Whilst performing at Auckland Arts Festival in Natalia Osipova’s show, Sergei Polunin gave a ballet workshop to young male ballet dancers from New Zealand.

Curious to see whether ballet masterclasses take place upside down down under? Click the picture above to see a slideshow of pics from the class.

All photo credit: Candice Whitmore

The Osipova team left London for Auckland last week to perform the triple bill at the ninth annual Auckland Arts Festival. The show consists of works choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Russell Maliphant, and Arthur Pita and Natalia dances in all three. She is joined on stage by James O’Hara and Jason Kittelberger for Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s trio and by Sergei Polunin for the duets by Russell Maliphant and Arthur Pita.

After one of the performances Natalia, Sergei, Jason, and James were joined on stage by Auckland Arts Festival’s Artistic Director Carla van Zon for a post-show talk.

The show received some fantastic views from New Zealand’s press. Check one of them out here.

Pictured above are Natalia, Sergei, Carla van Zon, and New Zealand’s Governor General Patricia Reddy – the Queen’s representative in New Zealand.

Students, dance enthusiasts and first timers were treated to some world-class lessons in Birmingham over the course of the week. Tango aficionado’s Julia Urruty and Claudio Gonzalez’s class was on fire. Total novices and more experienced dancers were taught the art of the tango by world-class professionals, and by the end of the class a mini milonga in itself erupted.

The next day more experienced contemporary dancers including BTEC level 4 students from nearby schools were given a serious schooling in contemporary dance by Havana based Julio Torres and Yanelis Manzanet from Acosta Danza. This comprehensive class began with floor exercises and ended with a full rep.

Finally, just before the Friday night performance, Barcelona local Facundo from Iron Skulls Co raised the roof with his break dancing lesson. Packed full with local hip-hop dancers of different ages and genders, Facundo had a buzzing room full of poppers and lockers by the end.

Pictured above the Acosta Danza class in full swing.

Natalia Osipova and Friends dazzled the big apple with four performances at New York City Center. As Broadway World write, “ripples of applause” broke out in the audience as they watched Natalia and Sergei “believably embody a 21st century movement aesthetic [in a way that] was both astonishing and heartening.”

Pictured above are Natalia Osipova, Sergei Polunin, James O’Hara, and Jason Kittelberger warming up on the stage at New York City Center before getting ready to wow the crowd.

Next stop on the Osipova tour: Athens.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, the monks of the Shaolin Temple, Ali Thabet, and a team of musicians and technicians embarked on a tour of Japan with performances at Orchard Hall, Bunkamura Tokyo, Aichi Prefectural Arts Centre, Nagoya and Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center.

All the performances were received incredibly well, with Japanese fans showing their glee on social media.

The final performance at Kitakyushu marked the one hundred and ninety fourth performance of Sutra. So if you missed out, make sure you are there for the two hundredth performance. And if you want to know where that’ll be visit this page or the Sadler’s Wells touring page to keep up to date.

Photo above: Sutra’s monks of Shaolin Temple outside Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center, taken by Company Stage Manger, Marius Arnold-Clarke.

Last week Natalia Osipova and friends returned to Sadler’s Wells stage with performances running all week dazzling crowds of all ages. Older ballet fans enjoyed her leaps and spins, whilst younger children waited outside stage door for autographs and threw flowers at the stage.

The triple bill opens with Arthur Pita’s Run Mary Run, before Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s absorbing Qutb – danced with James O’Hara and Jason Kittelberger, and closes with Russell Maliphant’s dazzling Silent Echo.

If you missed this in London then fly to New York where the show is on at New York City Center in November.

Photo credit: Bill Cooper

Touring began for Natalia Osipova and Guests with three performances at Edinburgh International Festival over the weekend. The show, which features new work choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Russell Maliphant, and Arthur Pita was performed to tremendous success and packed audiences.

The audience and critics alike revelled in the beautiful performances with The List and Scottish Herald describing Natalia as ‘a force of nature’ and ‘exquisite’ respectively.

Didn’t have a chance to see Natalia Osipova and Guests in Edinburgh? Fear not, the show is back at Sadler’s Wells from 27 September – 1 October. Click here for tickets.

Sadler’s Wells was graced with Natalia Osipova’s debut contemporary performance last week. The show featured three brand new especially commissioned works from world-renowned choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Russell Maliphant, and Arthur Pita.

The audience were moved and mesmerised as Natalia bedazzled in Sidi Larbi’s trio with James O’Hara and Jason Kittelberger, before dancing two duets by Maliphant and Pita with Sergei Polunin. As The Guardian put it they are: “dancers of rare individual talent whose offstage love affair brings a startling extra wattage to their onstage partnership”.

Don’t worry if you missed out on this run as Natalia is back in September for more dazzling performances of the same show. Get the tickets while you can – click here.

Photo credit: Bill Cooper

As part of The Movement, Sadler’s Wells’ super fantastic regional touring partnership with The Lowry and Birmingham Hippodrome, Dance: Sampled was at the Hippodrome for two nights in May.

The huge theatre was crammed before the show with a host of pre-show activities from bhangra, to Bollywood, belly dancing to break dancing – even spilling out onto the street in front of the theatre drawing in a crowd.

The show consisted of Company Wayne McGregor’s beautiful Outlier, a pas de deux from Birmingham Royal Ballet, more local talent with a stunning solo by Vidya Patel, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Faun, two incredible duets from world tango champions German Cornejo and Gisela Galeassi, before Lyon’s own Pockemon Crew topped the night off.

Milonga travelled to Auckland for Auckland Arts Festival where the show was performed to a full house and received a standing ovation.

Prior to the performance the cast and crew were treated to a fantastic welcome in true Kiwi style, which you can watch below.

Also Nelida, tango advisor, was interviewed by the New Zealand Herald which you can read here.

Pictured above is Jenny White, contemporary dancers posing in front of milonga’s huge poster.

milonga welcoming