Richard Alston Dance Company has announced today that its final tour will take place in 2019-2020. Richard Alston has been creating dance for over 50 years and his company has been resident at The Place for the past 24 years. In that time, Alston has played a major role in the world of contemporary dance, developing a unique and distinct dance language and shaping the art form in this country.
The company’s current tour runs until spring 2019 including two nights at Sadler’s Wells. It will tour in autumn 2019 including a special ‘At Home’ programme at The Place in celebration of the company’s 25 years of work and its home’s 50th anniversary. The company will tour for the last time in spring 2020 including a final Sadler’s Wells season.
It was at this point that he started to choreograph, as he studied under the groundbreaking teaching of American dancer/choreographer Robert Cohan and the leadership of Robin Howard, who first brought contemporary dance to the UK from America in the late 1950s.
He went on to choreograph for The Place's resident company London Contemporary Dance Theatre before forming the UK’s first independent dance company, Strider, in 1972. In 1975 he left for New York to study at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio and on his return two years later he worked throughout the UK and Europe as an independent choreographer and teacher.
In 1980 he was appointed Resident Choreographer with Ballet Rambert, becoming the company's Artistic Director from 1986 - 1992.
In 1994 he became Artistic Director at The Place and formed his own company Richard Alston Dance Company.