Swan Lake

2005

Greta Hodgkinson …in a bravura performance. She is a luminous, tragic Odette. It’s hard to believe she isn’t a bird, with her pliant neck and quivering hands. When she slips languidly backwards into Seigfried’s arms, it’s a moment of exquisite romance. When she appears as Odile in black feathers and knowing smile, she creates a whole different character: sexy, almost louche, and dangerous. Showing off Odile’s strength and power, Hodgkinson pulled off the famous series of fouettes in the black swan pas de deux to shouts of approval from the audience.

Reviewed by Louise Phillips, The Vancouver Courier

2006

Principal dancers Aleksandar Antonijevic and Greta Hodgkinson demonstrated their mastery of both the technical and emotional challenges of their complex roles. Hodgkinson was the perfect partner for Antonijevic in the dual role of Odette and Odile. As the former, she displayed a brilliant mixture of delicacy, compassion, sorrow and hope in her movements. As the latter, she was fiery and flirtatious, completely unapologetic about her plan to trick Siegfried…

Reviewed by Zsofia Budai, The Hoya, Washington

Miss Hodgkinson has an awesome balance, an expressive body and steely technique…

Reviewed by Jean Battey Lewis, The Washington Times

Cinderella

2005

Once again, Hodgkinson demonstrated why she is one of this country’s best dancers. For me, one of the best things about moving to Canada from the US has been the opportunity to see this great dancer. Watching Greta Hodgkinson perform Cinderella, I realized one reason for my fascination is the breathtaking scale of her movement. This, I think, is what Arlene Croce, a former dance critic for the New Yorker, was rhapsodizing about thirty years ago when she watched New York City Ballet’s Suzanne Farrell.

Reviewed by Kena Herod, Maisonneuve

Giselle

2005

What a treat to witness National Ballet of Canada prima ballerina Greta Hodgkinson, sublime, paired with the ever-solid Roberto Bolle. Hodgkinson enchanted, with all the nuances we so often see only in our imagination. Technically impeccable and tantalizingly vivacious in Act I, she then brought it home in Act II in convincingly ethereal fashion. Equally secure on pointe and in the air, Hodgkinson gives beautiful suspension to her jumps and balances, showing off those gorgeous legs just once, in a series of excellently executed pique turns. Ever greater care and comprehension was applied to her use of the upper body as a tool for expression, particularly in the second act. As the newest wonder in Wili-land, she assumed the softest of qualities, aided by the perfect partner, Bolle…

Reviewed by Bruce Michelson, Dance Europe

Although the character is a teenage girl it really takes a ballerina’s artistic maturity to bring her to life and artistic maturity combined with tremendous technical dancing skill is what Greta Hodgkinson has…

Reviewed by Michael Crabb, CBC

Greta Hodgkinson sets a very high standard in the title role. I’ve seldom seen the Act I mad scene so powerfully characterized within the stylistic parameters appropriate to a ballet of the Romantic period. Hodgkinson gave us a Giselle for the memory books.

Reviewed by William Littler, The Toronto Star

2007

Greta Hodgkinson is a remarkable actress and will-o’-the –wisp dancer, who transforms herself from an innocent girl into a heartsick woman betrayed by her lover, and finally a madwoman. Her dancing is so emotionally charged it’s almost painful to watch as she clutches at her tender heart, foreshadowing the death to come.

Reviewed by Grania Litwin, Times Colonist

Hodgkinson is luminous as Giselle, her pale face and body perfect for the role of a woman with a weak heart. Her style is that star-making mixture of grace and control; and her acting is excellent. When we meet her, she’s happy, bright, shy and sweet; when she goes mad, she does so most convincingly.

Reviewed by Joanne Paulson, The Star Phoenix

Romeo and Juliet

2006

His (Jason Reilly) Juliet on this occasion is the exquisite Greta Hodgkinson. In Reilly’s arms, she melts like some tender schoolgirl suggesting the first true flame of love. Soft and radiant, Hodgkinson digs deep within to suggest the mood-drenched longing of a young heart beating with ecstatic wonder.

Reviewed by Gary Smith, The Hamilton Spectator

Dramatically, the ballet belongs to the girl, especially when the Juliet in question is as compellingly portrayed as she was by NBC ballerina Greta Hodgkinson in Sunday’s performance. When both lead dancers have such a sure and intelligent grasp of their characters and are as sensitively attuned physically and emotionally as Hodgkinson and Reilly so clearly are, you have the ingredients for a truly memorable performance.

