Petronio

The salty references continue, in a flash of hornpipe and the dancers 'blue and white striped costumes – but once Petronio has climbed up to a crow's nest to watch his work set sail, it becomes obvious that the voyage will be musical, choreographic and emotional rather than literal.

Stephen Petronio Company – review Judith Mackrell 2010

National Dance Company Wales has just launched a tour featuring a commissioned Petronio work named By Singing Light, set to the poetry of Dylan Thomas, and early reports suggest a strong return to form.

Stephen Petronio Company; Onegin – review Luke Jennings 2010

Most unforgivably, Petronio wastes Muhly's atmospheric score, which soars, falls and beckons with something like desperation to the unresponsive choreography.

Stephen Petronio Company; Onegin – review Luke Jennings 2010

Petronio, an absurd if slightly menacing captain in grey beard and wellies, stomps around unfurling ropes and muttering vicious curses at everyone in his way.

Stephen Petronio Company – review Judith Mackrell 2010

This is the 25th year of Stephen Petronio Company (that cropping of the definite article is this year's annoying arts-establishment tic), and while this piece falls flat it would be graceless to fail to acknowledge the scale of the choreographer's achievement.

Stephen Petronio Company; Onegin – review Luke Jennings 2010

Petronio moves his people in neat washes of movement, cutting at just the right moment into tastefully finished solo or duet curlicues.

Stephen Petronio Company; Onegin – review Luke Jennings 2010

The piece kicks off with that shtick of the dancers warming up on stage, which always looks horribly self-conscious, and then Petronio wanders on in a Captain Birdseye costume – designed by the artist and photographer Cindy Sherman – and delivers lines from Procul Harum's 1969 hit "A Salty Dog" in a growly, pseudo-meaningful kind of way.

Stephen Petronio Company; Onegin – review Luke Jennings 2010

No peaks, no troughs, none of the usual Petronio wit or sweat, just flatline classroom steps.

Stephen Petronio Company; Onegin – review Luke Jennings 2010

And that's as exciting as it gets because thereafter, despite that titular quote from The Tempest and all that suggestive battening down of hatches, Petronio delivers a flat calm.

Stephen Petronio Company; Onegin – review Luke Jennings 2010

Just holding a company together for all that time is quite something, and in his collaborations with Rufus Wainwright, Laurie Anderson and Anish Kapoor, not to mention the brief, fruitful period when he and Clark were lovers, Petronio has shown an admirable breadth of vision.

Stephen Petronio Company; Onegin – review Luke Jennings 2010