Reviews & features: Dance

Juilliard School bring upcoming dance stars to Edinburgh International Festival

High profile American dance institution set for Playhouse performance

Each August scores of budding artists, many still studying their craft, flock to Edinburgh to test their performance mettle in what even die-hard professionals might regard as a dauntingly competitive market. It’s these same young people – a few of…

Leigh Warren + Dancers - Breathe/Impulse

The choreographer bringing his 'group of individuals' to Edinburgh International Festival

In some dance companies you have soloists and principals, in others everybody is on the same level. But rarely are company members described as ‘a group of individual dance artists’, as they are on the Leigh Warren website. When he started his company…

Cinderella

Cartoonish vibes in choreographer Alexei Ratmansky's ultimately glorious Perrault adaptation

As with contemporary productions of Shakespeare, the measure of a fairytale ballet isn't so much the story but what you do with it. Here choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, who created the piece for the Mariinksy in 2002, has chosen to bring a cartoonish…

Soy de Cuba

Song and dance spectacular a real feel-good Fringe show

This is not so much a feel-good Fringe show as a feel-sizzling-hot-and-leave-dripping-with-sweat show. Song and dance spectacular Soy de Cuba is so full of perma-grins, saucy winks and jazzily acrobatic moves it could be a cruise ship act. But, minutes…

Silent

Witty and moving portrayal of life on the streets

Shuffling across the stage under a blanket, Pat Kinevane slowly makes his way towards the audience. Peering out from underneath the dirty and torn material, glittery eye shadow adorning each lid, he starts to speak. What are we expecting him to say? A…

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…

Programme for the Edinburgh International Festival 2013 puts artists and technology centre-stage

Tod Machover, the Wooster Group and Oper Frankfurt among the EIF programme highlights

A crowd sourced orchestral work by boundary breaker Tod Machover is just one of the many highlights of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival programme. Set over three weeks this August, the EIF’s line-up includes an homage to Allen Ginsberg with…

Interview: Laurent Garnier and Angelin Preljocaj at Edinburgh Festival 2012

Producer and choreographer collaborate on And then, one thousand years of peace

‘Laurent Garnier has been making the planet dance for 25 years.’ So states the opening line of the Frenchman’s personal website. While there’s a hint of hyperbole in that statement, it’s fair to say Garnier has filled a few floors in his time. From…

Slender Threads

Sensitive portrayal of a woman’s experience of cancer

Chickenshed is not a company to shy away from difficult or painful subject matters. Previous shows have dealt with knife crime and the true story of a 19-year-old boy who was killed while fleeing a robbery scene. Here they lay bare a woman’s experience…

Uncharted Waters

Homage to life on the waves told through aerial circus skills

The wayward charm of running away to sea is beautifully captured by aerial dance and roguish shanties, in this three-part collaboration between Strange Bird Zirkus and All or Nothing. Lucy Deacon and Jennifer Paterson lure us in with their parallels…

The Vanishing Point

Awe inspiring spectacle on stilts

The Vanishing Point is sheer delight. The stilt walkers, communicating to each other through some sort of primeval whale song, trace a pattern of evolution from dinosaur-like creatures and sexually charged tribal people to, briefly, dead-eyed office…

Batsheva Dance Company - Hora

Gaga dancers showcase their inventive style

For many years Israeli-born choreographer Ohad Naharin has been developing his own language of abstract dance with the suitably eccentric name 'Gaga'. In Hora a grass green box provides the backdrop for his cast of 11 to exercise their Gaga flexibility…

Juilliard Dance

Triple bill from the 'holy grail of dance schools'

Although student showcases abound on the Fringe, not many make it to the International Festival. But then this is Juilliard, one of the world's most highly regarded dance schools. The expectations for this triple bill are therefore justifiably high, and…

