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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
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Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Sarah Frater's rating
Reader rating
Flat: Dancers, like Sarah Lamb, were ill-served by the work
Why does multimedia seduce so many dance makers? Most dabble with film and digital effects, yet few create a genuine synergy with the steps.
There are two or three good examples out of dozens who have tried, with the rest far less than the sum of their parts.
Christopher Wheeldon is a talented choreographer, but he struggles when it comes to multimedia. His new piece for The Royal Ballet includes glamorous film of the dancers who are projected larger-than-life onto the plain set.
The dancers serenade these more formal versions of themselves while they talk about what it "means" to be a dancer.
Wheeldon also includes a "digital corps de ballet", with multiples of the dancers projected onto the set. Then there are graphic projections and four doors in the set through which the dancers charge in and out.
I could go on, but Electric Counterpoint (named after Steve Reich's score) is a muddle. The dancers (Sarah Lamb, Zenaida Yanowsky, Eric Underwood and Edward Watson), are faultless performers, ill-served by the work.
Wheeldon may be experimenting, he may be counter-choreographing the "real" dancer and the stage dancer, or he may just have dashed this off. Either way, the lacklustre piece opened a strangely flat evening.
• In rep until 19 March (020 7304 4000; www.roh.org.uk).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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