Kelly Apter

Romeo and Juliet

8 May 2008

When the curtain falls on Scottish Ballet’s new production, it won’t just be the performers who deserve a round of applause. Sitting in the audience, it’s easy to forget the months of planning, preparation and perspiration that go into staging a…

The Song from the Sea

8 May 2008

CHILDREN’S THEATRE Platform, Glasgow, Wed 14 & Thu 15 May In these hectic times, rarely do you hear a child complain of having nothing to do. On the contrary, moments of calm are in short supply for most children. Tapping into this modern phenomenon…

The Curve Foundation 10th Anniversary Gala

8 May 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 20 May ‘I thought if I were to have a party to celebrate ten years of the Curve Foundation, who would I invite?’ says Ross Cooper, artistic director of Curve Foundation. ‘Who has been relative to our…

Colette Sadler: The Making of Doubt

8 May 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 9 & Sat 10 May She has danced throughout Europe, won a Creative Scotland award and choreographed for Belle and Sebastian. Yet the inspiration for Colette Sadler’s latest work was found practically on her…

The Emperor’s New Kilt

24 Apr 2008

CHILDREN’S THEATRE Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Thu 24–Sat 26 Apr It’s hard to know who to praise most for this clever, funny and engaging show. There is not a single weak link to be found. The intelligent script blends humour, pathos and insightful…

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan

24 Apr 2008

CONTEMPORARY CHINESE DANCE Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 25 & Sat 26 Apr Since its formation in 2000, the Dance Consortium has brought us an array of international treats. From ballet to hip hop, the Consortium introduces diverse, innovative and…

The Emperor’s New Kilt

10 Apr 2008

CHILDREN’S THEATRE King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 12–Sat 19 Apr, then touring When Hans Christian Andersen first penned The Emperor’s New Clothes in 1837, he was issuing a veiled attack on the excesses of the Danish church. Many years later…

Heelie-go-Leerie

10 Apr 2008

CHILDREN’S THEATRE Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 11–Sun 13 Apr Clichéd though it sounds, kids often get more fun out of the box something comes in than the expensive product within. Imaginary play with cardboard tubes, dressing-up clothes and…

Edinburgh International Science Festival

27 Mar 2008

Since 1988, the Edinburgh International Science Festival has proved that the words ‘science’ and ‘fun’ are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, the Festival’s extensive programme of hands-on events has become a highlight in the interactive kiddie…

Puppet Animation Festival

27 Mar 2008

PUPPETRY Various venues across Scotland, until Sat 26 Apr Puppetry has come a long way since the days of Punch & Judy on the beach. And puppetry in Scotland has made some leaps of its own. Back in 1984, when the Puppet Animation Festival first came…

Havana Rakatan

27 Mar 2008

CUBAN DANCE Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tue 8–Sat 12 Apr To the untrained eye, Cuban dance can seem like one big mass of hip-rolling passion. When in fact the country is rich with individual dance styles, each with its own tale to tell. The history of…

Cirque du Soleil

27 Mar 2008

CIRCUS SECC, Glasgow, Wed 9 & Thu 10 Apr Think Cirque du Soleil, think big top, flying acrobats and crazy make-up. Well, the last two are still there, but Delirium sees the Canadian circus troupe crank it up a gear. Having sold out in 55 cities…

Peter & The Wolf

13 Mar 2008

DANCE & CLASSICAL MUSIC Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Wed 26 & Thu 27 Mar To young ears, an orchestra can seem like a giant melting pot of sound. And picking out which instrument is playing when is a rather tricky affair. Which is why Sergei…

The Blank Album

13 Mar 2008

As all musicians know, putting together an album isn’t just about writing songs. Running order, track length and variety of sound all come into play. So when choreographer, Natasha Gilmore decided to use the album model to create her latest dance piece…

National Year of Reading

28 Feb 2008

Compared to a stick that transforms into a golf club, tennis racket or aeroplane control, the book seems a poor choice of entertainment. But when was the last time a Nintendo Wii helped a child overcome bullying, get through their parents’ divorce or…

Nutcracker!

