La Sylphide, London
Under the direction of former Chinese star Li Cunxin, the Queensland Ballet has become one of Australia’s leading classical companies. This summer, it makes its UK debut with Peter Schaufuss’s production of the August Bournonville classic La Sylphide. Schaufuss first staged this work as director of English National Ballet, drawing on his own training in the Bournonville style to present this romantic tragedy of a man fatally in thrall to dreams of supernatural beauty. Now, 30 years later, two of Schaufuss’s children join Queensland to perform the ballet: his daughter Tara, now a full-time member of the company, and son Luke, who dances with Birmingham Royal Ballet but is guesting with the Australians in the lead role of James.
Coliseum, Tue to 8 Aug
Dance at the Fringe, Edinburgh
Dance is going from strength to strength at the fringe and this year’s programme is bolstered by a special strand that sees London’s Place Theatre take over Summerhall with a season of recent commissions. Opening this week is Ben Duke’s brilliantly imagined, occasionally heart-rending solo version of Milton’s Paradise Lost (Summerhall, Wed to 30 Aug). Also recommended is Idiot–Syncrasy, featuring the comic duo Igor and Moreno (Summerhall, Thu to 29 Aug): a unique celebration of the bonding powers of dance. Elsewhere, Company Chordelia’s Nijinksy’s Last Dance (Dance Base, Fri to 23 Aug) portrays the compulsive nature of Vaslav Nijinsky’s genius, from his early years as a dancer to his tragic battle with schizophrenia.
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