Planning Permission Granted for Factory

January 12, 2017, 7:04 am

≫ Next: 2017 - The Year in Dance

≪ Previous: Manchester? No, sorry - 2017 REDUX

From Manchester International Festival -

We have great news to share today – Manchester City Council has granted planning permission for Factory, an exceptional new arts and culture centre for Manchester.

MIF will be the operator for Factory, creating a year-round programme of work and running the building, which is due to open 2020. Factory will give audiences the opportunity to enjoy the broadest range of art forms and cultural experiences - including dance, theatre, music, opera, visual arts, spoken word, popular culture and innovative contemporary work incorporating multiple media and technologies. Artists from across the world will be invited to create new work in the building’s extraordinary spaces.

The building is designed by Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), their first major public building in the UK. Factory will form part of the new St. John's neighbourhood, which is being developed by Allied London, in partnership with Manchester City Council, on the site of the former Granada TV Studios.

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2017 - The Year in Dance

January 18, 2017, 3:12 am

≫ Next: Curing Albrecht - an original dance film from English National Ballet

≪ Previous: Planning Permission Granted for Factory

January

O - Project O - Royal Exchange Studio - 21 January

February

Blak Whyte Gray – A Hip Hop Dance Triple Bill - HOME - 9-11 February
Swan Lake - Moscow City Ballet - Palace Theatre - 9-11 February
An Italian in Madrid - Richard Alston Dance Company - The Lowry [Quays Theatre] - 13-14 February
Smother - 201 Dance Company - Contact - 14 February [Queer Contact]
Giselle Reawakened - LIPA (3rd Years) - LIPA, Liverpool - 16-18 February
Danza Contemporanea de Cuba - The Lowry [Lyric Theatre] - 17-18 February
Dance: Sampled - The Lowry [Lyric Theatre] - 24-25 February [features Northern Ballet, Acosta Danza, Carlos Pons Guerra, Connor Scott, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance, The Ruggeds + flamenco and tango]

March

COAL - Gary Clarke Company - Make Liverpool - 1-2 March [LEAP 2017 festival]
Cinderella - Birmingham Royal Ballet - The Lowry [Lyric Theatre] - 1-4 March
Whiteout - Barrowland Ballet - Make Liverpool - 4 March [LEAP 2017 festival]
The Enormous Room - Stopgap Dance Company - Make Liverpool - 6 March [LEAP 2017 festival]
RUN - 2Faced Dance Company - Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield - 7 March
FoMO, MOFOs - Mary Pearson - Make Liverpool - 8 March [LEAP 2017 festival]
American Man - Hetain Patel - Make Liverpool - 9 March [LEAP 2017 festival]
Slap & Tickle - Liz Aggiss - The Lowry - 9 March [SICK! Festival]
Voodoo - Project O - Make Liverpool - 11 March - LEAP 2017 festival]
Guide Gods - Claire Cunningham - The Lowry - 15 & 17 March [SICK! Festival]
American Man - Hetain Patel - Contact - 16-17 March [SICK! Festival]
To Belong - Koen De Preter & Theater Stap - The Lowry - 18 March [SICK! Festival]
Gaudete - OBRA - The Lowry [Quays Theatre] - 20-21 March
Michael Essien I Want To Play As You... - Ahilan Ratnamohan - Contact - 24 March [SICK! Festival]
Verve 2017 - Z-arts - 24 March
U.Dance NW 2017 - The Lowry [Quays Theatre] - 25-26 March
Life - BalletBoyz - The Lowry [Lyric Theatre] - 28 March
Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures - Matthew Bourne's New Adventures - Liverpool Playhouse - 28 March – 1 April
De Nada & Sardoville Dance Theatre - The Lowry [Aldridge Studio] - 29 March

April

One-Hit Wonders - Sol Picó - HOME - 1 April [Part of: ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival 2017]
Mixed Programme 2017 - Phoenix Dance Theatre - Oldham Coliseum - 4 April
Not Today's Yesterday - Seeta Patel - The Lowry [Aldridge Studio] - 19 April

