Malcolm Rock – malcolmrock.com

London critic Michael Billington discusses the more robust aspects of Tennessee Williams in today’s Guardian article entitled The quiet revolutionary.

The final reviews have been published and Malcolm’s original ballet-opera Fade Not that premiered at Sydney Theatre last month has proved to critics just how well ballet and opera can unite on the stage. Journalists in Sydney wrote that the ballet used ”a poignant theme” (Sydney Morning Herald) to create “a moving piece in which the dance rose and fell with the tide of feeling” (The Daily Telegraph). National daily The Australian compared Remi Wörtmeyer’s choreography with that of Kenneth MacMillan while the Australian Stage praised ”librettist and eminent director Malcolm Rock” for his words and Lisa Cheney for her score that was “the sweetest swoon, enchanting”. It also asserted that Fade Not was “the most unexpected, non-conformist” work of the 2009 Bodytorque programme. Michelle Potter of the Canberra Times summed it up best as “a courageous experiment in linking dancer and singer, movement and voice” with “an innate sense of clarity and harmony”. She wrote that the ballet-opera was able to “grab the audience’s attention from the opening moment and hold it throughout … with a strongly focussed approach”. Many thanks to those critics who took the time to write about the show.

Judith Mackrell finds out how UK dance companies and choreographers are celebrating the 100 year anniversary of Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes in her Guardian article today: A century of sensation.

In her blog today Veronica Lee writes about the case in which she was sued by a composer and librettist (Standard wins opera libel) that has now been turned into a play.

Imogen Russell Williams offers her thoughts about operatic acting in her Guardian blog Never mind the arias, what about the acting?

Michael Billington considers the virtues of the great Shakespearean performer in the Guardian today in his feature First among equals.

Can dance ever be too sexy for art? is an acutely observed article from Guardian dance critic Judith Mackrell about the presentation and promotion of sexuality in dance.

David Jays went on a five-week tour of Asian with the Royal Ballet. His article The Royal Ballet’s Asian tour is a great lesson in cultural diplomacy appears in The Times today.

The Sydney Morning Herald reveals a posthumous interview with former Royal Ballet artistic director Ross Stretton in Ballet’s wild colonial stings from the grave.

Deborah Jones writes in The Australian today about two Ballet Russes legends living in Australia – Irina Baranova and Anna Volkova.  Read Dancers still hold audience spellbound.