Name: Richard Alston Dance Company 20th Anniversary, Sadler's Wells
Start: 2015-01-26
End: 2015-01-27
Location: Sadler's Wells

Richard Alston Dance Company: Jennifer Hayes and company, image by Chris Nash

In this significant anniversary programme, Richard Alston shares the limelight for first time in his career, collaborating with the young hip hop artist Ajani Johnson-Goffe in a new work called Nomadic. The Sadler’s Wells-commissioned piece will be part of a quadruple bill which includes associate choreographer Martin Lawrance’s two choreographies, Madcap and Burning, alongside another Alston work, Rejoice in the Lamb.

While each piece stages individually expressive narratives, together they also create an interesting rhythm of solos, duets and group segments. In this selection of works passionate and dynamic physical movements mix with lyrical, pleasurable fluency. Clear shapes and lines, sparkling footwork, sudden changes, elegance are driven and inspired by music that doesn’t only please the ear but tells fascinating stories embedded in them.

2014's Richard Alston Rejoice in the Lamb, danced to Benjamin Britten’s superb setting of Christopher Smart's fervent poetry, has its London premiere in this programme. The words, sung live onstage by the American choir, Montclair State University Vocal Accord, are full of witty detail, and that’s reflected in Alston’s choreography for his company’s ten dancers.

Burning (2014), set to Lizst’s Dante Sonata (played live) is also a London premiere, this time for choreographer Martin Lawrance. It explores ‘Lisztomania’ and the composer’s relationship with the young married Countess, Marie D’Agoult. The passion floods out of every note and every step in this frenetic and emotional piece.

Nomadic (2015) is perhaps the most challenging piece, as it brings together Alston’s classical contemporary language and Ajani Johnson-Goffe’s cutting edge exploration of the interaction between gypsy music and urban sound. Johnson-Goffe returns here to the musical genre of his hugely popular Gypsy Mixture – with darker and sharper music from Ursari Gypsy band Shukar Collective.

Finally, in Madcap (2012) the iconic band Icebreaker play Julia Wolfe’s percussive score as the sound-base for Lawrance’s dynamic and exhilarating new piece. The band’s previous collaborations include the Royal Ballet and Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance.

Richard Alston is a founding father of UK contemporary dance. He was one of the original students at London Contemporary Dance School, founder of Strider, the UK’s first independent dance company, co-founder of Second Stride and artistic director of Rambert. In 1994 he was appointed artistic director of The Place where he finally formed his own company.

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What	Richard Alston Dance Company 20th Anniversary, Sadler's Wells
Where	Sadler's Wells, Roseberry Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN \| MAP
Nearest tube	Angel (underground)
When	26 Jan 15 – 27 Jan 15, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Price	£12-38
Website	Click here to book via the Sadler's Wells website

Culture Whisper says...

"Rejoice in the Lamb is pure Alston, lyrical and in careful harmony with the choral score sung onstage. Alston turns the witterings of a mad poet, solaced by music, into whimsical vignettes of dance, with wit and a touch of sadness.

Martin Lawrance’s Burning follows, a howl after the nimble notes of Rejoice. Lisztomania is aptly strung tight across steps that speed along without ever pausing for breath, manic but human and passionate without melodrama. We get another view of Lawrance’s considerable talent in the final Madcap, a complex, hopping piece with choruses of movement that well up repeatedly.

But it’s the world premiere of Nomadic, and unexpected creative partnership, that has caught everyone’s interest. And it’s something of a triumph, fusing two styles without revealing where the stitches are. Full of loose, louche energy, pop and lock is softened into something that suits the RADC dancers to the ground. Ihsaan de Banya and Simon Donellan shine."

An Interview with Alston

You say that England used to be a very static country. Do you think that immigration and living in a multicultural society had changed the way we think about dance, movement and culture?

Yes, absolutely. If there’s one continent above almost any other that dances as part of life, it’s Africa. That has evolved, through rather dubious routes, into street and urban culture. Even 20 years ago you’d go to many schools and find a dance club that was all girls. Then guys started to move.

We have something called Breakin’ Convention at Sadler’s Wells and you see these diminuitive little children spinning on their elbows and moving about. I find it wonderful. I find it more comfortable than the innocent but overtly sexual movement that young girls used to do because they were copying the Spice Girls.

I wanted to ask you about body image and dance. Contemporary dance has always been a more open church in terms of body type – you’ve got larger dancers, flat footed dancers, all of that.

I suppose if you look at where contemporary dance has come from, those early forms were saying no to the strict stereotypes of ballet. In fact, in small ways, contemporary dance has had an effect on ballet. Ballet dancers are much more athletic than they used to be. If you see the National Ballet doing Wayne McGregor’s choreography, for example. It’s certainly not fey.

Interview from IdeasTap