Six-venue Spring tour opens at Sadler’s Wells Theatre on 9 February 2022
A sense of excitement was in the air for the first night of Acosta Danza’s 100% Cuban opening night of their UK tour at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London.
The programme of five works, includes three UK premieres, showing off the amazing flexibility of the dancers The highlight of the evening has to go to the contortionist Zaleidy Crespo who danced Impronta with such amazing flexibility and grace. Created especially for her the piece, choreographed by Maria Rovira, brought together modern and contemporary dance in an evocation of folk dances of Afro-Cuban heritage.
The evening finished on a high note with De Punta a Cabo, created by Alexis Fernández (Maca) for Acosta Danza’s debut season in 2016. A piece for twelve dancers, has a backdrop of the Malecón, a broad esplanade and seawall stretching eight kilometres along the Havana coastline. Maca shares his impressions of contemporary Cuba – a country full of contrasts, traditional and modern, poverty and development, beauty and ugliness.
While it’s possible to just enjoy the agility of the performers, each dance also has a philosophy behind it which gives more depth to the enjoyment of the occasion.
Created by Carlos Acosta, the aim of the Carlos Acosta Dance Academy is to transform the lives of young, talented dancers who would not otherwise have had the opportunity. Students join the Academy at the age of 15 or 16, and train to develop their technique in ballet and allied dance genres – a place for experimentation and exchange in dance, where students also learn from guest artists.
100% Cuban is part of the Dance Consortium, a consortium of 18 theatres, whose mission is to bring the best international contemporary dance to audiences across the UK.
Plymouth is primarily known as the place from where the Pilgrim Fathers embarked on their voyage to America, and this year the town is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower.
In the eighteenth century Captain James Cook set sail from Plymouth on his three famous voyages, and it is still home to a large naval base and dockyard. An area where boating of every form is enjoyed, the harbour is filled with pleasure boats.
Plymouth Hoe, six klm of the English Channel, has its Southwest corner in Cornwall and its South East in Devon. Overlooking the harbour and dominating the site, Smeaton’s Tower is a red and white-striped lighthouse where if you want to climb the 93 steps you will have amazing views across the Plymouth Sound. Flanked by a row of elegant houses, which includes the local Lord Mayor’s official residence, and one displaying a blue plaque indicating that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes, had lived there.
One of the major attractions on the seafront is the glass fronted National Marine Aquarium that boasts the deepest tank, the Atlantic Ocean, in the UK. The aquarium is on numerous levels in a winding circle so I had to walk up numerous stairs and work my way down. While I was there a lady was giving an informative talk on what we, the visitors could see in the tank. To maximise on a visit, there are also plaques with explanations, and interactive screens, but it is also worth trying to coincide a visit with one of their talks.
Whenever I am by the sea, one of my must-haves is freshly caught fish, preferably fish and chips! Conveniently next door and with a large outdoor seating is the Rockfish Restaurant which promotes itself as only selling sustainable food. As my visit coincided with the crab season (April to November) I picked the dressed crab that comes with unlimited chips. Don’t miss the chance of visiting their toilets for its fun broadcast of a radio shipping forecast.
The quickest way of getting to the various places around the Sound is by ferry in the form of a small, motorised boat. Poppy and I took one to the 17thMount Batten Gun Tower. Groups of young people were scaling a nearby wall while others were being shown how to tie their life-jackets. They were from, I latterly learnt, the Mountbatten Watersports and Activities Centre. A charity led organization that runs a wide range of outdoor activities for both adults and children including some specifically for physically impaired local children. The range of activities includes taster sessions for novices, and has on-site accommodation.
A further ferry ride in the other direction took Poppy and I to the Royal William Yard, home to the largest collection of Grade 1 listed buildings in the UK. The interior of one of these has been transformed into the Ocean Studios, a large workspace on several levels for artists and craftspeople. A coffee/restaurant space on the ground floor has a space for artists’ exhibitions. Other buildings have been transformed, without spoiling their facades, into restaurants. I found my way to Le Vignoble, a wine bar with a difference. It stocks over 300 wines and I was able to buy a card that allowed me for 0.80p a time to have a taster of several different wines. According to owner Yannick, people tend to drink wine that they know where-as here they can sample a selection without paying a fortune. The wines are kept in an enoround, a system that maintains them in perfect condition for twenty-one days. http://www.levignoble.co.uk
During the summer months as well as celebrating the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower, Plymouth holds a variety of festivals. When planning a visit, it is worth checking as to what is on and more importantly where. In August, over several days at the Mountbatten Breakwater, they have a major national firework competition. While I was there, at the Royal William Yard, , there was a music festival as well as a display of Vintage Porche cars.
