Louise Levene

At London’s Sadler’s Wells, Tanztheater Wuppertal’s dancers revel in a piece that creates exquisite stage pictures

Kendall Feaver’s dramatisation at the National Theatre galvanises the classic children’s novel into a modern work

Danced with skill and staged with flair at London’s Sadler’s Wells, the choreographer’s piece lacks resolution

The company’s mixture of camp satire and bravura technique arrived in Yokohama to loud applause

May-December romance: a certain frisson is guaranteed; a happy ending is unlikely, but such transgressive liaisons are ideal material for dance drama. Mehek, devised and performed by Aakash Odedra and Kathak virtuoso Aditi Mangaldas, had its London premiere at Sadler’s Wells on Friday: handsomely staged, powerfully danced. Our story begins with Odedra seated downstage in a narrow shaft of light which he catches in a jagged fragment of mirror and relays around the auditorium. One by one, more ra…

Lashings of sex and violence, a magnificent score and plenty of fruity local colour, Carmen has been steaming up the dance stage since 1949 when Roland Petit created the definitive one-act ballet version for his wife Zizi Jeanmaire. Petit’s modern masterpiece was acquired by English National Ballet during the directorship of Wayne Eagling in 2011 but the company’s current head, Aaron Watkin, has gone shopping for another: the 2015 full-evening version by Swedish dancemaker Johan Inger set to the…

When the choreographer John Cranko died at the age of only 45, his colleague, rival and friend Kenneth MacMillan immortalised him with Requiem, one of his loveliest, most poignant works, which supplies the soaring finale for the Royal Ballet’s meaty new MacMillan retrospective. Requiem was premiered by Cranko’s Stuttgart company in 1976, the hidebound board of the Royal Opera House having vetoed MacMillan’s use of Gabriel Fauré’s sacred score. It was an instant classic, finally entering the Roy…

Was it something we said? After an absence of 16 years, New York City Ballet has finally returned to London. Director Jonathan Stafford, clearly keen to shift the focus from the core repertoire by founder George Balanchine, has selected a programme featuring new(ish) work by Pam Tanowitz, Kyle Abraham and Justin Peck, NYCB’s resident choreographer. Peck’s 2020 Rotunda, set to a Nico Muhly commission played live by the Britten Sinfonia, makes a blandly palate-cleansing opener. Twelve superb danc…

Also in London: the Royal Ballet showcases four new works on its main stage

A tart, a pimp, a ponce and a sugar daddy. The key players in Abbé Prévost’s 1731 novel Manon Lescaut are an ugly bunch, but Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet contextualises their many sins, creating flawed characters of surprising depth. The Royal Ballet’s 50th anniversary revival opened last week and was well danced and vividly played by a company on fine form. Nicholas Georgiadis’s rags-and-riches designs have worn extraordinarily well, illustrating the vast gulf between high and low life in pre-re…