Critics Reviews

"Sewell has perfected his unique approach to contemporary ballet, a choreographic technique he calls 'multiple coordination.' The evidence is 'Schoenberg Serenade,' the...fantastic nine-part work, commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra."
– Camille LeFevre, Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

"[Sewell's] work may not be trendy, but it's musical, well made, often witty, and varied in terms of subject matter....This year's Joyce program focused more on dancing to music, which this choreographer manages adroitly."
– Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice

"At the end of a weekend full of Wheeldon and Sewell, Sewell shows me more sculpture, more play, more movement, and cooler men."
– Anna McDonald, annamcdonald.typepad.com/seeking_system/2007/10/a-few-things-to.html

"Humor, surprise, variety, an analytical response to music, dance shaped as architecture in time and space: these are qualities to be admired in most of the foremost choreographers, dead and alive. Since they are also present in the three works James Sewell is showing at the Joyce Theater, I wish I could enjoy his perfectly competent work more than I do. Each piece has brief passages where accomplishment turns into mastery, and others that turn into something less than accomplishment."
– Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times

"One of the Twin Cities' cultural gems like the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.…This is a company well worth catching. It wears its charms with a difference."
– Clive Barnes, New York Post

"Sewell is…a relaxed humanist who seems to enjoy making the most of the quietly vivid presence of his skillful dancers."
– Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

"The James Sewell Ballet kicked off its season at the Guthrie – the first dance performance to grace that newly minted bastion of theater…with spirited virtuosity and theatrical savvy."
– Linda Shapiro, Saint Paul Pioneer Press

"'Guy Noir'…is a delightful presentation, well choreographed and danced.…'Anagram' was in the romantic mode.…'Involution'…was narrative but overlong.…Without a doubt, the third dance, 'Guy Noir,' was the star of the evening."
– Richard Penberthy, exploredance.com

"This program...demonstrated how wide-ranging -- from pure entertainment to complex cultural commentary -- Sewell's work can be.
– Camille LeFevre, Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

"Sewell is daring and original, with a broad grounding in classical ballet and modern dance.…[willing] to unearth genuine emotions and grapple seriously with how ballet relates to more organic styles of movement."
– Jennifer Homans, The New Republic

"The Twin Cities has a posh new dance venue that the James Sewell Ballet inaugurates this weekend. It's the red-drenched proscenium theater at the new Guthrie, with its comfortable seats, unimpeded sightlines and spacious stage.… Sewell as Hamlet, 'Brahms Duet' were delights."
– Camille LeFevre, Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

"One of the proud cultural luminaries of Minneapolis and St. Paul.… A rich evening of improvisation and fresh choreography."
– Raphael Rothstein, 15minutesmagazine.com

"A piece that at first seemed to bear a theme of nonconformity and self-realization evolved (or perhaps devolved) into a violent work that evoked images of torture.… While it may sound like something you wouldn't want to see, it held tremendous power and had far more grace and beauty than you might imagine.… This was a concert that was most rewarding when at its most discomfiting."
– Rob Hubbard, Saint Paul Pioneer Press

"[Turf's] visceral, disturbing portrayal of violence, imprisonment and torture – in which nearly everyone is dirty, culpable or downright sinister…was unlike any dance seen here since the war began." <Read the full review.>
– Camille LeFevre, Star Tribune, mnartists.org

"All three dances on the program enjoy solid structures, musicality and a constant spirit of exploration."
– Apollinaire Scherr, Newsday

"'Guy Noir: The Ballet' is…pleasantly preposterous…narrated by [Garrison] Keillor…with Rich Dworsky's familiar music played by The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band.…Sewell comes up with some clever dance ideas for his whodunit.…The goings-on are all amiably funny, if not always pointed in terms of dramatic pacing. Sewell's at his best in formal works."
– Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice

"Decently structured, professionally presented and essentially unremarkable -- a virgin pina colada for the subscription set. This is harsh criticism.…Sewell can do better.…[He] aims to please and plays it safe."
– Lisa Rinehart, danceviewtimes.com

"Comedy and ballet often do not mix. But Guy Noir: The Ballet…successfully follows in the footprints of other spoof mystery ballets.…Sewell is a skilled choreographer/dancer."
– Hilary Ostlere, Financial Times

"It was fascinating to find a classical choreographer venturing into indeterminacy, which is usually associated with modern and postmodern dancers."
– Jack Anderson, New York Theatre Wire

"Sewell demonstrated exactly how classical ballet can be a mutable art form receptive to invention.… This is a company definitely worth catching, whose reputation can only continue to rise."
– Cecly Placenti, www.ballet-dance.com