Near the water the Barbican is an area of narrow cobbled streets and quirky little shops. Among them in Southside Street is another of Plymouth’s major attractions, the home since 1793 for Plymouth Gin. I joined their forty-five minute guided tour. I initially thought it would be similar to gin tours I had experienced before where-as this one turned out to be different and very informative. As well as seeing how gin was made, I and the other people in the group I joined were given various spices to sniff that are used in making gin. We were also advised to check which brand tonic we put with our gin as some are more compatible than others. At the end of the tour our group were invited to their stylish rooftop bar where we were able to taste the 57% proof Naval gin, the normal being 41.2%. Our ticket included a drink or a miniature to take away as well as £1.00 voucher towards buying a bottle.
I stayed at the Moorland Garden Hotel, a short drive from Plymouth. Owned by the parents of Dragon’s Den Deborah Meaden, the hotel is not only dog-friendly but also borders onto the wild open expanse of Dartmoor National Park, a tranquil spot for relaxing which, after all, is what a holiday should be!
I travelled to Plymouth from Paddington Station on GWR (Great Western Railway), which has a restaurant car on some trains where meals are served by uniformed waiters at your table.
Paul Gauguin is known for his vibrant pictures primarily painted in Polynesia but he also painted portraits and more. The first-ever exhibition devoted to his portraits has opened in the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London’s Trafalgar Square.
Featuring over fifty works, the exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings. Pictures range from his early years as an artist through to his final visit to the South Seas.
Gauguin broke with accepted conventions and challenged audiences to expand their understanding of visual expression. Nowhere is this more evident than in his portraits where he revolutionised the portrait making his richer by incorporating situations and experiences. A lot of his work would not have been exactly as he saw it as he was inclined to turn things into something entirely different. He experimented with media, texture, colour and eclectic sources from both the east and the west oscillating between literal, imagined and symbolic likenesses. Initially working as a stockbroker he became a fulltime artist in the mid-1880s, abandoning his wife and five children.
Events related to the exhibition include on Friday, 1 November the Park Lane Group performing an evening of music by English composer Frederick Delius – a friend of Gauguin, alongside musical settings of poems by Stéphane Mallarmé.
On Saturday, 7 December experts discuss the realities of colonial Tahiti.
The exhibition runs until 26 January, 2020. Admission charge.
Edvard Munch: love and angst opens at the British Museum on Thursday 11 April, 2019
London is experiencing an exciting time with the opening of so many vibrant art exhibitions. Opening on Thursday, 11 April at the British Museum is the largest exhibition of prints by Edvard Munch in the UK for 45 years.
A pioneer of modern art, the exhibition of 83 works by Munch, includes many loaned from the Munch Museum in Oslo. Best known as a painter, and particularly for his painting The Scream which the Director of the Munch Museum in his opening speech of the exhibition described as an example of Brexit. Munch is quoted as saying of his painting when he saw the sky going red ‘I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.’
The exhibition focuses on his creative period of printmaking between the 1890s and the end of the First World War in 1918 when he established his reputation, demonstrating his skill and creativity in expressing the feelings and experiences of the human condition. This stretched from love and desire, to jealousy, loneliness, anxiety and grief. The exhibition also shows how Munch’s artistic vision was shaped by the radical ideas expressed in art, literature, science, and theatre in Europe during his lifetime.
The pictures relate to events of the period separated by themes – Bohemians and free love, love in torment, anguish and isolation, sickness and death, stage and performance, ending with the home coming.
The Van Gogh and Britain Exhibition which has opened at London’s Tate Britain brings together the largest group of the artist’s paintings to be shown in the UK for nearly a decade. It is the first major exhibition to explore the impact of British culture on Van Gogh as well as the legacy of his art in the works of British painters.
Over 50 paintings and drawings include lesser-known works now in private hands. The exhibition reveals Van Gogh’s enthusiasm for British culture and includes paintings by John Constable and John Everett Millais. The Van Gogh we know was developed in London at a time of descent. He was an admirer of graphics, and was influenced by writers such as Dickens and Elliott. For him it was important to work from first hand experience, and has been described as a painter of the people for the people. Van Gogh Shoes became famous for its associations with the artist’s poor, hard working life.
For the first time, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers 1888 is shown alongside the British artwork that it inspired, and which contributed to a renaissance in British flower painting. The painting was given to Britain’s national collection in the 1920’s.
Many of Van Gogh’s paintings were done in the latter part of his life including The Prison Courtyard, the only one he painted of London. Also in the exhibition is the painting The Oise at Auvers which has also been reconstructed in a digital version. Although its colours have faded, the painting has been brought back to life by the Tate’s conservation team who were able to reconstruct it as it was originally. The exhibition concludes with a group of portraits by Francis Bacon based on a Van Gogh self-portrait.