May

MK Ultra - Rosie Kay Dance Company - HOME - 4-5 May
Pinocchio - Jasmin Vardimon Company - Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield - 5 May
Casanova - northern ballet - The Lowry - 3-6 May
Stepmother / Stepfather - Arthur Pita - The Lowry - 9 May
Leviathan - James Wilton Dance - Contact - 16-17 May
Pinocchio - Jasmin Vardimon Company - The Lowry [Quays Theatre] - 27-28 May
Out Of This World - Mark Murphy's V-TOL - The Lowry - 30-31 May
The Toad Knew - James Thierrée | Compagnie du Hanneton - The Lowry [Lyric] - 10-11 May [Cirque]
Milonga - Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui - The Lowry [Lyric] - 16-17 May [Contemporary + Tango]

June

The Red Shoes - Matthew Bourne's New Adventures - Liverpool Empire - 27 June - 1 July

July

The Red Shoes - Matthew Bourne's New Adventures - The Lowry [Lyric Theatre] - 11-15 July
1,000 Gestures - Boris Charmatz - A city centre space to be announced - 13-15 July [part of: MIF17]

August

September

The Wedding - Gecko - HOME - 12-16 September [Physical Theatre]

October

November

December

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Curing Albrecht - an original dance film from English National Ballet

January 19, 2017, 5:38 am

≫ Next: WINNERS OF THE 17TH NATIONAL DANCE AWARDS

≪ Previous: 2017 - The Year in Dance

Curing Albrechtshows a young man who checks into a bespoke institution, hoping to be cured of his inability to stop dancing.

An original dance film inspired by the iconic ballet Giselle, directed and choreographed by Morgann Runacre-Temple and Jessica Wright.

Inspired by themes of dancing and madness in Giselle, the short film was filmed on location in Manchester’s spectacular Victoria Baths and features a cast of dancers from Greater Manchester, performing alongside dancer Sam Coren and actor Jenny Runacre.

Commissioned by English National Ballet and produced in partnership with Manchester International Festival, the project behind Curing Albrecht created an opportunity for the young cast members to experience life on a professional film set and to be part of an in-depth choreographic process creating dance specifically for the camera.

Curing Albrecht

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WINNERS OF THE 17TH NATIONAL DANCE AWARDS

February 7, 2017, 9:35 am

≫ Next: Things To Watch Out For in 2017

≪ Previous: Curing Albrecht - an original dance film from English National Ballet

The Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle is pleased to announce the winners of the 17th National Dance Awards, which are as follows:

Veteran ballet dancer Beryl Grey won the De Valois award for outstanding achievement, with choreographer Brenda Last taking home the Industry award.

DANCING TIMES AWARD FOR BEST MALE DANCER – Chase Johnsey

Nominated:

Tobias BATLEY (Northern Ballet)
Alexander CAMPBELL (The Royal Ballet)
Chase JOHNSEY (Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo)
Vadim MUNTAGIROV (The Royal Ballet)
Liam RIDDICK (Richard Alston Dance Company)

GRISHKO AWARD FOR BEST FEMALE DANCER – Francesca Hayward

Nominated:

Francesca HAYWARD (The Royal Ballet)
Ekaterina KRYSANOVA (Bolshoi Ballet)
Laura MORERA (The Royal Ballet)
Tamara ROJO (English National Ballet)
Zenaida YANOWSKY (The Royal Ballet)

STEF STEFANOU AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING COMPANY – English National Ballet has won the outstanding company prize at this year’s Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards.

Nominated:

Bolshoi Ballet
English National Ballet
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Northern Ballet
Scottish Ballet

BEST INDEPENDENT COMPANY – Gary Clarke Company

Nominated:

Ballet Cymru
DeNada Dance Theatre
Gary Clarke Company
Protein Dance
Sweetshop Revolution

BEST CLASSICAL CHOREOGRAPHY – Jonathan Watkins’ 1984, for Northern Ballet, won him the best classical choreography prize.