"The appeal of Sewell's company is…that his reverence for ballet is balanced by his eagerness to spoof it and his urge to explore outside its safe boundaries."
– Susan Yung, Dance Magazine

"James Sewell Ballet has secured a strong following, developed an attractive company and distinctive point of view."
– Eye on Dance, New York

"[James] Sewell and Sally Rousse continue to make contemporary ballets that defy categorization."
– Camille LeFevre, Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

"Sewell's company and choreography made Schoenberg accessible with wit and imagination, as well as a physicality and sense of spectacle that finds its way into classical concerts too seldom.… Just as Schoenberg was committed to the cause of convincing listeners to cast aside old ideas about what music should be, so has Sewell created a work to accompany his Serenade that defies the conventions of classical ballet. At its best when at its most surprising, the piece throws clever wrenches into its mechanistic patterns."
– Rob Hubbard, Saint Paul Pioneer Press

"The old adage about death and taxes as the only sure things in life was wrong. There's one more certainty: that the classical dance form will appear as never before in a James Sewell Ballet concert."
– Camille LeFevre, Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

“A polished gem of a chamber dance troupe from Minnesota.…Mr. Sewell is…one of American ballet’s most inventive choreographers.…Different and unpredictable, this is the company to see.”
– Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times

“A packed-to-the-rafters audience at Schein Hall greeted the triumphant return (for a third appearance) of The James Sewell Ballet.…This stunningly inventive chamber dance company is fun, sophisticated and dazzling entertainment.”
– Sanibel Captiva Islander, FL

“Innovative choreography blithely combines ballet and postmodernism.”
— Sylviane Gold, Newsday New York City

“This young company…seems headed for stardom.”
– Dottie Ashley, The Post and Courier, Charleston SC

“An evening spent with…James Sewell Ballet is an evening of intelligent choreography and heartfelt dancing.…So much attractive choreography…is very much worth watching.”
  - Pia Catton, The New York Sun

“A small company of dancers can take the world by storm. All it takes is a fine maker of ballets like Balanchine who was a good dancer and knew music. James Sewell is a superb dancer who studied the violin.”
– Francis Mason, WQXR 96.3FM The Classical Station, New York NY

“The ballet idiom is a springboard for the company’s forays into storytelling, abstract contemporary dance and such variety-show entertainments as vaudeville.”
– Camille LeFevre, Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

“A contemporary style aligned with the classical tradition. Legibility of design is a major component of [Sewell’s] choreography.”
— Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice

“Not your grandma’s ballet company… A fresh way of putting the standard vocabulary together into sparkling dances that pique your emotions as much as they delight your eye.”
— Gus Solomons, Jr., Gay City News, NY

“Not ordinary performers…each company member is an excellent dancer…with a strong sense of line, a committed intelligence, and an extraordinary understanding of Sewell’s personal vision.… Sewell…has developed into a fiercely inventive, truly gifted artist.”
— Phyllis Goldman, Backstage

"Mr. Sewell is one of American ballet’s best choreographers, albeit one who composes sonnets rather than epics. This lack of pretension can make his work look deceptively gentle, but it is not modest. Grounded in a neoclassical style that is exploited in different ways, his choreography brims with surprises in movement invention."
- Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times

"The James Sewell Ballet has achieved ‘Minnesota state treasure’ status."
- The Forum, Fargo ND

"To watch a variety of their dance segments is to witness the baffling complexity of human experience revealed in radically contrasting emotions and styles....JSB's images are sometimes pleasingly erotic (although, one can argue that every moment in ballet is erotic). On the other hand, their images sometimes may seem safely traditional. But then, what's traditional to one person may be radical to another. That's part of JSB's subversive universal power.""
- Lavender, Minneapolis MN

"Forget about the cliché idea of a night at the ballet; think: attitude, wit, and startling imagery. Think: smart, contemporary haircuts, an array of unexpected and evocative costumes, and a smattering of tattoos."
- Susan Anderson, Daily Journal, Fergus Falls MN

"Since leaving Manhattan...in 1993, the company has been thriving rather than just surviving: presenting dozens of new works, building a fanatically devoted audience and keeping the red ink away."
- Rick Nelson, Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

"Stirred imaginations and exuded a great deal of warmth"
- Virginia Wright-Peterson, Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

"The program demonstrated Sewell’s singular choreographic ability to embrace classicism and experimentation with inventive partnering, luxurious movement and beautifully constructed phrases. The improvised ballet, not an oxymoron in Sewell’s book, especially revealed the troupe’s capacity for fusing spontaneity and virtuosity."
- Camille LeFevre, Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

