Dance

Ballet West: Swan Lake

Production combining professional and students tours Scotland

3 Feb 2012

When you’ve left school and moved onto a new life, going back to where it all began could feel like a backward step. If the school in question is in a beautiful location – the Scottish Highlands – it starts to sound more appealing. Throw in a fantastic…

Choreographer Bawren Tavaziva talks Sensual Africa

The dancer's new performance explores African tribal rituals with contemporary dance

3 Feb 2012

Born in rural Zimbabwe, Bawren Tavaziva was well aware of the tribes living in his area. But having moved to bustling capital Harare at the age of four, he soon became more concerned with football, Michael Jackson and martial arts movies, before moving…

Interview: Choreographer Christine Devaney

Artistic director of Scottish contemporary dance company Curious Seed

1 Feb 2012

Christine Devaney, artistic director of Scottish contemporary dance company Curious Seed, tells us all about her new production, PUSH What made you want to be a choreographer? I’ve honestly never thought ‘I want to be a choreographer’, but I knew I…

Alexandra Burke's party album

Music Gossip

11 Jan 2012

Alexandra Burke wants to make people "get up and go for a great night out" with her new album. The 'Broken Heels' singer is "99 per cent" complete with her second record, and has made a group of tracks which will hopes will inspire people to party…

Four List readers share their New Year's resolutions

An insight into getting started in trapeze, cookery, ballet or capoeira

6 Jan 2012

'The feeling of achievement is amazing' Name Denise Deutsch Age 30 Profession Fabric buyer, Mandors Skill Trapeze and Aerial Arts I fell into the idea of aerial arts as a hobby after unexpectedly getting a ticket to see Leona Lewis perform in…

Scottish Ballet - Sleeping Beauty

Dynamic and opulent restaging of Ashley Page's 2007 hit

6 Jan 2012

Choreographed by Ashley Page in 2007, as part of a triumvirate of winter ballets he has made with designer Antony McDonald, Sleeping Beauty is opulence itself. Opening in a Victorian hothouse, the guests at Princess Aurora’s christening are lavishly…

Loic Lalande and Tom Pritchard Double Bill

Contemporary dancer Tom Pritchard discusses the stress and excitement of performing new works

19 Dec 2011

The idea of dancing alone on stage is, for most of us, the stuff of stress dreams. For Tom Pritchard, however, leaving out the advance planning, choreography and a soundtrack is the most exciting way to perform. ‘It’s very raw and present,’ he says…

Top Hat

Loving tribute to the Fred'n'Ginger classic, starring Tom Chambers and Summer Strallen

24 Nov 2011

According to legend, screen hoofer Fred Astaire was such a perfectionist that, during the 40th take of a scene from Swing Time (1936), his partner Ginger Rogers’ feet started to bleed through her satin slippers. In this stage adaptation of one of…

The Shoogle Project - Frank McConnell of Plan B

Trad Scottish band Shooglenifty collaborate with dance group Plan B

15 Nov 2011

How did the Shoogle Project come about, and who is involved? I went to see Shooglenifty at a gig in Cromarty about three years ago and just loved their great dance music. When I put the idea of doing a show jointly they were unequivocal in a…

Phoenix Dance Theatre: Declarations

Four innovative pieces from the acclaimed dance collective

15 Nov 2011

When Phoenix Dance Theatre (formerly Company) was created in 1981, the founders could scarcely have known how appropriate the name would prove to be. On many occasions over the past 30 years, the company has been re-born from the ashes of what went…

Interview: Matthew Bourne - Choreographer of the Month

Witty and glamorous re-working of the Nutcracker returns to Scotland

15 Nov 2011

What made you want to be a choreographer? I was always putting on shows when I was a kid, and taking part in local amateur things. I thought I wanted to be an actor, and I tried it when I was about 15, but couldn’t bear using my voice. I was quite shy…

Ever been to a silent disco with a Chinese dragon?

