabande

Banned for 74 years for preaching anti-Soviet ideals, and not performed since it’s premiere in 1931, the Bolshoi Theater’s production of Shostakovich's The Bolt is revived with choreography by Alexei Ratmansky. Although today’s version has been called “incredibly exciting, outrageously entertaining, and improbably edifying, providing great fun for communists and capitalists alike”, Shostakovich was less than enthusiastic about the original plot, and described it as follows:“There's a machine. Then it breaks down (problem of wear and tear on equipment). Then they fix it (problem of amortization), and at the same time they buy a new one. Then everyone dances around the new machine. Apotheosis. All this takes three acts."

Banned for 74 years for preaching anti-Soviet ideals, and not performed since 1931, the Bolshoi with Alexei Ratmansky revives Shostakovich's The Bolt.

Bolt

According to Kylian, Mozart's spirit, and his understanding both of life's richness and madness despite it being a masquerade for something deeper and more meaningful, inspired the creation of this acclaimed work.

Mozart's spirit, and his understanding both of life's richness and madness, inspired the creation of this acclaimed work by Jiri Kylian.

Birthday

Sensual and entrancing, Kylián's Wings of Wax is an allegorical journey danced beneath the branches of an inverted tree to a hauntingly beautiful score of selections by musical giants Philip Glass, Heinrich von Biber, John Cage, and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Kylián's Wings of Wax is an allegorical journey danced beneath the branches of an inverted tree to a hauntingly beautiful score.

Wings of Wax

A captivating story told through BSL, voice and movement, Unspoken Spoken is performed by a cast of disabled and non-disabled dancers. Created and filmed with support from digital commissioning body The Space, Arts Council England and the BBC, the film seeks to raise awareness of Candoco’s work amongst a digital audience for the first time.

A captivating story told through BSL, voice and movement, Unspoken Spoken is performed by a cast of disabled and non-disabled dancers.

Unspoken Spoken (Audio Described)

The Ballet Boyz, internationally acclaimed world leaders in groundbreaking stage, film and dance projects - celebrate their 20th anniversary with Deluxe.  

Fusing the work of some of the world’s leading choreographers and composers, Deluxe showcases just why Ballet Boyz have earned their reputation. 

Deluxe includes a work by Chinese dancer and choreographer Xie Xin and Maxine Doyle, who collaborates with Cassie Kinoshi, composer of the Mercury Award nominated SEED Ensemble.

Ballet Boyz celebrate 20 years of world-class dance with Deluxe, a fusion of some of the world’s most exciting choreographers and composers. 

Deluxe

Soledad is a duo full of sensuality and emotion that explores the wild and tender aspects of a love relationship. Bonachela received the Guglielmo Ebreo Award and the Critics Award at the first international Biennale Danza Italia competition for independent choreographers, in Italy, 2006.

Soledad is a duo full of sensuality and emotion that explores the wild and tender aspects of a love relationship.

Soledad

With BiT, Maguy Marin signs her forty-ninth opus in barely forty years. At the center of this brutal charge against ordinary barbarism lies the question of rhythm.

The title refers to the computer term for the unit of measurement of information, this word-syllable gives an initial rhythmic drive, after which the show takes shape, relentless succession of scansions and impulses, twists and tensions orchestrated with the feverish rigor of a dance both joyful and desperate. As a constant in the piece, in an obsessive continuity, the same structure: the farandole, a form of collective dance passed down through the ages, is the recurring motif. All the colors of the human condition slide in, love rites and dances of death. On an exhilarating techno music all in beats, the entire show has no shortage of cruelty on the analysis of contemporary society, in the dark conclusion of the dominations exerted on the intimate as well as the social, a deterioration of which we ourselves are the actors. BiT takes us into the depths of our humanity and questions our individual responsibilities in the turmoil of each passing day.

BiT takes us into the depths of our humanity and questions our individual responsibilities in the turmoil of each passing day.

