In May I wrote about my fear that there would be little dance on in Manchester in the near future. I expected the usual summer dearth of performances, made worse by the biannual absence of Urban Moves.
My worst fears have been realised with the announcement of the new September-December Lowry season.
The return of the Rambert had already been long-announced, also the new show by the Lowry's resident Company Chameleon. I also knew about January's return of the Birmingham Royal Ballet with Beauty and the Beast. Dance Consortium had also recently announced an interesting-looking show called Happy as Larry by Australia's Shaun Parker & Company.
What I didn't expect was that there would only be one other dance company announced for the autumn season - the return of Candoco with their twentieth anniversary show, Turning Twenty.
I expected the new harder economic climate to result in less but that is pretty shocking. After The Lowry's spring dance season Dance Moves, which I greatly enjoyed while still criticising as lacking coherence and seeming much like 'business as usual' - I wasn't convinced their dance season contained any more dance than when they didn't have a dance season. Maybe I should have kept quiet. But then again...
I wonder what the new Contact season will have in store. I have it on very good authority that they have a new commitment to dance programming after something of a falling away in recent years.![]()
My worst fears have been realised with the announcement of the new September-December Lowry season.
The return of the Rambert had already been long-announced, also the new show by the Lowry's resident Company Chameleon. I also knew about January's return of the Birmingham Royal Ballet with Beauty and the Beast. Dance Consortium had also recently announced an interesting-looking show called Happy as Larry by Australia's Shaun Parker & Company.
What I didn't expect was that there would only be one other dance company announced for the autumn season - the return of Candoco with their twentieth anniversary show, Turning Twenty.
I expected the new harder economic climate to result in less but that is pretty shocking. After The Lowry's spring dance season Dance Moves, which I greatly enjoyed while still criticising as lacking coherence and seeming much like 'business as usual' - I wasn't convinced their dance season contained any more dance than when they didn't have a dance season. Maybe I should have kept quiet. But then again...
I wonder what the new Contact season will have in store. I have it on very good authority that they have a new commitment to dance programming after something of a falling away in recent years.
