Rambert2 – Carving New Paths in UK Dance

As Rambert puts the final touches to its exciting new project, Ballet Position talks to the three masterminds behind Rambert2 The words “Rambert” and ”pioneering” have a habit of going together. Rambert is the UK’s oldest dance company, having given…

Irek Mukhamedov – A Life Renewed

As the stage lures him back once again, Irek Mukhamedov talks to Ballet Position about “performing, acting, interacting, being alive.”   A dancer’s career is cruelly short. Actors can act into their 80s (look at Maggie Smith, Judi Dench), singers sing…

Laurretta Summerscales: becoming Juliet…

ENB Principal Laurretta Summerscales talks to Ballet Position about her favourite roles and the current  phase in the company’s history. Juliet is one of Lauretta Summerscales’ favourite roles. Juliet, that is, in the Rudolf Nureyev production of the tragic love…

Elitist? Who, Me?

Is London’s Royal Opera House the elitist preserve of  a metropolitan middle class? Categorically not, says its boss Alex Beard. ‘Elitist’ – a damning label, often uttered with a dismissive sneer. But what do people mean when they call something or…

Kim Brandstrup: The Marriage of Dance and Film

Fresh from winning Britain’s National Dance Award for Best Modern Choreography, Kim Brandstrup discusses his love of dance and film. Kim Brandstrup picks his words carefully. As carefully, in fact, as he lights upon the telling details that will bring…

Dominique Mercy and Life After Pina Bausch

Dominique Mercy, veteran of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, talks to BalletPosition about her legacy and plans for the company’s future. Dominique Mercy is an extremely engaging man, whose easy smile always starts in his pale blue eyes. A dancer all…

Solomon Golding: Talent, Desire and Ambition

The Royal Ballet’s Solomon Golding discusses his abiding passion for ballet and his determination to inspire audiences with his art. Solomon Golding is an extremely personable young man: polite, intelligent and bursting with self-belief. Extremely articulate, words pour out of…

The Royal Danish Ballet School

A portrait of the Royal Danish Ballet School, where forming complete human beings is as important as forming elite dancers. It’s 8.30 am. In a long ballet studio high up in Copenhagen’s labyrinthine Royal Theatre, seven boys warm up ready…

Bournonville: The Danish Way of Dancing

How the visionary Bournonvile came to develop a dancing style that would forever become the unique hallmark of Danish ballet. Say “ballet” in Denmark, and before long you’ll hear one name: Bournonville. The Danes pronounce it: Bonn-ville. That’s, of course,…

NDT2: Dancing “Like There’s No Tomorrow”

A portrait of the Nederlands Dans Theater’s junior company, NDT2, an exhilarating combination of youth, technique and hunger for dancing. The dancers of NDT2 hit the stage like a controlled explosion of pure dance. Their breath-taking technique belies their extreme…

Joel Morris: Dancer at a Crossroads

As his dancing career evolves into teaching, Joel Morris tells us his heart is split between stage and ballet studio. Just after 6 o’clock on a Thursday evening beginners class at Pineapple is in full flow. Sixteen adults stand at…