Anatomy of an Afternoon, Southbank Centre

Award-winning Australian dancer, Paul White, returns to Southbank Centre in a solo work that draws its inspiration from Vaslav Nijinsky’s iconoclastic 1912 ballet, L’Après-midi d’un Faune. First performed in 2012, Anatomy of an Afternoon is a refashioning of the original for the 21st century by Sydney-based choreographer, Martin del Amo. There are no nymphs in del Amo’s piece, and the imaginary setting is more jungle than forest.

White showed his force and daring as a performer at the Southbank last year in Meryl Tankard’s The Oracle. He took on all the roles of Nijinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and as the Chosen One danced himself ‘to death’. Anatomy of an Afternoon focuses once again on the motions of the dancer’s muscular and flexible body, to a score played live by Mark Bradshaw, composer of the music for Jane Campion’s BrightStar.

The piece is performed in the intimate setting of the Southbank Centre's small Purcell Room.