It's a quieter week this week, with the Royal Ballet triple bill wrapping up, Birmingham Royal Ballet's triple bills making a brief appearance, and Dance Umbrella starts to draw to a close. Here at Cloud Dance Festival, this means we're all taking a bit of a break, but in the meantime, here are some shows to consider seeing:
Highlights
Royal Ballet: Limen / Marguerite & Armand / Requiem, 20 October
Royal Opera House
Tickets & Details: www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=16852
There's only one performance left, and just 13 tickets available at the time of writing, but this triple bill is absolutely worth seeing! Limen hasn't been receiving much appreciation from critics or audiences, but the pairing of Tamara Rojo and Sergei Polunin in Ashton's Marguerite & Armand - originally choreographed on Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev - is breathtaking, while Kenneth MacMillan's Requiem is one of the most beautiful pieces of dance you'll see. And Lauren Cuthbertson and Federico Bonelli are absolutely beautiful to watch.
Birmingham Royal Ballet: 'Autumn Glory', 18 & 19 October
Sadler's Wells
Tickets & details: www.sadlerswells.com/show/Birmingham-Royal-Ballet-2011
Trailer: vimeo.com/27865571
Birmingham Royal Ballet return to Sadler's Wells with Fille mal gardée (20 - 22 October; strictly for the classical ballet fans) and Autumn Glory, a triple bill for those of us who prefer our dance to be more modern. The programme includes Ninette de Valois's highly stylised Checkmate, one of Frederick Ashton's best-loved works, Symphonic Variations, and the truly hilarious Pineapple Poll by John Cranko.
Lucinda Childs Dance Company, 18 - 22 October
Barbican Centre
Tickets & details: www.danceumbrella.co.uk/page/3260/DANCE/432
This is a rare opportunity to watch Lucinda Childs' 1979 signature work which was last performed in Dance Umbrella in 1994. It opened on 19 October to rave reviews: if you only see one Dance Umbrella show this year, make sure it's this one!
Worth Seeing
Richard Alston Dance Company, 19 - 22 October
The Place
This is a retrospective of Richard Alston's prolific output, with extracts of works dating back to 1969, a revival of Robert Cohan's 'In Memory' and the premiere of a new solo by Martin Lawrance.
This is preceded by 'Alston Takes Cover', where several of The Place's Work Place artists interpret Richard Alston's 1983 classic 'Wildlife'.
Ballet Association: Edward Watson, 21 October
Bloomsbury Baptist Church, 235 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8EP
Details: www.balletassociation.co.uk
Ballet Association's guest speaker for their October meeting is Royal Ballet principal dancer Edward Watson, recently seen in Arthur Pita's Metamorphosis, inspiring the Twitter hashtag #treaclecoveredwigglytoes
Cloud Dance Festival Corner
Hagit Yakira: 'Sunday Morning', 19 October (6pm)
Michaelis Dance Theatre, Roehampton University
Tickets & details: www.roehampton.ac.uk/dance/events
In case you've missed the previous performances of 'Sunday Morning' and can get to Roehampton University for 6pm, this is another chance to see Hagit Yakira's lighthearted physical theatre piece about flatmates exploring "the place of memories of childhood, of family, of home, and of fear of loss."