Nominated:

Anabelle LOPEZ OCHOA – ‘Broken Wings’ (for English National Ballet)
Jean-Christophe MAILLOT – ‘Taming Of The Shrew’ (for Bolshoi Ballet)
Cathy MARSTON – ‘Jane Eyre’ (for Northern Ballet)
Will TUCKETT – ‘Elizabeth’ (for The Royal Ballet)
Jonathan WATKINS – ‘1984’ (for Northern Ballet

BEST MODERN CHOREOGRAPHY – Kim Brandstrup’s Transfigured Night, by Rambert.

Nominated:

Kim BRANDSTRUP – ‘Transfigured Night’ (for Rambert)
Javier De FRUTOS – ‘Anatomy of a Passing Cloud’ (for Royal New Zealand Ballet)
Akram KHAN – ‘Until the Lions’ (for Akram Khan Company)
Russell MALIPHANT – ‘Spiral Pass’ (for Bayerische Staatsballett Munich & Russell Maliphant Company)
Crystal PITE – ‘Betroffenheit’ (for Kidd Pivot/Electric Company Theatre)

EMERGING ARTIST AWARD – Reece Clarke, first artist at the Royal Ballet, won the emerging artist award, marking the third year in a row the prize has gone to a Royal Ballet dancer.

Nominated:

Reece CLARKE (First Artist, The Royal Ballet)
Julie CUNNINGHAM (Freelance Choreographer)
Tierney HEAP (Soloist, The Royal Ballet)
Kateryna KHANIUKOVA (Junior Soloist, English National Ballet)
Vidya PATEL (Guest artist, Richard Alston Dance Company)

OUTSTANDING FEMALE PERFORMANCE (MODERN) – Ching-Ying Chien

Nominated:

Ching-Ying CHIEN (in ‘UNTIL THE LIONS’ for Akram Khan Company)
Marivi DA SILVA (in ‘YOUNG MAN’ for Denada Dance Theatre)
Christine Joy RITTER (in ‘UNTIL THE LIONS’ for Akram Khan Company)
Hannah KIDD (as Penelope in ‘THE ODYSSEY’ for Mark Bruce Company)
Vidya PATEL (as Princess Maria Barbara in ‘AN ITALIAN IN MADRID’ for Richard Alston Dance Company)

OUTSTANDING MALE PERFORMANCE (MODERN) – Jonathon Young

Nominated:

Miguel ALTUNAGA (in ‘TRANSFIGURED NIGHT’ for Rambert)
Daniel COLLINS (as Jekyll in ‘JEKYLL & HYDE’ for The Old Vic/The Mconie Company)
Akram KHAN (in ‘UNTIL THE LIONS’ for Akram Khan Company)
Liam RIDDICK (as Prince Ferdinand in ‘AN ITALIAN IN MADRID’ for Richard Alston Dance Company)
Jonathon YOUNG (in ‘BETROFFENHEIT’ for Kidd Pivot/Electric Company Theatre

OUTSTANDING FEMALE PERFORMANCE (CLASSICAL) – Zenaida Yanowsky

Nominated:

Francesca HAYWARD (in ‘RHAPSODY’ for The Royal Ballet)
Ekaterina KRYSANOVA (as Katherina in ‘TAMING OF THE SHREW’ for Bolshoi Ballet)
Martha LEEBOLT (as Julia in ‘1984’ for Northern Ballet)
Tamara ROJO (as Frida Kahlo in ‘BROKEN WINGS’ for English National Ballet)
Zenaida YANOWSKY (in the title role as ‘ELIZABETH’ for The Royal Ballet)

OUTSTANDING MALE PERFORMANCE (CLASSICAL) – Cesar Corrales

Nominated:

Tobias BATLEY (as Winston Smith in ‘1984’ for Northern Ballet)
Cesar CORRALES (as Ali in ‘LE CORSAIRE’ for English National Ballet)
Chase JOHNSEY (in the title role as ‘PAQUITA’ for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo)
Vladislav LANTRATOV (as Petruchio in ‘TAMING OF THE SHREW’ for Bolshoi Ballet)
Irek MUKHAMEDOV (as Diego Rivera in ‘BROKEN WINGS’ for English National Ballet)

↧

Things To Watch Out For in 2017

February 16, 2017, 4:42 am

≫ Next: Welcoming choreographer Ben Wright back to the UK [from: South East Dance]

≪ Previous: WINNERS OF THE 17TH NATIONAL DANCE AWARDS

A rolling list of dance events that I am hoping will come to a Manchester area theatre when dates are announced or I am expecting to be coming but haven't yet - with an especial focus on things that look as if they are really worth seeing.

Theo Clinkard - This Bright Field

Brighton-based choreographer and designer, Theo Clinkard follows his recent commissions for Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch and Danza Contemporanea de Cuba with This Bright Field, a new work for his company, to première as part of Brighton Festival 2017.

Clinkard and his exceptional company of twelve international dancers have crafted an event in two parts that focuses the subjective and objective gaze within private and public spaces. Audience and performers share the stage for a captivating and intimate mobile installation before the second part presents a dynamic landscape of emboldened collective energy.

Clinkard’s striking designs, live music by acclaimed composer James Keane and lighting by renowned designer Guy Hoare, ensure that This Bright Field is a site for memorable encounters and an empowered experience of togetherness.

Over the last five years, Theo Clinkard has built an international reputation for creating affecting and visually arresting work, including the recent large-scale commission The Listening Room, created in Havana for twenty dancers at Danza Contemporanea de Cuba which is touring the UK in spring 2017.

This Bright Field is a multi-partner co-production which includes The Lowry so I expect this exciting new show to be programmed there later this year.

Teac Damsa - Swan Lake / Loch na hEala

From the imagination of one of Ireland’s foremost dance and theatre-makers comes a magical new adaptation of the most famous of all story ballets, Swan Lake.

Michael Keegan-Dolan has forged a searing new vision for this beloved tale, creating a world of magical realism, powerful imagery and potent storytelling. A critical smash in Dublin and at Sadler’s Wells, this Swan Lake is rooted in a place where ancient Irish mythology and modern Ireland meet.

The Dublin-based band Slow Moving Clouds has created a new score that combines Nordic and Irish traditional music with minimalist and experimental influences. The result is a Swan Lake for our time and a stunning debut by Keegan-Dolan’s new company, Teac Damsa.

Also showing at the Brighton Festival following a ***** run at Sadler's Wells, I am hoping this show will start touring in 2017. If it does, go and see it.

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Welcoming choreographer Ben Wright back to the UK [from: South East Dance]

February 23, 2017, 8:43 am

≫ Next: Grand Finale - new from Hofesh Shechter

≪ Previous: Things To Watch Out For in 2017

Welcoming choreographer Ben Wright back to the UK

After three years as the Associate Artistic Director of Skanes Dansteater in Malmo Sweden, former South East Dance Associate Ben Wright is returning to the UK to reignite his company bgroup and focus on his own creative practice. Having been awarded the first ever commission from the Rural Touring Dance Initiative, to create and tour his first piece in the UK since 2013, Ben will collaborate with musician and writer Stuart Warwick to make Keepers – a seafaring story exploring an eerie relationship between two keepers at an isolated lighthouse. “I'm thoroughly excited to be coming back to the UK,” he says. “It’s been a fantastic few years in which I've had remarkable opportunities to generate mid and large-scale works that merge theatre, opera and dance disciplines. In some ways Keepers is like a tiny continuation of this investigation and I'm looking forward to creating something so intimate.”