28 Feb 2008

NARRATIVE DANCE Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tue 11–Sat 15 Mar When it comes to getting bums on seats, a popular title goes a long way. But Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! has far more than its name to thank for the show’s phenomenal success. Like all his…

Scottish Dance Theatre

28 Feb 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Glasgow Theatre Royal, Thu 28–Fri 29 Feb When dance works – and I mean really works – it’s not your eyes that tell you, but your heart. And that rush of adrenalin. Needless to say, it doesn’t happen very often – but with Liv Lorent…

Cabbages and Kings

28 Feb 2008

CHILDREN’S DANCE THEATRE Platform, Glasgow, Sat 8 Mar; Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Sat 22 Mar As a choreographer, Claire Pençak is fuelled by a wonderfully rich imagination. So rich, in fact, that sometimes there’s only one group of people to take…

X Factor Dance Company

14 Feb 2008

SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE Freemason’s Hall, Edinburgh, Tue 19 Feb–Sat 1 Mar Eighteen years after its first performance, X Factor Dance Company is coming of age. And, like most new recruits to adulthood, is striking out into uncharted territory. For…

Heelie-Go-Leerie

14 Feb 2008

CHILDREN’S THEATRE Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Wed 20–Sat 23 Feb, then touring When Virginia Radcliffe decided to write a show about play, she knew her imagination would only take her so far. That if she wanted to capture the fantastical worlds…

Scottish Dance Theatre

14 Feb 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Dundee Rep, Thu 21–Sat 23 Feb, then touring. When dance and music come together, it’s usually a fusion of creative sources – a symbiotic partnership of composer and choreographer. But when artistic director, Janet Smith commissioned…

La La La Human Steps: Amjad

31 Jan 2008

MODERN BALLET They say a picture tells a thousand words, and the poster for La La La Human Steps’ latest show pretty much tells you all you need to know. Standing 20ft tall, male dancer Dominic Santia is wearing a sharp black suit and pointe shoes.

Martin Amis - The Second Plane

Jonathan Cape

31 Jan 2008

For maximum enjoyment of The Second Plane, readers should ideally possess two things: an ambivalent approach to religion and a rather hefty dictionary. The first because Martin Amis is not, as some people suggest, anti-Muslim, just disparaging of any…

Wee Fairy Tales

31 Jan 2008

Do you know your bahookie from your elba? If not, it’s time to stop being so glaikit and brush up on your Scots. With this most colourful of languages set to join the school curriculum sometime soon, you could do worse than give the bairns a keek at TAG…

Celtic Connections

17 Jan 2008

KIDS’ WORKSHOPS Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sat 19 Jan (percussion) & Sat 26 Jan (singing) Given that most children derive pleasure from a) making lots of noise and b) hitting things, a drumming workshop for kids seems like a match made in…

Play Ball

17 Jan 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 26 Jan Nina Rajarani is not afraid to mix things up. In her latest show, the London-based choreographer has merged a typically female Indian dance style with two largely male domains: the…

Act One

17 Jan 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 31 Jan When you talk about battles on the dancefloor, it usually involves a hip hop crew and some fairly heavy beats. But when Charlotte Vincent, artistic director of Vincent Dance Theatre, created…

Dance Base & Dance House

4 Jan 2008

DANCE CLASSES There was a time when dance classes meant scraped back buns, stern ballet teachers and splinters from the church hall floor. Not anymore. At the sleek studios of Edinburgh’s Dance Base, there’s not a loose plank in sight, and enjoyment…

Hot 100 - 2007's hottest talent

13 Dec 2007

Scottish culture has shone in 2007, and so have Scottish stars. Throughout the year we have been working tirelessly to spot the hottest talent out there. We also invited you to nominate the people, places and events you think have made the greatest…

Old Town Adventure Pack

13 Dec 2007

HISTORIC TRAIL With the Castle at one end and Holyrood Palace at the other, Edinburgh’s Royal Mile is one of the most famous streets in the world. But although the entire Old Town is steeped in history, knowing what to look for inbetween those two…

Children’s Classic Concerts

29 Nov 2007

CLASSICAL CONCERT Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 1 Dec; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 16 Dec He’s more at home behind the shop counter in Still Game, but this Christmas Sanjeev Kohli is branching out. Instead of hanging out with old boys Jack and…

Scottish Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty

29 Nov 2007

CHRISTMAS BALLET Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tue 11–Sat 29 Dec Since his arrival at Scottish Ballet, Ashley Page has been like a Christmas cracker – when his festive shows open, you never know what you’ll find inside. Both The Nutcracker and Cinderella…

White Christmas

29 Nov 2007

MUSICAL Edinburgh Playhouse, until Sat 8 Dec Starring in a soap opera can leave you typecast forever. So it’s testament to Craig McLachlan’s ability that in White Christmas he’s most definitely Bob Wallace, ex-soldier turned performer – and not…

Zadie Smith (ED) - The Book of Other People

29 Nov 2007

ANTHOLOGY The Book of Other People (Hamish Hamilton) ‘Write a short story about a person,’ said Zadie Smith to 23 of fiction’s finest. And they did, each author taking the remit into a vastly different direction. From a New York socialite to a human…