Choreography premiered by Danza Contemporánea de Cuba in 1987, and inspired by the homonymous play of the Peruvian playwright Alonso Alegría. In 2015, Carlos Acosta recovered the piece for the repertoire of his company Acosta Danza. This Duet focuses on a tightrope walk across Niagara Falls showing the sheer strength and focus of a dancer as they move faultlessly across the stage. Boan’s El cruce sobre el Niágara is one of the most important choreographies of modern Cuban dance.

Boan’s El cruce sobre el Niágara is one of the most important choreographies of modern Cuban dance.

El Cruce Sobre El Niágra

Set to contrasting scores by Charlotte Harding and Keaton Henson, Them/Us is an inventive double bill asking where we see ourselves in relation to the “other,” and explores the fine balance between them and us. Them is created through a unique choreographic process by the dancers. The piece explores the versatility of movement which the company has always been known for and proves to be an exciting culmination of the experience gained after 20 years of working with leading artists. Tony and Olivier Award-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon concludes the evening with Us, exploring human connections and culminating in a tender duet.

Them/Us is an inventive double bill asking where we see ourselves in relation to the “other,” and explores the fine balance between them and us.

Them/Us

Three incredible performances in a range of styles from ballet to hip-hop to tap. Together for the first time, Tiler Peck, Lil Buck, Sierra Boggess, Brooklyn Mack, and the Syncopated Ladies take the stage in works by Chloe Arnold and Jennifer Weber, and a world premiere from Christopher Wheeldon.

Three incredible performances in a range of styles from ballet to hip-hop to tap.

A New Stage: Curated by Tiler Peck

Betroffenheit is a word which means trauma, bewilderment and shock. A fitting title for this boundary-stretching hybrid of theater and dance, created by Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young. 

The powerful performance is inspired by Young’s real-life trauma, conjuring art from the pain of losing his daughter, niece and nephew in a fire.  

Combining tap, salsa, spoken word, song and puppetry, Betroffenheit is a witty, tender exploration of isolation and coming to terms with tragedy. It was the recipient of the 2017 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production and the Outstanding Performance in Modern Dance at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. 

Watch this thrilling performance recorded during its sold out run at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre.

Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young's Olivier winning BETROFFENHEIT is a bold hybrid of theater and dance that explores trauma, grief and addiction.

Betroffenheit

Adapted from the anti-play Offending the Audience by Austrian playwright Peter Handke and enriched by Ohad Naharin’s innovative, movement language Gaga, the Bessie-award winning Naharin’s Virus exemplifies the choreographer’s aesthetic with the sole purpose of showing the naked reality of a moment in space. The varied soundtrack includes classical music, original music by Karni Postel, and adaptations of traditional Arabic music by Habib Alla Jamal and Shama Khader.

Adapted by Ohad Naharin from the anti-play Offending the Audience by the Nobel-winning Austrian playwright Peter Handke.

Naharin's Virus

After the success of their collaboration in Boxe Boxe (2010), choreographer Mourad Merzouki and the Debussy string quartet once again explore the mixing of genres. This piece transforms boxing into a poetic dance, accompanied by music that channels Brazilian energy through classical string instruments. Although they are improbable, Merzouki and Compagnie Käfig’s crossbreeding of genres and styles consistently prove visionary and exciting. Boxe Boxe Brasil is no exception.

Choreographer Mourad Merzouki and the Debussy string quartet once again explore the mixing of genres

Boxe Boxe Brasil

BalletBoyz perform Liam Scarlett’s Serpent and Russell Maliphant’s Fallen with music by Max Richter and Armand Amar, accompanied by BBC Concert Orchestra.

BalletBoyz perform Liam Scarlett’s Serpent and Russell Maliphant’s Fallen.

Ballet Boyz Live at the Roundhouse

This Christopher Bruce ballet is set to Janáček's String Quartet No.2. The composer wrote this piece in 1928, the last year of his life, inspired by his unconsummated love for a young married woman he had met in 1917 and to whom he wrote over six hundred letters. Bruce's lyrical work expresses both the joy and the anguish that are present in Janáček's music.

This Christopher Bruce ballet is set to Janáček's String Quartet No.2.

Jewels

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