... Northern Dance PIERS BEAUMONT has dug out a treasure from nineteenth century ballet, Bournonville's charming Flower Festival at Genzano. Mr Beaumont has reproduced the Divertissement of this 115-year-old work, and designed colourful costumes for the eight members of the Northern Dance i neatre wno presented it for the first time in their New Year programme at the Royal Northern College of ...

... Genee award THE ANNUAL Award Performance for young dancers competing for the Adeline Genge Gold Medal was held this year at Sadler's Wells Theatre on the afternoon of January 4. This important award, instituted in 1930 by Dame Adeline, Founder-President of the Royal Academy of Dancing, was given a new approach last year so that potential talent can be sought at an earlier age. The npu; m lino ...

... Festival Ballet ANY ATTEMPT to display the finished work of budding choreographers does a valuable service to the art of dance, for good ones are even rarer than good playwrights. London Festival Ballet are aware of this and staged another of their periodic Choreographic Even ings of new work at the Collegiate on December 20, with seven varied works danced mainly by members of the company. ...

... 'The Feast of Fools' THE FEAST OF FOOLS at the Round House is rather different from the usual Christmas holiday fare. But despite large helpings of cruelty and bawdy, it's as homely as mince pies or pantomime. Master Paddy Fletcher de la Zouche whisks us away with a joke on his lips and a leer in his eye to the cosy womb of medieval England. In the Baronial Hall of Poindexter Armbuster you ...

... A living Giselle OF THE MAJOR classical ballets in the normal repertoire, 'Giselle makes the most demands on the interpretative skills of the leading dancer, requiring her to dance the first act in a manner suggesting shyness, trust, simple joy and finally mental oreaKaown, while the second act demands an other-worldliness, but showing the last vestige of human feeling before it is sapped ...

... Jenner and Coleman CHRISTMAS is an appropriate time to present Ashton's La Fille mal gardee for, despite its high summer atmosphere, it has a festive quality of enjoyment which appeals to ballet audiences of all levels of experience. At the Covent Garden per formance on December 28 the cast was headed by Ann Jenner and Michael Coleman, an un forced and well-matched pair of happy lovers as ...

... Benefit A BENEFIT performance of The Rocky Horror Show will be given at 11.30 p.m. on January 23 at the King's Road Theatre in aid of Roy Truman. A board operator for the show, he was injured recently when a maroon blew up in his face, fusing him to lose an eye and impairing his hearing. Seats are priced from £2.50 downwards. ...

... SELDOM-SEEN OPERAS AT CAMDEN AS IN previous years, a feature of the Camden Festival 1974 will be productions of seldom- seen operas. On February 20 at the Collegiate, Opera da Camera will present the first perfor mance in this country of The Comedy of Errors by Stephen Storace, in an English transla tion by Arthur Jacobs with music edited by Richard Piatt. In the cast are Marie Hayward, ...

... Between the wars THE AMATEUR Swan Theatre Company presented the premiere of Happy Days Are Here Again, described as a look at the years between the wars, in fact and throueh the eyes of entertainment. It was devised, written and directed by Brian J. Burton, Chair man of the Company's Committee, with additional material by four others. A tremendous amount of research obviously went into the ...

... Impressive 'Time and the Conways' IN THEIR temporary theatre within Manchester Royal Exchange, the Sixty-Nine Theatre Company presented a revival of J. B. Priestley's Time and the Conways, which, though in one sense very much an actor's play, still gives pause for thought by the beholder. And as the author himself remarks in a programme note, It is indeed topical up-to- the-minute while ...

... 'Nutcracker' lack of style FURTHER VISITS to London Festival Ballet's production of The Nutcracker at the Royal Festival Hall prompt me to ask why this commercially successful presentation should at the same time be so unsatisfactory from an artistic point. In the main the dancers are hard-working and proficient, seemingly interested in their work in spite of two- and-a-half weeks of ...

... Nureyev version THE ROYAL BALLET danced farewell to Christmas on January 21 with the last performance this season of .Nureyev's version of The Nutcracker, a particularly successful production that deserves further revival at the end of the year. Merle Park's childlike glee as Clara, her mechanical exacti tude as the puppet doll and sheer beauty of movement and grandeur as the dream ...