Ben intends to combine the creation of this new piece with teaching and mentoring. "Having completed my Clore Fellowship in 2016, I’ve been thinking a lot about this challenge of leading as an artist.” he continues. “So this return to the UK signals a period of rumination, to take some time to explore this balance.”

In the meantime Ben is busy staging works on a small and large scale. “In late February I'm premiering Spectrum in Sweden – a new piece that explores the 11 basic colour terms in the English language, and in November I re-stage The Feeling of Going,” he says. “I’ll be in production for Keepers during the summer before we start touring in the Autumn.” Ben will continue to act as the Associate Choreographer for Skanes Dansteater for the next couple of years.

Keep an eye on the bgroup Facebook page for Keepers tour dates and other updates about Ben’s work.

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Grand Finale - new from Hofesh Shechter

February 24, 2017, 5:07 am

≫ Next: 2018 - The Year in Dance

≪ Previous: Welcoming choreographer Ben Wright back to the UK [from: South East Dance]

Grand Finale

Choreography & Music by Hofesh Shechter
Performed by Hofesh Shechter Company

Set & Costumes designed by Tom Scutt
Lighting designed by Tom Visser
Music Collaborators: Nell Catchpole and Yaron Engler

Grand Finale is Hofesh's feverishly anticipated new production. Part dance, part gig, part theatre and wholly original, his work has its own instantly identifiable and entirely unique voice.

Grand Finale shows us a world in freefall, where humanity spirals through surreal scenes and emotions towards its own end point. Mythic and elemental, Hofesh's vision is at once comic, bleak and beautiful, evoking a world at odds with itself, full of anarchic energy and violent comedy.

Intricate, chiselled choreographic patterns and a dynamic score performed live meet in a heady mix of power and emotion, to tell a simple tale about the human spirit.

The company’s exceptional ensemble of dancers comes from 8 different countries. They are Chien-Ming Chang, Frédéric Despierre, Rachel Fallon, Mickael Frappat, Yeji Kim, Kim Kohlmann, Erion Kruja, Merel Lammers, Attila Ronai, Diogo Sousa with Associate Director Bruno Guillore.

“The mighty contemporary choreographer – a combination of dance-maker and rock-star, but with film-director sensibilities.” The Times

----

Grand Finale is produced by Hofesh Shechter Company and commissioned by Georgia Rosengarten.

Our Commissioning partners are Sadler's Wells, Théâtre de la Ville-Paris / La Villette-Paris and Brighton Dome and Festival. Co-commissioned by Colours International Dance Festival Stuttgart, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Romaeuropa Festival, Theatre Royal Plymouth and Marche Teatro / Inteatro Festival together with Danse Danse Montréal, Hellerau-European Center for the Arts Dresden, Dansens Hus Oslo, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, HOME Manchester and Scène Nationale d’Albi.

The new creation is generously supported by the International Music and Arts Foundation.

Tour Dates 2017

1-2 June: Previews, Theatre Royal Plymouth
14 – 24 June: World Premiere, La Villette, Paris
8 – 9 July: Athens and Epidaurus Festival*
18 – 19 July: Colours Internationl Dance Festival, Stuttgart
12 – 16 September: UK Premiere, Sadler’s Wells, London* (Priority booking opens for patrons and members 15 May, Public booking opens 22 May)
1 – 4 November: Danse Danse Montreal*
9 – 11 November: Brooklyn Academy Music, New York*
24 - 26 November: Dansens Hus, Oslo*
12 December: Scène Nationale d’Albi*

More dates to be announced.

*Venues not yet on sale

↧

2018 - The Year in Dance

March 7, 2017, 9:55 am

≫ Next: Behind the scenes at the ballet [BBC]

≪ Previous: Grand Finale - new from Hofesh Shechter

It feels early to be creating the 2018 page, but the first date has been announced:

January

February

March

Matthew Bourne's Cinderella | The Lowry [Lyric Theatre] | 13-17 March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

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Behind the scenes at the ballet [BBC]

March 9, 2017, 1:08 am

≫ Next: Service Interruption

≪ Previous: 2018 - The Year in Dance

Behind the scenes at the ballet

Photographer Justin Slee goes backstage with the Leeds-based Northern Ballet company as the dancers prepare for their new production based on the life of Giacomo Casanova.

