Articles by Stephanie Green

The Nutcracker

Usually The Nutcracker means it is the Christmas season but here we are in March.

Giselle

Giselle, the Gothic-Romantic iconic classical ballet of love, betrayal and forgiveness is one of the few ballets to have come down to us from the 19th century.

Rambert Peaky Blinders The Redemption of Thomas Shelby

Ballet Rambert’s Peaky Blinders: the Redemption of Thomas Shelby is male swagger, jaw-dropping, edge of your seat dance as pyrotechnics with all the cool of the TV gangster drama…

Scottish Ballet - The Snow Queen

Review
★★★★
Stephanie Green
Edinburgh
Multiple Venues
26th Nov, 2022

Magic, glitter, snowflake fairies, Jack Frosts, snow wolves and innocent love winning out, what more could you want? Circus acts, Romani travellers? A revival of its 2019 productio…

Innovations Contemporary Dance Platform Autumn 2022

Review
★★★
Stephanie Green
Edinburgh
The Studio
12th Nov, 2022

One of the excitements for an audience is to spot future stars.

Navy Blue

Navy Blue, the colour of workers’ overalls is an existential cry of protest, a dance/voice-over/visual performance choreographed by Oona Doherty and cast to Rachmaninov’s Piano…

Jungle Book reimagined

Breathtaking projections of animation by YeastCulture steal this show and a set which is largely conveyed by lighting.

Coppélia

An electrifying production, Scottish Ballet’s Coppélia, reimagined with robots and a new story that only nods to the original, is not just for sci-fi fans but addresses the seri…

ROOM

Interminable, intellectually pretentious and self-indulgent, former circus performer James Thiérrée’s Room produced by his own Swiss Compagnie du Hanneton, is presented as phys…

End without Days

Cool with underlying passion and deceptively simple choreography by New Yorker/San Franciscan Stephen Pelton, End Without Days gets under your skin.

Bold Moves

Virtuostic, one dark, the other light bursting with irrepressible humour, this contrasting double bill Us choreographed by Zoë Ashe-Browne and Stroke Through the Tail by Marguerit…

Ice Age

Ice Age is a life-affirming show celebrating and bringing much-needed visibility to what disabled people can achieve as performers on stage despite being confined to a wheelchair.

Taiwan Season: See You

See You is must see.

Burn

Alan Cumming is a tour de force as ever.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart

Review
★★★★★
Stephanie Green
Edinburgh Fringe
Playfair Library, Old College / Playfair Library, Old College, South Bridge
13th Aug, 2022

Riotous, hilarious, alternately bonkers and clever The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart written by David Greig and co-created with Wils Wilson, has it all: folk music, especially …

Taiwan Season: Light of Life

A magical, charming show of dance and acrobatics which will delight children and adults alike.

BOBBY WINNER

Taiwan Season: Tomato

Tomatoes erotic? Yes, erotic, silly, surreal, constantly surprising, Tomato, a physical theatre piece by dancer/choreographer Chou Kuan-Jou is brilliant.

The Scandal at Mayerling

Powerful psychodrama elevates Scottish Ballet’s The Scandal at Mayerling from what might have been mere melodrama, a skull and pistol its signature symbols, into an outstandingly…

NDT2: The Big Crying, Simple Things, Impasse

The convulsive pain of grief, a languorous classical quartet and an exuberant party piece undercut with darkness; these three pieces superbly contrast each other in mood and style,…

The Great Gatsby

Review
★★★★
Stephanie Green
UK Regional & Tours
Edinburgh Festival Theatre / Milton Keynes Theatre / New Theatre Cardiff
23rd Apr, 2022

Manic parties and manic dance, glorious swirls of colour, Chanel-inspired floating dresses and jazz from the Roaring Twenties, contrasted with the green light throbbing in the dist…

Kontakthof: Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch

Disconcerting, both humourous and visceral, Kontakthof performed by Tanztheater Wuppertal continues to shock.

Carmen

Review
★★★★★
Stephanie Green
Scotland
EICC
20th Dec, 2021

A love triangle, passion, jealousy, the colour of red roses and bull-fighter capes: just what you would expect in this stunning contemporary dance version of Bizet’s Carmen, re-i…

Christmas Dinner

A heart-warming show of joy and magic at Christmas time, Catherine Wheels’ Christmas Dinner, written by Robert Alan Evans and directed by Gill Robertson, is particularly welcome …

Scottish Ballet’s The Nutcracker

Snow falling, Christmas baubles, glitz and magic - Scottish Ballet’s The Nutcracker to Tchaikovsky performed by the company’s live orchestra is like a box of chocolate treats.