Ballet Preljocaj: And then, one thousand years of peace

Radical re-imagining of the Book of Revelation

'Revolution and revelation' are two of the themes Angelin Preljocaj cites in his radical re-working of St John's Apocalypse, a piece that beguiles both with the changing textures of its movement and the surreal beauty of its images, set to a scorching…

Batsheva Dance Company: Hora

Learning the new language of dance

For most of us, the word ‘gaga’ means one of two things: an anthemic, hands-in-the-air Queen song, or a peroxide blonde dressed in meat. At Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv, however, it has a whole other meaning. The brainchild of Israeli artistic…

Russia's Mariinsky Ballet bring Cinderella to Edinburgh International Festival

Five reasons why you shouldn't miss it

The company You might know them as the Kirov, but back home they’re called the Mariinsky Ballet, and this St Petersburg-based troupe is widely recognised as being one of the finest classical ballet companies in the world. The choreographer A former…

Rhythmic Circus: Feet Don't Fail Me Now

Hugely impressive dance and music collaboration

Rhythmic Circus are a group of friends who hail mainly from Minnesota, and their strong, close connection is one of the things that makes Feet Don’t Fail Me Now so enjoyable, right from the outset. The quartet of four hugely impressive tap dancers…

Sulle Labbra Tue Dolcissime (On Your Honey Lips)

Sensual slow-burning dance from Siena

This intriguing piece from Siena-based Francesca Selva Company is a bit of a slow burner. But stick with it and it will reap delicious visual rewards. Starting with the image of a dove -- part of Giovanni Mezzedimi's multimedia collaboration with…

Dance icon Deborah Colker brings Tatyana to 2012 Edinburgh International Festival

Brazilian choreographer brings show based on Pushkin's Eugene Onegin to Edinburgh

When you approach the latest dance production by trailblazing, Olivier Award-winning Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker, please jettison clichés of samba, sun and surf. The small, blonde dynamo, 52 this year, is hugely popular in her native country…

Top 5 international dance shows at Fringe 2012

Featuring Latin Live, Hi-Kick, Mother Africa, Rhythmic Circus and Knee Deep

Latin Live The team that brought you Brazil! Brazil! are back, with another hot and steamy show that mixes Latin rhythms, sensational vocals and the kind of dancing they don’t teach you at Sunday school. Assembly Rooms, 0844 693 3008, until 26 Aug…

Minnesota-based dance company Rhythmic Circus present Feet Don’t Fail Me Now!

Described as ‘a cross between a dance show, a rock concert and a comedy hour,’ the Minnesota-based Rhythmic Circus is back for a full run after just one week at the 2011 Fringe. Featuring four hard-hitting, rapid-fire dancers and original…

Irish company ponydance return to Fringe 2012 with Anybody Waitin'?

The team follow up on their successful 2010 show Where Did It All Go Right?

In August 2010, an Edinburgh nightclub was commandeered for an entirely new use. In some ways, it was business as usual – beer was served, steps were danced and flirtations took place. Only this time, it was performers, rather than clubbers, doing the…

Edinburgh Fringe dance show Flash Mob brings together TV dance show favourites

Tommy Franzen and others from Got to Dance and So You Think You Can Dance?

Performance-based reality TV shows get a bad rap for chewing up talent and spitting it out again. That’s where this production by World Dance Management steps in with a slick new show spotlighting dancers who shot to prominence on programmes like Sky1’s…

Twenty top shows at the 2012 Edinburgh Festivals

Highlights from the Fringe, Book and International Festivals

Having scanned the 23.6m shows, exhibitions and events across the festival in late July, August and early September, we pluck out the ones that simply cannot be missed

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2012: Dance highlights

Flash Mob, Rhythmic Circus, What the Folk! and more

Anybody Waitin’? All those who saw Ponydance Theatre Company’s laugh-out-loud funny 2011 Fringe show, Where Did it All Go Right? will be hoping that the Irish troupe hit the spot again this year. Odds on, they will, so don’t miss it. Silk Nightclub…