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Richard Alston's touring
company always brings the promise of a programme that is both striking
and exhilarating.
Musically inspired, articulate and expressive,
Alston’s choreography continues to gather ever more enthusiastic
audiences each year.
"The audience for dance is building,"
he said.
"I think music is a
huge way of people relaxing and becoming involved in what the performers
are doing and becoming excited by the energy of what they do."
Alston is renowned for making dances that speak
directly about the expressiveness of movement and music and their
combined power to move and elate.
Spring tour 2004
For his latest tour, Alston's company has put together
a programme of three works in Grey Allegro, Shimmer and Brisk Singing.
Shimmer featuring Jonathan Goddard and Ino Rigga.
Picture: Tristram Kenton |
"We try and have a variety of music in the
programme," explained Alston.
The sharp clean moves and sunny temperament of
Shimmer are accompanied by the sun-drenched music of Maurice Ravel.
Played live by virtuoso pianist Jason Ridgway,
Ravel's piano pieces balance lush impressionism with classical form.
British fashion designer Julien Macdonald has designed
the costumes for this piece, a designer who keeps British fashion's
name up in lights as a maestro of glitz and glam, and as artistic
director of Givenchy in Paris.
Grey Allegro
Choreographed by Alston's long time colleague,
company dancer Martin Lawrence, Grey Allegro is driven by the feisty
vigour of Domenico Scarletti's Sonatas for keyboards.
They are complex and zippy and are played live
by Jason Ridgway. This is the first time in the company's history
that another choreographer's work has been introduced to the repertoire.
The programme also includes the revival of one
of Richard Alston's biggest hits of recent years, Brisk Singing.
The music is from the opera Les Boréades by baroque
genius Jean-Philippe Rameau. The movement in this piece is glorious,
with limbs flung high and wide. An expansive and beautifully crafted
work that sends audiences away with a smile.
Alston admits, he's pleased to bring his company
to Norwich as there's always an appreciative audience.
"At theatre's like the
Theatre Royal in Norwich they actually come up to us at the end
of the show and tell us how much they've loved it," he said.
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