'Twas The Night Before Christmas

15 Nov 2007

AERIAL SHOW Opposite Ocean Terminal, Leith, Sat 24 Nov, 5pm The words ‘Christmas’ and ‘free’ rarely go hand in hand these days, but a one-off event in Leith is bucking the trend. ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas is a free outdoor family event…

White Christmas

15 Nov 2007

MUSICAL Edinburgh Playhouse, Mon 19 Nov–Sat 8 Dec For 13 years he was JR’s arch enemy, but these days Ken Kercheval is more likely to have a song, rather than hate, in his heart. As Scotch-drinking oilman Cliff Barnes in Dallas, Kercheval became a…

Grub's Up

1 Nov 2007

CHILDREN’S THEATRE Platform, Glasgow, Sat 3 Nov; GilmorehillG12, Glasgow, Thu 8 Nov The smell of fried onions wafts through the air as a pot of tomato soup takes shape before our eyes. No, it’s not Ready, Steady, Cook, but the latest offering from…

Rambert Dance Company

1 Nov 2007

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 7–Fri 9 Nov Grace, finesse and refinement – three things every Rambert dancer has at their disposal. But the arrival of Australian choreographer, Garry Stewart this summer, turned the company on…

Richard Alston Dance Company

1 Nov 2007

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 13 Nov Music – some choreographers can’t start work without it, while for others it’s the final piece in the jigsaw. But for Martin Lawrance, dancer and choreographer with Richard Alston Dance…

Dance: Film Festival

18 Oct 2007

In 1980 the nation went wild for legwarmers; in 1983 dance classes were filled to bursting; and in 2000 boys took to ballet like never before. Such is the power of the dance film, that Fame, Flashdance and Billy Elliot gripped the public’s imagination…

The Car Man

18 Oct 2007

DANCE THEATRE Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 30 Oct–Sat 3 Nov The small town of Harmony, USA has two things in abundance – heat and hormones. Both of which drive the town’s spirited young folk to acts of lust, infidelity and violence. Originally…

Mischief

18 Oct 2007

DANCE-THEATRE SHOW Macrobert, Stirling, Thu 18–Sat 20 Oct Aimed at children aged 7+ and their families, Mischief is a busy mix of dance, puppetry, visual art, clowning, music and song. Oh, and foam – lots and lots of foam. Award-winning children’s…

Helen Mirren - In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures

Memoir

4 Oct 2007

‘I have a blissfully forgetful brain,’ Helen Mirren informs us in the opening paragraph of her autobiography, which hardly bodes well for a book which demands total recall. But Mirren has dredged the past up from somewhere, or someone, because In the…

Lazytown Live!

4 Oct 2007

From Jamie’s School Dinners to Honey, We’re Killing The Kids, there’s no shortage of advice on how to feed our children. But perhaps the most successful TV programme to combat rising levels of childhood obesity, is aimed at the kids themselves. Created…

Susan and Darren

4 Oct 2007

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 17–Sat 20 Oct DANCE THEATRE Reality television may dominate the small screen, but seldom has it found its way into the theatre. And although the creators of Susan and Darren find the term ‘Reality Theatre’ too…

Ricky Gervais and Harry Hill

20 Sep 2007

CHILDREN’S BOOKS Once upon a time, it was perfectly acceptable for an entertainer to devote their life to one career. These days, however, if you don’t learn to ice skate, cook or dash off a kids’ book in your spare time, you’re a veritable…

Scottish Dance Theatre

6 Sep 2007

In the past ten years, Scottish Dance Theatre has commissioned over 30 works, none more captivating, emotive and engaging than Liv Lorent’s Luxuria. So it’s little wonder that for its 21st anniversary tour, the Dundee-based company has chosen to…

Open Mic@The Globe

23 Aug 2007

Introduced by amiable host, Bill Shakespeare, four of his best-loved characters step up to the mic. Hamlet is a wild-eyed Dane angry about adverts; Richard III has a mean streak a mile wide; Ophelia’s an unhinged cockney teenager; and Katherine the…

Paria

23 Aug 2007

‘Please take off your shoes,’ said the sign by the door. So we did, expecting some form of audience participation on a delicate floor. Instead, the entire show passed with no involvement for our stockinged/bare feet whatsoever. The real reason didn’t…

The Insect Circus

23 Aug 2007

While there are many other circus troupes who can climb higher and spin faster than this lot, none of them do it with six legs and antennae. During the course of 70 minutes, we’re introduced to acrobatic ants, a beautiful dying mayfly, a juggling dung…