Reviews & features: Dance

Cento Cose marks multimedia dance debut for physical theatre collective

Award-winning look at day-to-day life with Aphex Twin score

Italian physical theatre collective Compagnia della Quarta’s multimedia Fringe debut is based on the idea that there are ‘cento cose’ (‘one hundred things’ in Italian) that contemporary life requires us to do each working day. ‘We started with “we do…

Cabaret Chordelia - Making a Song and Dance

Cabaret with a heart and mind

Company Chordelia is known for its willingness to push the boundaries of modern dance and strike an emotional chord. Something which looks set to continue when they bring their latest performance Cabaret Chordelia to the Fringe. Described as an…

Fringe dance show Still shows impact of war

Dundee-based Smallpetitklein promise intense physical performance

The brutality and devastating impact of war was the inspiration behind Smallpetitklein’s Fringe show. A double-bill featuring contemporary dance work Stiller by award-winning choreographer Thomas Small, and short film Unmoving, Still doesn’t pull any…

Five questions: Natalie Trewinnard of Scottish Dance Theatre

SDT's shows Drift, NQR and other Fringe dance highlights

Give us five reasons to come and see SDT’s two Fringe shows Three contrasting works of total theatre; powerfully athletic; SDT dancers have individuality and personality; groundbreaking work; thought-provoking. Tell us four more Fringe dance shows…

Flawless follow StreetDance 3D spot with Chase the Dream

Dance show from Britain’s Got Talent stars

They don’t come much slicker than this. Despite being denied the top prize on Britain’s Got Talent in 2009, Flawless has been true to its catchphrase, ‘Chase the dream, not the competition’, and continues to reach for the top. Having recently starred in…

Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal to run at Edinburgh Festival

The legacy of the German choreographer at the 2010 International Festival

The death of Pina Bausch has left a gaping void in European dance. Kelly Apter introduces her final work for the EIF and discusses the German innovator’s legacy with those who were both influenced and moved by her

Festival collaboration unites Alonzo King Lines Ballet with Zakir Hussain

EIF show fuses Indian classical music and contemporary American ballet

Zakir Hussain was always destined for musical greatness: one look at his childhood bedtime routine will tell you that. For years he would come home from school and go straight to sleep, only to be awakened by his father at midnight to rehearse through…

BalletLORENT's Blood, Sweat and Tears

Quirky, emotive dance theatre from Newcastle-based group

Despite being a mere stone’s throw away from Scotland, we see tragically little of Newcastle-based balletLORENT. Easily one of the most interesting female choreographers in the world today, Liv Lorent produces quirky, emotive dance theatre that always…

Edinburgh Festival 2010: More Fringe show highlights

Some of the shows to look out for at the Fringe

With over 2,400 shows to choose from at this years Fringe festival, it's all to easy to succumb to the paradox of choice. Here we present our picks for some of the smaller shows that are worth looking out for.

Choreographer Jean Abreu brings Inside show to Edinburgh Fringe

Abreu uses dance to look at prison life

Picture spending day after endless day trapped behind a locked door, for which someone else has the key. That’s where Jean Abreu’s imagination has been residing for the best part of two years, during the creation of his new work, Inside. The…

An overview of the 2010 Edinburgh Festivals and their directors

What to expect from Edinburgh in August

Nowhere does a festival quite like Edinburgh, and even with the film folk having long moved out of August, there is more than plenty going on for lovers of art, literature, comedy, theatre, kids entertainment, music, dance and military displays. The…

Fifty Edinburgh Fringe shows for a fiver

The economy may be in the stink-hole, but Julia Correia and Allan Radcliffe help stretch your pennies with this round-up of Fringe theatre shows for a fiver

Mela 2010 programme includes Cargo, Jaz Dhami and Bonafide

Setting its stall from 6–8 Aug in Leith Links, this summer’s Mela jamboree includes the premiere of Cargo, a large-scale outdoor performance on the theme of migration, funded by the Scottish Parliament. Other highlights include sports at Leith Links, UK…

Edinburgh festivals line-ups announced

Whatever your cultural poison, Edinburgh’s festival circuit has it covered

Edinburgh, My Home: Jonathan Mills

Edinburgh International Festival director Jonathan Mills on the virtues and indiscretions of his adopted home

John Adams and Lee Breuer among Edinburgh International Festival 2010 highlights

As the programme is launched for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, we cast an eye over the highlights

Boh

Moving dance exploration of women’s roles

This solo performance piece created by the Sanpapié theatre-dance company opens with a women sitting in a kitchen-like space munching on popcorn, a faraway look in her eyes. From time to time, props and bits of costume are fired out of a wardrobe at the…

Gelabert Azzopardi Companyia de Dansa

Works of total theatre from Cesc Gelabert

Catalan choreographer, Cesc Gelabert is back at the Edinburgh International Festival after a five-year absence. He’s been missed, and the two new works he delivers in this double-bill show exactly why. These are works of total theatre, where music…

Up and Over It!

Irish dance finds a new direction

Just as shows such as Riverdance sought to release Irish dancing from the steely grip of the competitive circuit, this entertaining hour seeks to liberate the form yet further. Dancers Suzanne Cleary and Peter Harding have toured the world, won every…

Dance hitlist

Everything Must Go, Flhip Flhop: Everything Happens on the Break, Michael Clark, Scottish Ballet, Zeitgeist

Brazilian Fever

Hot Latin moves fail to ignite a proper fire

You can’t help but feel cheated by this show. Promising to be a ‘Brazilian cabaret variety show fusing samba, funk, afro and jazz dance routines with theatrical and seductive compositions’, it’s more of a sparse two-woman routine taking place in an old…

Kataklo Athletic Dance Theatre's Love Machines

Athletic dance without depth

Love Machines provides evidence that a good concept and strong technique is not enough. Based on the works of Leonardo da Vinci, and apparently set in an underground cave inhabited by strange creatures, Kataklo throw together kitsch costumes, a poor…

Scottish Ballet

Three diverse works from our national ballet company, all of which will put these increasingly powerful dancers to the test. Reportedly his own personal favourite, Sir Frederick Ashton’s Scenes de Ballet opens the night with style and sophistication.

Let's Dance: Michael Clark Company

With Bowie on the soundtrack, Clark's new work is the flagship show of the EIF's dance programme

When you’re the closest thing the dance world has to a household name, every word you say, work you create and mistake you make is documented and kept for posterity. Despite turning 47 in June, Michael Clark is still dogged by the term ‘enfant…

Everything Must Go (or the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles)

Dad, in drag, in memoriam

It says on the programme notes that this show is a labour of love, and it is. Kristin Fredricksson’s father Karl was a hurdler, a ballet dancer, a drag enthusiast, a comic, a creator of characters, and a hoarder. He died of cancer in June this year; and…