Casanova is known these days as the great seducer, but he was also a gambler, spy, diplomat, entrepreneur and author, and the production aims to highlight these lesser-known aspects of his life.

See the full set of images.

[BBC]

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Service Interruption

March 10, 2017, 4:06 am

≫ Next: Olivier Awards 2017

≪ Previous: Behind the scenes at the ballet [BBC]

Dear Methods of Dance readers,

Apologies if the content of the site - and especially the review content - drops off markedly in March. I am now appearing in The Suppliant Women at the Royal Exchange Theatre 10 March-1 April.

For the time being, my evenings are no longer my own.

I am however getting a night off to go and see the English National Ballet's triple bill at Sadler's Wells on 24 March - when I finally get to see the Pina Bausch version of The Rite of Spring.

Peter

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Olivier Awards 2017

March 20, 2017, 6:16 am

≫ Next: Trisha Brown 1936-2017

≪ Previous: Service Interruption

Dance related nominations...

Best new dance production

Betroffenheit by Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young at Sadler’s Wells

Blak Whyte Gray by Boy Blue Entertainment at Barbican theatre

Giselle by Akram Khan and English National Ballet at Sadler’s Wells

My Mother, My Dog and CLOWNS! by Michael Clark at Barbican theatre

Outstanding achievement in dance

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for their London season at Sadler’s Wells

Luke Ahmet for The Creation by Rambert at Sadler’s Wells

English National Ballet for expanding the variety of their repertoire with Giselle and She Said at Sadler’s Wells

Other nominations in other categories...

Best entertainment and family

The Red Shoes at Sadler’s Wells

Best theatre choreographer

Matthew Bourne for The Red Shoes at Sadler’s Wells

↧

Trisha Brown 1936-2017

March 21, 2017, 4:15 am

≫ Next: Kenneth MacMillan: a National Celebration

≪ Previous: Olivier Awards 2017

Trisha Brown (November 25, 1936 – March 18, 2017) was an American choreographer and dancer.

Brown was a founding member of the Judson Dance Theater, the informal group that pioneered postmodern dance in the ’60s. A contemporary of John Cage and Yvonne Rainer, Brown made dance pieces that redefined the idea of “performing,” and became known as pedestrian movement, pushing ideas from Merce Cunningham to their logical conclusion.

Three historic works that Brown made in 1971 suggest much in their titles alone: Walking on the Wall, Roof Piece and Accumulation. Walking had dancers suspended in harnesses moving sideways along walls; Roof spread its dancers across 12 roofs on 10 SoHo blocks; Accumulation was a formal study in graduated movement, with repeated phrases building in complexity — like sentences that each time added one word.

The experimental dance of that era, embodied in those pieces, set itself up against virtuosity. Trisha Brown nonetheless now became a virtuoso of a new kind.

Brown’s influence on dancers, artists and performance generally has been profoundly felt ever since.

In the ’80s, Brown collaborated with Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Judd and Laurie Anderson and her work Set and Reset (1983) became another canonical contribution to 20th century dance. With its simple movements that any modern dance student would recognize as foundational to the so-called “release technique,” a dance vocabulary still widely seen in new works today, Set and Reset was once deemed “the most beloved and irresistible work of postmodern dance,” by the Times.

Brown’s career spanned 40 years, with works for the Paris Opera Ballet, her own company and even Mikhail Baryshnikov to her credit. In 2002 she received the National Medal of the Arts.