25 Oct 2011

Ever explored a museum at night? Ever had a cocktail surrounded by thousands of years of history? Ever been to a silent disco with a Chinese dragon? Thanks to the support of RBS and The List, the National Museum of Scotland is bringing you an exclusive…

Company Chordelia introduces us to the beautiful-but-dark dance piece Miranda

Chordelia's artistic director Kally Lloyd Jones discusses the production

21 Oct 2011

If you find yourself slightly puzzled at the start of Miranda, the new show from Company Chordelia, then don’t worry – the lead character is, too. ‘Miranda is lost,’ explains the company’s artistic director, Kally Lloyd Jones. ‘She’s been at a party…

Rambert Dance Company's Seven for a Secret

Composer Stephen McNeff reworks Ravel score for new production

21 Oct 2011

He’s one of Britain’s finest opera composers, garnering awards and commissions at home and abroad. Yet even Stephen McNeff had a moment of trepidation when it came to re-arranging the work of one of his heroes. Choreographed by Rambert’s artistic…

DANCE: FILM 2011 festival roundup

Films about Bill T Jones, Tanja Liedtke, Mariemma and Pina Bausch feature at the 2011 fest

21 Oct 2011

When you’ve got a meaty filling, there’s nothing wrong with wrapping it in a bit of frivolous puff pastry. That’s the strategy taken by DANCE:FILM director, Steph Wright with this, her fourth festival celebrating the coming together of movement and…

Liv Lorent, of balletLORENT - interview

The Newcastle-based company are touring Scotland with sensual new work La Nuit Intime

17 Oct 2011

What made you want to be a choreographer? I couldn’t be the dancer I wanted to be, but felt compelled to marry the dancers I did adore with the music I loved. I still feel that this is something I need to do, and enjoy collaborating with others towards…

Sonia Sabri of Kathakbox - where Indian dance-meets-hip hop

The choreographer on shared musical and rhythmic roots

21 Sep 2011

Picture the scene – you meet somebody from a different country, you can’t speak their language, they can’t speak yours, but somehow you find a way to communicate. Well that’s exactly what Sonia Sabri has been doing for the past nine years, only for her…

Wayne McGregor / Random Dance - Far

The choreographer discusses his latest work, Far, which is inspired by the Age of Enlightenment

19 Sep 2011

While it’s true that behind every piece of dance lies hours of thought, few choreographers can lay claim to quite the mental heavy work of Wayne McGregor. In recent years, his exploration into the world of cognitive science has helped generate a large…

Scottish Ballet: Kings 2 Ends and Pennies From Heaven

Artistic director Ashley Page discusses the upcoming ballet double-bill

13 Sep 2011

What made you want to be a choreographer? I’ve always been interested in the creative process across all the arts, and as a dancer at the Royal Ballet I had the good fortune to be involved in the creation of new work with some of the finest…

Re-Triptych

Mesmerising epic journey of dance

2 Sep 2011

Even as we file into the auditorium, the mesmerising spectacle has begun. The dancers sit holding golden bowls, calmly anointing the final touches on a huge mandala - a geometric Buddhist symbol - made from blue and white confetti covering the whole…

Scottish Ballet

An evening of contemporary classics

1 Sep 2011

For a programme dominated by music from the great canon of composers, the opening to Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo’s Kings 2 Ends, a silent dynamic solo, comes as a surprise. But it’s curiously pleasing. It lets the clean stretched lines of the dance…

Scottish Ballet at 2011 Edinburgh International Festival

Ashley Page and Jorma Elo on the EIF programme

25 Aug 2011

Ashley Page maintains that, when putting together Scottish Ballet’s new double bill for the Edinburgh International Festival, pairing the legendary Scottish choreographer Kenneth MacMillan’s neo-classical 1965 piece Song of the Earth with a completely…

Drought and Rain (Re-creation 2011) at Edinburgh International Festival

Ea Sola dance piece gives voice to the pain of war

24 Aug 2011

In 1995, when Vietnamese choreographer Ea Sola created her original version of Drought and Rain, she cast elderly women who were once dancers in their youth. Due to circumstances – a war raging through their country – the women had swapped dancing shoes…

Shen Wei Dance Arts perform Re-Triptych at 2011 Edinburgh International Festival

Five reasons why missing it is not an option

24 Aug 2011

1: The Inspiration Shen Wei made a personal pilgrimage to Cambodia, Tibet and his birthplace, China to create Re (i), (ii) and (iii). Now the three works have been sewn together to form Re-Triptych, they form a diverse, largely abstract emotional…

Sriyah

Ancient dance in a modern era

24 Aug 2011

Studying for ten hours a day, six days a week for six years, the dancers at the Nrityagram school near Bangalore know that to truly absorb Indian classical dance takes time. The first student to emerge from the residential course, Surupa Sen graduated…