... Young's conducting all the right moves ROH Rigoletto MUSICALLY, things are definitely looking up at the ROH. Faced with the prospect of yet another Nuria Espert dud, a revival of the 1988 production of Verdi's Rigoletto, expectations were thoroughly confounded as Simone Young (conductor) lit into the opening scene with venomous glee. Young is a major rind. She has a superb grasp of overall ...

... Shiny Nylon WOMENS PLAYHOUSE TRUST AS PART of its Life in the City ventures which aim to bring theatre to abandoned buildings, the Womens Playhouse Trust cast its eye on S Shed, a cavernous concrete warehouse in the Royal Docks, and made it safe for performance. Safe maybe, but with half of the punters huddled in blankets on the cold stone floor, and the more privileged in old cinema seats ...

... Laid Out Lovely LEEDS A BALLET dancer appears on stage, wine glass in one hand fag end in the other. She looks tipsy, she moves awkwardly and she giggles. She is Emilyn Claid and she declares in her movements that what we are about to see is not a celebration of blissful romance. Work.;,,, r,m the Yorkshire I nas used a striking isic and poetry to prou nng examination of our >>n- cepts of ...

... Irek Mukhamedoy and Company with Arc Dance Company SADLER'S WELLS THIS mixed programme by Irek Mukhamedov and Company and Arc Dance Company served as a focus for the multi-faceted talents of Irek Mukhamedov-- once star of the Bolshoi and now star of the Royal Ballet-- as dancer, actor and charismatic Personalirv. And the two best items also revealed him in a spectac ular new partnership ...

... Candoco QEH CANDOCO a company whose membership includes physically handicapped dancers in wheelchairs has already established itself as an ensemble of compassion and daring. Dance for this company is about people and trust, and the qualification for membership is sensitivity towards human beings. Whatever the merits or otherwise of mixing the able and unable bodied, the policy forces ...

... Carmen ROH THE ROH's revival of Bizet's Carmen, in Nuria Espert's 1991 staging, opened without the scheduled leading lady, Denyce Graves, who was suffering from a viral infection of the vocal cords. In the event, the dark vixenish Carmen of Magali Damonto (the last-minute replacement) turned out to be a considerable plus in an otherwise pretty dismal first night. Denyce Graves has now entered ...

... Toutes Femmes THE PLACE TOUTES Femmes came about because Janet Archer, Director of Newcastle's Dance City, thought it was time that more women were promoted as choreographers in the male dominated world of dancemakers, and the resulting programme of five new works came to the Place as part of Spring Loaded. Debbi Purtill's Sea of Stories for three women and two men (chaps weren't totally ...

... Sylvia ROH IF YOU enjoy having the grandness of tragedy overtaken by comedy of pantomime-type dimension, then David Bintley's Sylvia is for you. But while many audience members roar with delight at the laugh-a-minute frolics of, for example, the tappiry dance for the newly blinded Amynta, or the drunken orgy in Orion's lair, or the peg-leg dance of Eros disguised as a pirate chief, it is the ...

... The Rake's Progress GLYNDEBOURNE FESTIVAL OPERA THE REVIVAL of John Cox's production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress makes for a very enjoyable Glyndebourne evening, though I don't feel the sharp edges of Hogarth's and Stravinsky's (neoclassical) worlds cut deep enough. Part of the problem lies with the designs. David Hockney's riot of crosshatching often has the effect of watching the ...

... Turandot Surrey Opera THE MIGHTY grandeur of Puccini's unfinished opera affords as much opportunity for the chorus as it does for principals. It is hard work all round and Surrey Opera tackled it with a chorus of 26 women, 22 men and 20 children. The result was a really big dramatic sound. The Croydon Ashcroft stage- looked dimunitive as singers fought for space but the vocal effect was ...

... Fearful Symmetries ROH FEARFULLY interesting is Ashley Page's new Fearful Symmetries as, like a firework display that blazes with light, it constantly finds new ways of blaz ing forth with renewed ideas. It's one of those ballets that, from the moment the curtain lifts, you know the choreographer has got right and almost you long for it to be over, for it to have revealed its surface surprises ...

... BLOOMSBURY THEATRE Danzabierta CUBA boasts an internationally renowned classical ballet company, but the country's contemporary dance market is more of an unknown entity and something Marianella Boan is attempting to redress. Formerly a dancer with Cuba's Contemporary Dance Company, she broke away to form Danzabierta in 1 988, and has since performed her 20 or so words which she cites as ...