The new show at Tate Britain, British Baroque: Power and Illusion starts in another epoch when our relationship with Europe was a tad strained, let us say, and ends at the point when a German prince who spoke not a word of English was invited – if not begged – to take over the English throne. You’d almost think Tate Britain had timed this show deliberately.
A Darker Setting for Carmen at the Coliseum
Carmen at ENO Bizet’s Carmen has probably been the world’s most performed opera since it premiered at the L’Opéra Comique in Paris in 1875. Scroll up to 2020 and opera houses and directors worldwide are still trying to come up with ways of injecting new life into Bizet’s rich score. Carmen’s hits, have been…
Do we still need music critics?
Critic – one who engages often professionally in the analysis, evaluation, or appreciation of works of art or artistic performances The debate about the value of music criticism and those who write it is not new. In the digital age, the music itself has not changed, but the technologies through which we discuss, transmit and…
Streetdance to Seoul
Inside the heavy oak doors of Shoreditch Town Hall, a disco-funk beat is pulsing as we scale the marble steps to the Assembly Hall. PopcityUk’s 2020 International Hip Hop and Popping competition has already started. In the ring of darkness surrounding the brightly lit dance floor, hundreds of youths have gathered. Some are…
Picasso and Paper at the Royal Academy of Arts
Picasso had an enduring love affair with paper (‘it seduced me’, he said of one particularly fine batch). He spent his life environed by the stuff: when his tables and chairs and mantelpieces were filled to overflowing he would hang it on lengths of string from the ceiling. Paper lay at the heart of…
Interview with choreographer and dancer Russell Maliphant
Star choreographer and dancer, Russell Maliphant, has become known for his mesmeric dance, music and light productions, which have earned him the Olivier and Southbank Sky Arts Award for dance. He is soon to perform at the Coronet Theatre with dancer Dana Fouras. His collaboration with Fouras attracted 5-star reviews in 2018, with a…
Rencontre avec France Mitrofanoff
Depuis ses débuts dans les années 70, France Mitrofanoff n’a cessé de peindre. D’abord inspirée par le mouvement Cobra, avec ses créatures étranges, elle s’en dégage pour peindre dès Villes, constructions chaotiques où se cachent les habitants, ombres dissimulées derrière les murs. Plus récemment elle a porté son regard sur la nature, en particulier les arbres….
Interview with artist France Mitrofanoff
Having commenced her career in the 1970s, French artist, France Mitrofanoff, has a vast body of work behind her. Over the years she has tackled many themes: the monster, urban living, alienation and reconstruction. In the past decade she has turned away from the city and has focussed on the cosmos and nature. Her star-studded…
My Favourite Things : Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’
Battle of Moscow (Borodino) 7th Sept 1812 by Louis-François Lejeune Christmas is nearing and every year I find myself irritable and exhausted and walking over to my bookshelves for literary solace. Dancing over rows of black paperwork classics, my fingers slow over my favoured volumes, all epics. Worlds of past existence inhabit my weighty…
Interview with Dancer, Dickson Mbi
On 25th January, Pop City UK, will host the street dance event of the year in our capital. Four hundred and fifty Hip Hop and Popping artists will compete in a day-long international dance competition which will be live-streamed using Instagram Live. As well as attracting the finest dance artists in the business, the event aims to…