Trisha Brown, Choreographer Who Redefined Performance, Dead at 80 [OBSERVER]

Trisha Brown, Choreographer and Pillar of American Postmodern Dance, Dies at 80 [New York
Times]

↧

Kenneth MacMillan: a National Celebration

April 5, 2017, 2:53 am

≫ Next: Olivier Awards 2017 - the dance winners

≪ Previous: Trisha Brown 1936-2017

Six British dance companies come together on the Royal Opera House stages to celebrate MacMillan’s extraordinary legacy.

Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet and Yorke Dance Project come together to celebrate the profound influence of Kenneth MacMillan, marking the 25th anniversary of his death.

A national celebration. In London.

Manchester audiences will get the opportunity to see MacMillan's Song of the Earth at the Palace Theatre 11-14 October. This will be showing as part of an English National Ballet double bill with La Sylphide.

↧

Olivier Awards 2017 - the dance winners

April 10, 2017, 1:42 am

≫ Next: Siobhan Davies Dance: material / rearranged / to / be - the Whitworth

≪ Previous: Kenneth MacMillan: a National Celebration

Best New Dance Production

Betroffenheit by Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young at Sadler’s Wells

Outstanding Achievement in Dance

English National Ballet for expanding the variety of their repertoire with Akram Khan’s Giselle and She Said at Sadler’s Wells

Best Theatre Choreographer

Matthew Bourne for The Red Shoes at Sadler’s Wells

Best Entertainment and Family

Matthew Bourne’s production of The Red Shoes at Sadler’s Wells

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No reason for complaints here. I haven't been able to see Betroffenheit but have heard universally good things about it and would love the opportunity to see it - or anything by Crystal Pite.

Akram Khan's Giselle is wonderful, and Tamara Rojo's revitalisation of the English National Ballet has been a remarkable and much-needed achievement, at the forefront of a new trend towards new narrative work in classical and contemporary dance.

The Red Shoes is easily Matthew Bourne's best work for years. A wonderful show.

↧

Siobhan Davies Dance: material / rearranged / to / be - the Whitworth

April 12, 2017, 4:21 am

≫ Next: Turn 2017 A whirlwind night of new northern dance.

≪ Previous: Olivier Awards 2017 - the dance winners

Siobhan Davies Dance: material / rearranged / to / be

Exploring our bodies' capacity to communicate, the work includes performance, film projection, and sculptural objects that are presented as an ever-changing arrangement. Visitors enter the gallery and are immersed in a live environment that evolves around them.

Artist Jeremy Millar provides a structure and concept for the work inspired by the practices of the art historian Aby Warburg. Warburg collected diverse images of human gestures and poses from different times and places, positioning them side by side to allow new relationships to emerge, and explore how meanings are constituted by the movement of imagery across time and space. In a similar spirit, material / rearranged / to / be presents a large-scale, modular architecture which is continually arranged and rearranged by the artists, creating new pathways through the installation and drawing visitors into a journey of discovery.

The artists and choreographers in material / rearranged / to / be have combined Warburg’s ideas on bodily communication with the latest research in neuroscience to investigate how movement is felt, observed, and we reveal and conceal thought in physical behaviour.

Works include choreographies on concepts of instability and disorientation, how we archive or remember past movement, along with a taxonomy of imaginary actions. Performers engage directly with the public inviting them to participate in the aggressive bodily postures and rhythms associated with argument, or to think about how we feel in relation to the actions of another through everyday activities like shaking hands. A looped video projection that oscillates in the space between live movement and recorded image highlights how our embodied intelligence anticipates future events.

Exhibition: 6 – 14 May 2017

Saturday Supplement: Material / Rearranged / To / Be

 Saturday 6 May, 11am-4pm
Free, no need to book

An extraordinary day of performance, workshops and conversations alongside Material / Rearranged / To / Be, a new work by Siobhan Davies Dance. The day will feature insights and explorations on the work from leading artists, makers and thinkers. From hands on family workshops to tours and talks from curators and scientists, this day will shed light on the thinking behind Siobhan Davies Dance’s most ambitious collaboration to date.