"The program...indicates...Sewell’s effectiveness in expanding the creative breadth and aesthetic accessibility of classical ballet."
- Camille LeFevre, Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

"A complete package of entertainment.”"
- Corina Hume, News-Review, Petoskey MI

"James Sewell Ballet has ascended to become the region’s foremost ballet company, reaching out to the region with remarkable success and popularity."
- Lavender, Minneapolis MN

"James Sewell’s enormously inventive ballet repertoire is a fusion of classic and contemporary that captures sculpture and geometry in dance. A certain quirkiness and humor is connected to strong technical skill."
- Lucy Komisar, The American Reporter

"James Sewell's choreography is anything but tired. At its best it is rich in surprises, filled with stunningly inventive movement and a brilliant strangeness. "
-Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times, New York NY

"Sewell's work is different from everyone else's: it's energetic, direct and full of musical zest; its movement vocabulary is ballet as it could be performed on the playing fields."
-Francis Mason, WQXR 96.3FM The Classical Station, New York NY

"Ideas that start in the heart and soul"
- Marian Horosko, Dancer

"A fresh, pleasing sensibility"
- Alicia Mosier, The Village Voice

"An accomplished group in both contemporary and classic dance."
- Jennie Schulman, Backstage

"A rewarding and wonderful evening of dance... Sewell's ballets are entertaining, easily accessible, to both the balletomane and the dance audience neophyte."
- Marsha Wagner, Sanibel-Captiva Shopper's Guide

"Utterly captivating, with wonderfully imaginative choreography and superb execution."
- Erik Eriksson, Door County Advocate, Wisconsin

"Incomparable."
-The Oxford Press, Oxford OH

"One of the country's most accomplished and inventive ballet companies."
-The Leader, Corning NY

"A beautifully trained company, presenting a programme that ranged from classical and neo-classical to elements of modern dance, and brimming with sheer entertainment value."
- Patricia Calnan, Mid-Ocean News, Hamilton, Bermuda

"Sewell's dances...combine classical ballet with modern dance's freedom of interpretation and a healthy dose of playfulness (what he calls 'the spirit of vaudeville')."
-Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

"Soars with kinetic energy and inventive choreography."
- Dance Magazine

"Living proof that beauty is very much alive...such freedom, such pure grace and Eros."
- Performance Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN

"Some of the freshest, brightest dances around."
- Mike Steele, Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

"A picture perfect performance... a complex tapestry weaving together intellectual content, technical expertise and a poetic vision."
- Mid-Ocean News, Hamilton, Bermuda

"The James Sewell Ballet elevated the sold out audience...beyond the normal performance into that rare air created by those who sacrifice their lives for art. This is art on its way to power."
- The Winona Post, Winona, MN

"A technically excellent and creatively innovative performance... This was a great show."
- Kim Dismont Robinson, The Royal Gazette, Hamilton, Bermuda

"A bravura performance."
- Sanibel Captiva Islander, Sanibel FL

"One of the most innovative and exciting evenings I've seen in a long time."
- This Week Onstage, New York, NY

"Reckless abandon, vaudevillian characterizations, jazzy musicality, and wondrous ballet technique... an evening of performances that were markedly easy on the eyes."
- Skyway News, Minneapolis and Saint Paul MN

"James Sewell Ballet shows, with panache, how accessible contemporary ballet can be."
- Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN

"An indispensable part of the cultural scene."
- Michael Fleming, St. Paul Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN

"Like a mobile SWAT team, they pack up, move in, perform, pack up and move on. ...This innovative contemporary troupe is one of the finest small companies I've seen in a decade. . ..Sewell...is one of those fine choreographers who shape dance in America. He has the wit, sense of comedy, originality and talent of a Jerome Robbins or a Michael Kidd."
- Sanibel-Captiva Shopper's Guide, Sanibel FL

"James Sewell is a wonder, whether as a choreographer, a dancer (alternately a magician, a passionate lover, a whirling dervish) or composer and musician."
- Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta GA

"'Amahl and the Night Visitors'...mixed tenderness of heart and clarity of vision in equal measures. ...The dancers outdid themselves in a staging that combined balletic steps, the sharp sculptural angles of modern dance, and the communicative power of American Sign Language. "
- Michael Fleming, Saint Paul Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN

"'Amahl' has proved itself...James Sewell's witty and inventive choreography fluently merges elements of traditional ballet with visual elements of American Sign Language, effectively making the opera as accessible as possible. "
- Saint Paul Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN

"[Sewell] is a multi-talented and courageous artist who is certainly placing his own signature on the evolvement of dance movement both as a visual aesthetic and a means of poetic expression."
- Mid-Ocean News, Hamilton, Bermuda