Reviewed by Michael Crabb, The National Post

Rubies from Balanchine’s Jewels

2006

With this piece, Greta Hodgkinson, a dancer of incredible charisma, fills the imagination with potent imagery. With the true genius of the Balanchine dancer, Hodgkinson is capable if sudden shifts of weight, restless little running steps and freeze-frame moments designed to capture the real essence of Broadway show dance. Hodgkinson is easily the brightest star in this Balanchine night.

Reviewed by Gary Smith, The Hamilton Spectator

Principal dancer Greta Hodgkinson is among the best I’ve ever seen – certainly the equal of Kain and Tennant in their primes. She can do modern, she can do traditional: onstage, her expressive features transmit her character’s emotions.

Article in Toronto Life magazine: written by Alec Scott

The Sleeping Beauty

2006

On opening night, Greta Hodgkinson and Guillaume Cote gave a rapturous account of Beauty’s difficult central roles.

Hodgkinson is a real classical prima, a dancer with the attitude, energy and physical presence of a star. In this ballet, she creates the imagination of a healthy young girl on the edge of sexual awakening. She can do all the technical tricks. Her balances seemed effortless, her pirouettes elegant, her attitude poses torn from the page of some perfect ballet primer.
Hodgkinson’s Rose Adagio is so stunning you long for the music to start over again so she can reprise her own genius.

Greta Hodgkinson danced one of the great Auroras of our time

Reviewed by Gary Smith, The Hamilton Spectator

Opening night featured Greta Hodgkinson and Guillaume Cote. She has such élan, such graceful nuance onstage, and she wrapped herself in Aurora’s young skin so brilliantly she suggested the essence of a young woman coming into womanhood.

Reviewed by Gary Smith, Ballet Review

Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and Petit Mort

2006

Both in a bravura Pas de Deux by Tchaikovsky and a long duet from Jiri Kylian’s masterpiece, Petit Mort, Bolle and Hodgkinson danced with extreme confidence, musicality and wittiness. Hodgkinson let herself go with emotional abandon, a perfect match for the special fluidity of Kylian’s never-ending dynamic wave.

Reviewed by Sylvia Poletti, Dance International

2008

rock-solid Roberto Bolle, from La Scala, and vital Greta Hodgkinson, from the National Ballet of Canada, in an excerpt from Jiri Kylian’s Petit Mort. What a way to open the second half! Kylian’s brilliantly inventive partnering, and the speed and sensitivity of these two interpreters, were easily the highlight of the evening…

Reviewed by Robert Johnson, Dance International

Roxana

Roxana is superb. …it is dance as dramatic narrative, exquisitely crafted for TV. Greta Hodgkinson is a marvel to behold.

Reviewed by John Doyle, The Globe and Mail

National Ballet of Canada principal dancer Greta Hodgkinson makes a smooth transition into acting for the camera in Moze Mossanen’s Roxana. The sets and costumes are suitably lavish and Hodgkinson seems to relish her role as the haughty, high-class whore.

Reviewed by Susan Walker, The Toronto Star

Since dance is Mossanen’s passion, we first meet National Ballet of Canada star Greta Hodgkinson’s Roxana as she performs for a contingent of doting men in a 1957 nightclub. Hodgkinson looks ravishing in Roxana’s party gowns and, of course, dances magnificently.

Reviewed by Michael Crabb, Dance International

The Taming of the Shrew

2007

One of the Ntaional’s foremost female principal dancers, the great Hodgkinson is the only repeat among the new batch of Kates… She last performed the role n 1999 and has only grown in her understanding. Whether dumping the contents of a chamber pot on Bianca’s suitors, or fighting the battle of the sexes against the determined Petruchio, or giving in to her own feelings at the end, Hodgkinson was masterful.

Reviewed by Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail

The Four Seasons

Also in the star camp were the coiled and intense weavings of luscious Greta Hodgkinson and lithe and elegant Aleksandar Antonijevic. Their red hot turn from Summer, quivered with excitement and barely suppressed sexual tension. Hodgkinson has always had the capacity for taking steps beyond choreographic invention, imbuing them with lusty subtext. She does that here in spades. Her passionately held hops onto pointe were so dramatically attached to Vivaldi’s stirring music they may never come unstuck.

Reviewed by Gary Smith, Ballet Review

Excitement continued to build with Summer pas de deux. It has become one of Greta Hodgkinson’s signature pieces, and she was skillfully partnered by Aleksandar Antonijevic. She is a first-rate ballerina who can only be described as fearless, and her daring makes this pas de deux dangerous and stirring.

Reviewed by Denise Sum, Dance Magazine

West Side Story Suite

…for sheer entertainment value, nothing could compete with Greta Hodgkinson’s raunchy Anita

Reviewed by Michael Crabb, National Post