Dance & ballet news

• Royal Ballet: Ashton mixed programme review – two sides of a sublime choreographer

  19-11-2015 15:18
  
  Royal Opera House, LondonVadim Muntagirov and Lauren Cuthbertson dance a sparky revival of The Two Pigeons, while Monotones expands magically beyond ballet’s minimal means
  Frederick Ashton still ranks as one of the most imaginative, protean voices in the British Romantic tradition. There could hardly be two ballets more diametrically opposed than those which make up the Royal’s current double bill – Monotones I and II, with its limpid restraint, and The Two Pigeons, with its wh
  
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• The birdie dance: fancy footwork of courting birds revealed

  19-11-2015 15:12
  
  To woo potential mates, the blue-capped cordon bleu performs a high-speed tap dance too fast for the human eye to see, new research has found Humans buy flowers. Capuchins throw stones. Giant tortoises bellow. But the blue-capped cordon bleu, a small finch found in Africa, really knows how to win over a mate.
  The three-inch-high omnivores perform energetic cabaret acts to woo their partners, rattling through routines that feature head-bobbing, singing and tap dance, and often all three at once.R
  
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