posted March 15, 2001 12:10            

RICHARD ALSTON DANCE COMPANY

Richard Alston Dance Company presents two London Premieres Queen Elizabeth Hall, SBC, Tuesday 20 - Friday 23 March 2001

Richard Alston - awarded the CBE for his services to dance in the New Year’s Honours list returns to brings his talented young company back to London from 20 - 23 March. The Company visits the Queen Elizabeth Hall to present two London premieres plus one of Alston’s biggest hits - the euphoric ROUGHCUT.

As ever, Alston has been inspired by music and his newest creation FEVER feeds off the restless longings of Claudio Monteverdi’s exquisite and expressive madrigals. FEVER is music of pure beauty, and dancing that is both langorous and sensual. Alongside FEVER the Company will present TREMOR, danced to Shostakovich's intensely powerful third string quartet played live by stringfactory. The evening ends with Alston’s smash hit for Rambert Dance Company, ROUGHCUT, set to Steve Reich’s shimmering New York and Electric Counterpoints played live by Roger Heaton and James Woodrow.

Listings Information Richard Alston Dance Company Tuesday 20- Friday 23 March 2001 Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank, London SE1 8XX Box Office: 020 7960 4242 Tickets: £15, £13, £11 (+ concessions)

posted March 22, 2001 15:26            

'Why a love of music is not enough,' Ismene Brown's review fo The Independent.

Http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000148269364269&rtmo=kC7N7e1p
&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/3/22/btisme22.html

'Wonderful work the reward for a vile journey,' By CLEMENT CRISP for the Financial Times

http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/articles.html?id=010322000936&query=cleme nt+crisp

'Can you dance to Shostakovich?' Judith Mackrell asks in The Guardian. MacMillan did rather well to Shostakovitch in 'Concerto'

Http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4156865,00.html

posted March 25, 2001 06:38            

Diane Loosemore and Lee Clayden in Richard Alston's 'Tremor'
photo Chris Nash

posted March 26, 2001 12:23            

'The music man at work - Richard Alston brings two new works to London, but they don’t quite add up,' BY DEBRA CRAINE,

posted March 26, 2001 13:40            

Same dance, different package - Richard Alston Dance Company by Nadine Meisner.

posted March 30, 2001 02:31            

I fully agree with your description of 'musical and carefully structured'. At a time when Continental dance was dominated by the exhilerating and often scary Euro-crash, Alston's work looked very different.

Although he uses modern dance vocabulary, in keeping with Ashton, the quintessential English choreographer, there is a love of pdd and the use of the upper body, as well as the love of music.

In terms of other UK choreographers, it always seems to me that there is something very English about Siobhan Davies' work which has a restraint and avoidance of wearing your heart on your sleeve that seems very English and one would be unlikely to get from a Continental choreographer.

posted April 07, 2001 07:55            

RICHARD ALSTON DANCE COMPANY

Pari Naderi in Fever,
part of the Richard Alston Dance
Company's programme at the Queen
Elizabeth Hall. Picture:
Tristram Kenton

quote:

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Richard Alston's reputation as a choreographer rests on his ability to make dances that respond to the emotional rather than the narrative possibilities of music. His 30-minute pieces, always gorgeously lit and perfectly staged, seek out ways of exploring the music's emotional world and then use its melody, harmony and rhythm to convert that world into steps.

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