Amanda Jennings

2 months ago | bachtrack.com | Amanda Jennings

The new Rose International Dance Prize, developed by Alastair Spalding thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, is a biennial prize for choreographers, awarded for an individual production created within a timeframe rather than for a body of work. Nominees are selected from filmed submissions, but finalists must bring their dancers to London to perform the work live to audiences.

Jan 16, 2025 | bachtrack.com | Amanda Jennings

We can all argue as long as we like about whether Mary Skeaping’s Giselle, first produced in 1971 and currently in performance by English National Ballet at the London Coliseum, is the closest version of all to the original. It is certainly a contender; Skeaping was a scholar and she researched assiduously, digging deep into the archives, and into her own memories from her performing days in the 20s and 30s, in her quest for accuracy.

Dec 5, 2024 | bachtrack.com | Amanda Jennings

Full disclosure: I’ve never met Ben Duke and I’m not familiar with his previous work except by reputation. After seeing Ruination for Lost Dog, his retelling and reinterpretation of the Medea myth, my instinct is that Duke must be one of the most creative people on the planet, and I may well add him to my fantasy dinner-party list. Liam Francis as Jason in Ben Duke's RuinationThe Medea story is one that has fascinated throughout the centuries.

Dec 4, 2024 | bachtrack.com | Amanda Jennings |Alexandra Byrne

It isn’t easy to craft a coherent ballet from Cinderella, one of the world’s most beloved rags-to-riches fairytales. No-one who has attempted it has achieved complete success, but Sir Frederick Ashton in 1948 produced a jewel, struggling like all his successors to make anything substantial of Act 3, but producing dreamy, luminous choreography, with comic relief from the Ugly Sisters perfectly suited to the post-war need for belly-laughs.

Nov 22, 2024 | bachtrack.com | Amanda Jennings

Akram Khan’s latest work, GIGENIS: The generation of the Earth, is unique in his catalogue. The idea was born in India in 2022, at an intensive, set up by Khan and his long-time collaborator Mavin Khoo. The subject of the course was Indian classical dance, bringing together artists from the varied and many forms that come under that umbrella term.