Matthew Paluch

Is there anything similar to The Sleeping Beauty overture? With Tchaikovsky filling the theatre with full-blown fairy tale drama - it's quite the opener.

“When are we old? How can experience and embodied knowledge be brought into creative play? And what is the role of dance in questioning the idealisation of youth in our culture?”

The Elixir Festival returns to Sadler’s Wells with the same, integral mission: “rethinking perceptions around dance and age.”

The evening includes ten works and the premise is an important, and pressing one: where is ballet (as we know it) going…?

Life With Oscar is an autobiographical monologue written, and performed by Nicholas Cohen that takes the audience on a trip to the darker side of La La Land.

Inger's Carmen is successful in two key ways: firstly it tells the existing narrative of Carmen incredibly clearly, secondly it actually does so with “new resonance' - who'd have thunk it.

Original programming continues at the Royal Opera House, Linbury Theatre with the ever original Yorke Dance Project

The entire evening confirms MacMillan’s scope as a choreographer, but we knew that already right?

Wayne McGregor has been working with digital intelligence in relation to creativity since 2017, and why not? This is the digital age after all. Who needs humans?!

From the outset, the word/concept heavy narration often doesn't relate to the disjointed movement being executed, so disconnection feels apparent

In the 2024 UK premiere of his 2020 work, INK, we see Papaioannou himself and Šuka Horn perform a “nightmarish manhunt…testing the limits of reality.”

Some people only need one name: Cher, Madonna etc. In dance we have Pina - as in Bausch, the revered German dancer, choreographer and Director of Tanztheater Wuppertal until her death in 2009.

Considering the São Paulo Dance Company was founded in 2008, it’s taken them 16 years to perform in the UK! But the wait is over.

The entire evening was a poignant reminder of the power of dance. How it feels to do, and to watch, with all the work exuding expression, joy and freedom, which shouldn't be underestimated

No Sugarplum Fairy at Sadler’s Wells this Christmas…they've got Edward Scissorhands instead! Specifically Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures production running until 20 January.

I’ve never seen a lunar halo – a sparkling ring around the moon – so the fact that Cheng Tsung-lung’s work of the same name uses it as a premise is indeed intriguing. Cheng as both choreographer and Artistic Director, presents Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (of Taiwan) at Sadler’s Wells.

Sadler’s Wells is a busy old place, with numerous performance spaces, departments and associated initiatives. One being the very worthwhile Young Associates programme which helps “talented dance artists aged 18-24 giving them a crucial first step into their careers as choreographers”.

Rhiannon Faith Company premieres Lay Down Your Burdens at the Barbican Centre, another “socially conscious” work to add to their ever-growing portfolio

LOVETRAIN2020 by Emanuel Gat started promisingly: atmospheric lighting, shafts of layered space and glimpses of new romantic courtiers bedecked in asymmetrical, louche garbs.

Ballet Black return to the Royal Opera House, Linbury Theatre with their double bill Pioneers. Then Or Now takes the poetry of American Feminist, Adrienne Rich and uses it as a foundation to discuss the current period of political and social change.