Starstruck: Scottish Ballet

Glitz and glamour, fun and frolics, Scottish Ballet’s Starstruck is a delight, just what we need after 18 months of closed theatres.

Starting From First Position

Mercurial, subtle and rousing Starting from First Position is a blend of dance and poetry performed by Nigerian born poet Ben Okri (also 1991 Booker prize winner for his novel, The…

BOBBY WINNER

Family Portrait

A charming, funny and touching interactive video installation, Family Portrait by Natasha Gilmore’s Barrowland Ballet features Natasha herself as mother and single parent and her…

Taiwan Season: ai-sa-sa

Ai~sa~sa meaning ‘Get over yourself’ is brilliant.

Taiwan Season: Touchdown

A man falls from the side of the screen onto the floor.

Taiwan Season: The Back of Beyond

Tai Gu Tales was created by Hsiu Wei Lin, formerly a principal dancer with the iconic Taiwanese Cloud Gate company.

Amina Khayyam Dance – Catch the Bird Who Won't Fly

Amina Khayyam’s Catch the Bird Who Won’t Fly, a Kathak dance piece using animation and green screen is beautiful, subtle and moving despite its grim subject matter: domestic vi…

Grin

Challenging, daring, with longeurs but also explosive moments, this makes for uncomfortable viewing but is a much-needed and to be applauded show.

Iconnotations

Music-theatre with solo cello plus dance, Iconnotations is extraordinary: surreal, wry, expressionistic, at times baffling, profoundly sad but at the end joyous.

Opia

How do we interpret the world through our senses, particularly through sight? A mesmerically beautiful triptych of two solos and one duet, choreographed by Finnish Johanna Nuutinen…

Fugue in Two Colors

If Carl Knif’s Fugue in Two Voices is a joke, then it’s a dud.

Taiwan Season: Fighters

We need heroes in these strange times is the thesis of this show, and Les Petites Choses’ Fighters brings us five.

The Secret Theatre

Where is the glitter and magic, our annual Christmas treat, without the Sugar Plum Fairy or the Snow Queen? With theatre doors closed during these sad times, Scottish Ballet have c…

Antigone, Interrupted

Experimental, inventive and hugely daring, Antigone, Interrupted is Sophocles re-imagined, the first production by Joan Clevillé since becoming Artistic Director of Sc…

Scottish Ballet: The Snow Queen

A wintry tale of fire and ice where selfless love wins, The Snow Queen, choreographed by Christopher Hampson, is a dangerous journey encountering bandits and snow creatures.

An Edinburgh Christmas Carol

Full of good cheer, fun and jokes, carols under falling snow, spooky ghosts and glitter, what better way to get into the Christmas spirit than go to An Edinburgh Christmas Carol, D…

Juliet & Romeo

Both humourous and sad, Juliet and Romeo by Lost Dog company, presented by The Place, written with sensitive forensic analysis and directed by Ben Duke, is a subversion of Shakespe…

The Hospital

A brilliant Scandi noir of the psyche, spoken in gibberish in a surreal world, Norwegian Jo Strømgren Kompani’s The Hospital, is gripping; moving from bizarre, black humour to d…

Looping: Scotland Overdub

Billed as part Brazilian street dance and part Scottish ceilidhe with everyone invited to share the dance floor and a whisky, this suggested a rather more joyful, carnivalesque exp…

Body Language by David Bolger and Christopher Ash

If you have ever wondered how contemporary dance choreography is created (as opposed to classical ballet) this fascinating show, CoisCéim Dance Theatre’s Body Language directed …

Another

Another is a quadruple selection of dance pieces by the fledgling company Ballet-works founded by a former soloist of Stuttgart Ballet, Robert Robertson and comprises both contempo…

The Chosen

How do we face dying if we know we have a terminal illness? And also how do we live in the face of death, imminent or not? Losing several friends in the same year, Kally Lloyd-Jo…

BOBBY WINNER

Taiwan Season: Floating Flowers

Floating Flowers by B.

From the Top

A delight, witty but profound exploration of the power relationship between choreographer and dancers, From the Top, choreographed by Hong Kong-based Victor Fung, is a send-up of a…

And the Birds Did Sing

Christine Devaney’s And the Birds Did Sing is a gentle, moving meditation on the loss of her father, expressed through story-telling and some expressive physical movement to an e…

Taiwan Season: Monster

Monster choreographed and performed by Yen-Cheng Liu of Dua Shin Te Production is a show about the monster within us but the trouble with alienation is that it alienates the audien…

Steve Reich Project

If this was billed as Music and took place in a concert hall, the MP4 Quartet’s perfomance of three pieces by Steve Reich, Pendulum Music, Different Trains and WC 9/11 would earn…

Heroes

What a delight to hear the giggles and laughter, sometimes hysterical, of children, aged four and up in the audience throughout Heroes, a circus, acrobatics and aerial dance show a…

Blizzard

Breath-taking, Blizzard produced by Flip Fabrique from Quebec, is so much more than a circus show.

