Evelyn Hart

Zizi Jeanmaire

Akram Khan

Johan Kobborg

Alfredo Kraus

Ulyana Lopatkina

Wayne McGregor

Russell Maliphant

Alicia Markova

Peter Martins

Mark Morris

Irek Mukhamedov

Rudolf Nureyev

Natalia Osipova

Maya Plisetskaya

Sergei Polunin

Yvonne Rainer

Alexei Ratmansky

Tamara Rojo

Mstislav Rostropovich

Rodion Shchedrin

Lynn Seymour

Twyla Tharp

Ninette de Valois

Ivan Vasiliev

Vladimir Vasiliev

Christopher Wheeldon

Igor Zelensky

ISMENE BROWN About


THIS SITE

is a selective filing cabinet of 30 years of my dance criticism & arts journalism published in The Daily & Sunday Telegraph from 1992, The Arts Desk from 2009, The Spectator 2014-16, and other publications where online, and I hope it's of occasional historical interest. It consists of reviews and previews of shows that seemed significant above the usual run (including premieres of some now-famous events), commentaries on issues, and interviews with major performers.

     If you want to republish or extract anything, kindly email me.


BACKGROUND     

I am a Soviet history scholar and arts journalist of news background and musical training.  I have been a national newspaper subeditor, a regional newspaper editor, a local politics news reporter, a BBC and commercial radio news presenter, and a classical music radio presenter. I was the Daily Telegraph's dance critic for 15 years (1993-2008) and their dance obituarist to this day, and The Spectator ’s dance critic for two years (2014-16). In 2009 I designed, launched and site-managed the award-winning critics’ site The Arts Desk (named Best Specialist Journalism Site in the 2012 Online Media Awards), was a director 2009-2012, and remain an occasional reviewer.

     I trained as a pianist, singer and violist at the Royal College of Music, London (ARCM) and gained an MA in Russian Studies at University College, London in 2014. In 2021 I was awarded the degree of DPhil at Oxford University for my thesis on the Soviet politician and Minister of Culture Ekaterina Furtseva, on whom I continue to work as an academic.


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*Background pic: Grand Theatre, Havana



I've interviewed

Carlos Acosta

Adam Adassinsky

Alicia Alonso

Altynai Asylmuratova

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Yuri Bashmet

Pina Bausch

Maurice Béjart

Matthew Bourne

Buster Brown

Trisha Brown

Jonathan Burrows

Darcey Bussell

Michael Clark

Alina Cojocaru

Merce Cunningham

Lucas Debargue

Anthony Dowell

Mats Ek

Suzanne Farrell

Michael Flatley

William Forsythe

Javier de Frutos

Antonio Gades

Valery Gergiev

Angela Gheorghiu

Sylvie Guillem