Photo by Pari Naderi

After the Whitworth, the installation will tour to the Bluecoat, Liverpool. For more information visit Siobhan Davies Dance.

With thanks to generous support from Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation.
Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Presented in collaboration with Tramway.

↧

Turn 2017 A whirlwind night of new northern dance.

April 18, 2017, 7:29 am

≫ Next: Studio Wayne McGregor: Now Open

≪ Previous: Siobhan Davies Dance: material / rearranged / to / be - the Whitworth

Presented by Word of Warning + Contact

Friday 28 April 2017, 7.30pm

All the energy of this annual whirlwind of new northern dance condensed.
Twelve works, twelve articulations of human expression.
One extraordinary night of dance.

Artists

Mr. President, Prime Minister, Ladies + Gentlemen, we stand before you…
Folding like paper, playing with your food…
The shifting politics of the movement of people…
Ancestral memory, the human condition, the colour blue…
Blind certainty, a lover’s look and a whisper from the unknown…

Fluidly lyrical, effervescently acrobatic or eccentrically innovative, let Turn transport you into a frenzy of dance. To get a feel for it, see Turn 2016’sprogramme + image gallery.

Venue + Booking Details

Date: Friday 28 April 2017, 7.30pm
Venue: Contact, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6JA
Tickets: £9/5 | Ticket offers are available at Contact, please see below.
Box Office Tel: 0161 274 0600

What people have said about Turn

★★★★ …a significant event in the annual calendar for audiences and creatives.
The Reviews Hub, 2016 (fka Public Reviews)

↧

Studio Wayne McGregor: Now Open

April 20, 2017, 8:12 am

≫ Next: A New Venue for Sadler's Wells - Olympicopolis

≪ Previous: Turn 2017 A whirlwind night of new northern dance.

Studio Wayne McGregor has opened a creative arts space for making. It is the new home for multi-award winning choreographer Wayne McGregor CBE and his company of dancers, Company Wayne McGregor, and will be a unique resource for artists and communities. Studio Wayne McGregor encompasses all of our creative output including creative collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science; and highly specialised Learning and Engagement and Research programmes.

Based at Here East in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and designed by architectural practice We Not I, Studio Wayne McGregor comprises three dance studios, including two of the largest in London, and a series of playful spaces in which to collaborate, make and create. The first arts organisation to be based on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, it is a place for making, developing creative practice, and collaboration across arts, science, technology and research.

A cornerstone programme for Studio Wayne McGregor is FreeSpace, a major new artist development and community engagement programme which will support artists to explore innovation in new directions, form an artists’ incubation and innovation community, and provide inspiring learning opportunities led by professional practising artists to thousands of participants each year.

A New Venue for Sadler's Wells - Olympicopolis

April 21, 2017, 7:11 am

≫ Next: Methods of Dance is now on Facebook...

≪ Previous: Studio Wayne McGregor: Now Open

Not a new story but something I have recently been reminded of...

In the coming years, a world class education and cultural district on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is being created that will bring together outstanding organisations to showcase exceptional art, dance, history, craft, science, technology and cutting edge design.

The Cultural and Education District will be made up of two sites on the Park, clustered around the iconic Stadium, ArcelorMittal Orbit and London Aquatics Centre.

A number of world-class institutions have already made plans to set up a permanent presence on these two sites. UCL East will be the site of a new university campus for University College London (UCL), while Stratford Waterfront features a new campus for the University of the Arts London, along with major new spaces for the Victoria and Albert Museum and Sadler's Wells. Discussions are also underway between the Smithsonian and the Victoria and Albert Museum to work together to create a major new international collaboration.

Sadler's Wells

Sadler’s Wells aims to create a 7,000m2 venue with a 600-seat dance theatre to complement its existing venues cementing London’s position as one of the world’s greatest centres for dance.

The new venue will provide flexible ‘making’ spaces for research and development and producing new work, facilities for a Choreographic School, and for a Hip Hop Academy.