1898: The Print Room at The Coronet, dance programme

Many West Londoners will have a soft spot for what was the Coronet cinema, Notting Hill, and anyone with a love of vintage will see its charm. Battered it may have looked over the past few years and even a little unloved; but dilapidation has long been part of its charm. Now, though, The Print Room Theatre, an exciting multi-disciplinarian group, are lovingly bringing it back to life.
The Print Room’s five-year restoration plan is as ambitious as the Theatre’s own programming; but it’s unlikely to lose sight of the need not to lose any of the building’s old charm.

Mid-February the champagne sparkled all the brighter against peeling paint and fresh flowers, and director Anda Winters strode gaily through the barren stairwells in chic metallic black as she surveyed the progress of the refurbishment.
Completion of phase one was marked by a contemporary dance festival on the theme of 1898 - the year of the Coronet’s original opening. It was hearty proof that an eye on the past is no danger to the creativity of the future.

1898 Contemporary Dance Festival
The whole evening was dunked in eau de Belle Époque, the opening piece Adieu by Artistic Associate Hubert Essakow most pungently, in a love triangle between youth and faded glamour, which brought us the choreographer’s own impressionistic invocation of the great Sarah Bernhardt, who trod the boards of the early Coronet.

There was another dash of drama in Tamarin Stott’s Scene to be Seen. Two dancers from English National Ballet, both strikingly sinewy compared to the rest of the evening’s performers, danced characters passing one another repeatedly by in pale period costume.
Former Rambert dancer Mbulelo Ndabeni channelled the Coronet’s first opera, The Geisha, in a kimono and white painted face, opposite Piedad Seiquer dancing the Hugh Grant character of the film Notting Hill. Ndabeni powerful, mystical performance overshadowed his partner, whose dancing didn’t quite reach the end of her limbs.

But to me the highlight of the evening was Absinthe, danced by choreographer Kirill Burlov, formerly of Rambert, and Rob McNeil. Its premise was the simplest, a duet by two men on the effects of absinthe. Against electronic music in period costume, the hallucinatory headspace of a drink-addled brain was brought vividly to life. The walls of the set were curved, and the dancers slid and crawled up them, falling down, floating on each other and trembling very tensely. All movement was slow, as though at the very edge of control, and careful as if afraid of slipping. And over all a sense of panic that if they let go they'd lose all self-possession.

Notting Hill: The Print Room mission
If 1898 is anything to go by, Print Room won’t be making concessions on the quality of performance - their style is esoteric and boldly artistic. But having a good time clearly comes a close second; the works were short and the drinks long.

1898 represents the Print Room’s first foray into dance in their new home, in a season that will also welcome a world première of playwright Robert Holman’s Breakfast of Eels, and a poetry series featuring Elaine Feinstein and Sean Borodale. The cinema is expected to open in summer 2015.

This is likely to become a quirkily glamorous addition to Notting Hill’s cultural life - watch those five years fly by. And while you’re watching, keep an eye on Kirill Burlov too.