She Persisted - [ENB]

A landmark for female empowerment, She Persisted is a trilogy by three female choreographers celebrating female icons.

Scottish Ballet Cinderella

Review
★★★★
Stephanie Green
Scotland
Multiple Venues
11th Dec, 2018

Stylish, elegant and magical, Scottish Ballet's Cinderella, choreographed by Christopher Hampson, at times takes one's breath away.

Wendy and Peter Pan

Rumbustious, fast, furious and funny, yet full of magic and fairy dust, Wendy and Peter Pan will delight all ages: an awfully big adventure and the perfect Christmas show.

Autobiography

Blinding with science comes to mind in Autobiography, choreographed by Wayne McGregor.

Love Cycle: Love Chapter 2

Love Chapter 2 by L-E-V, choreographed by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, is a twin-piece to OCD Love, both part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus, by the Philippe Saire company, didn't live up to its initial promise.

Love Cycle: OCD Love

A profoundly disturbing show, OCD Love (part one of Love Cycle) is produced by Israeli L-E-V dance company with original and technically difficult choreography by Sharon Eyal in c…

Tibetan Monks Sacred Dance

Tibetan Monks Sacred Dance is a special experience, not quite a religious rite and not quite a performance show as five Tibetan monks from the Tashi Lunpo Monastery in South India …

This Is the Title

A dazzling white floor space sets off Nigerian/Finnish Ima Iduozee’s black skin and his grey and black outfit perfectly in This Is The Title, a production in association with Fro…

Giselle

This version of Giselle, re-imagined by Ballet Ireland in modern dress is bound to cause controversy between traditionalists and modernists.

Taiwan Season: Varhung – Heart to Heart

Varhung- Heart to Heart will touch your heart.

The Spinners

The Spinners is a collaboration between Lina Limosani of Limosani Projekts as choreographer and Al Seed as director.

Taiwan Season: Bon 4 Bon

This exquisite, delightful show by Chang Dance Theatre riffs on the childhood memories of four boys growing up together and, surprisingly, mangoes.

WRoNGHEADED

WRoNGHEADED is a collaborative dance, poetry and film piece produced by Liz Roche Company about the devastating effects of a repressive society in Ireland, particularly on women.

Jungle

Jungle by the Bernese company Pink Mama under the direction of Slawek Bendraf and Dominik Krawiecki, purports to be about post-colonialism and in particular who survives but how do…

It’s Not Over Yet... and How to Survive the Future

It’s Not Over Yet… choreographed and performed by Emma Jayne Park (aka Cultured Mongrel) is a heart-stopping autobiographical show about cancer.

Single Life

Every now and then a sparkling gem comes bubbling to the surface of the Fringe.

Taiwan Season: Once Upon a Daydream

Once Upon a Daydream, produced by Sun Son Theatre, bursts with life and colour.

To Be Me

To Be Me pairs a recording of Kate Tempest’s poetry and live dance choreographed by Julie Cunningham; it’s a risky undertaking which is both fascinating but, at times, teeters …

Lear

It is brave to reimagine Shakespeare, in particular arguably his greatest tragedy but Lear by John Scott Dance is a deeply moving, subtle and superbly performed interpretation of …

Here Comes Trouble

Keira Martin’s Here Comes Trouble contains some impressively executed Irish dancing to music which is a meld of Irish melodies and Jamaican beats in a memorable piece about ident…

Profundis

Profundis choreographed by Israeli-born Roy Assaf, is amusingly and slickly performed by the National Dance Company Wales but is more of a ‘five-finger exercise’ for dance stud…

Folk

Folk is Caroline Finn’s first piece for the Cardiff-based National Dance Company Wales since becoming its Artistic Director two years ago.

Mind-Goblin

Review
★
Stephanie Green
Edinburgh Fringe
Dance Base
20th Aug, 2017

Thisis a solo show where the Korean dancer and choreographer Lee Kyung-eun, inspired by the shamanic gut or rite to expel ‘goblins’ or evil spirits, aims to turn this around an…

Feature
Stephanie Green
Edinburgh Fringe
1st Aug, 2022

Stephanie Green interviews Morag Deyes, outgoing Artistic Director of Edinburgh’s Dance Base on curating her last Fringe this year, 2022 and about her extraordinary childhood, he...

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