Shoes 1886
The exhibition, sponsored by EY, includes a programme of talks and events. The Tate’s new podcast The Art of Creativity asks questions about the traditional association between mental health and creativity. Listen for free at: tate.org.uk/art-of-creativity
The Bastian Gallery in the heart of Mayfair has opened with an exhibition of over 60 polaroid pictures taken by Andy Warhol.
The photographs which are quite small 4.3″ x 3.4″ are preparatory works for Warhol’s silkscreen portraits. The majority feature easily recognisable famous celebrities among them David Hockney, Jane Fonda, and John Lennon in the 1970s and ’80s.
The Big Shot camera was an integral tool of Warhol’s from the early 1970s until his death in 1987. The photographs portray the beginnings of an era and society defined by image and illusion.
Forty six of the framed photographs are being sold as a collection. Also on sale is a coffee table book.
The latest must-see exhibition to come to London is Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams which opened at London’s Victoria &Albert’s Sainsbury Gallery.
The exhibition, the largest and most comprehensive, to be staged in the UK on the House of Dior is based on the major exhibition Christian Dior: Couturier du Rêve organized by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Divided into 11 areas, a new section explores the designer’s fascination with British Culture. The exhibition investigates Dior’s creative collaborations with British manufacturers including Dents (gloves), Rayne (shoes) Lyle & Scott (knitwear) and Mitchel Maer (costume jewellery).
Over 500 objects includes 200 rare Haute Couture garments shown alongside accessories, fashion photography, film, vintage perfume original make-up illustrations, magazines, and Dior’s personal possessions.
Dior was born into a wealthy Normandy family but when the family fortune collapsed he was forced to make a living, taking up fashion drawing. In 1946 he founded the House of Dior, and launched its first collection the following year. Dubbed the ‘New Look’ by the press, the collection had an instant and unparalleled influence on fashion around the world. His legacy has continued under six Creative Directors Yves St Laurent, John Galliano, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, Raf Simons, and Maria Grazia Chiuri their current, and first female creative director.
Swarovski, whose crystals shimmer in many of the designs, supports the exhibition. With the foundation of his house, Dior always envisioned a total look for his clients. People who never visited Paris can still buy his perfume, jewellery, gloves and stockings.
The exhibition runs until Sunday, 1 September 2019.
Considered one of the great colourists of the early 20th century an exhibition by Pierre Bonnard of 100 of his works : the Colour of Memory has opened at London’s Tate Modern.
The exhibition shows how he constructed vibrant landscapes and intimate domestic scenes through the process of reimagining. Bonnard is known for his intimate, domestic interiors and brightly coloured landscapes bridging both Impressionism and Modernism. Bonnard preferred to work from memory which allowed his paintings to become more abstract. The artist’s wife Marthe de Méligny was a continual subject.
Bonnard’s intense colours and modern compositions transformed painting in the first half of the 20thcentury. Several of his works are exhibited out of their frames to create a sense of how they would have hung in the artist’s studio. Rather than using an easel, Bonnard chose to pin his canvases directly on the wall while working. This allowed him to roll up his canvases, and take them with him when he travelled between homes in the North and South of France. The unframed pictures also reveal how Bonnard painted very close to the edge of his canvas, sometimes painting a line to show where the frame would go.
Alongside the paintings are 15 photographs providing an intimate portrait of the couple’s domestic life.
Related events include relaxing yoga, and brunch on 26 January, and 2 and 9 February which includes a visit to the exhibition.
The exhibition in the Eyal Ofer Galleries of the Tate Modern runs until 6 May 2019.
Open daily 10.00 – 18.00 and until 22.00 Friday and Saturday
Having the opportunity of visiting the Queen’s Gallery is an experience in itself as the complex is part of Buckingham Palace of which the chapel is now the Nash Gallery.
Two exhibitions Russia: Royalty & the Romanovs and Shadows of War: Roger Fenton’s Photographs of the Crimea 1855 have just opened.
For more than 300 years Britain has been linked to Russia through exploration and discovery, diplomatic alliances and, latterly, by familial and dynastic ties. In 1874 the British Royal family and the Russian Imperial family were united by direct dynastic marriage.
The exhibition explores the relationship between Britain and Russia and their royal families until 1956, through works of art in the Royal Collection, many of which were acquired through the personal exchange of gifts. Works include paintings and items by Carl Fabergé.
The exhibition runs until 28 April 2019, with Shadows of War: Roger Fenton’s Photographs of the Crimea, 1855 which is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on Roger Fenton’s pioneering photographs of the Crimean War, taken in 1855. The photographs show, for the first time, the impact of war to the general public . Through his often subtle and poetic interpretations Fenton created the genre of war photography, which captured the futility of war.
Visitor information and tickets – A bonus – visitors can enjoy free re-admission for a year if they ask for their ticket to be treated as a donation.
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