Richard Alston Dance Company has announced its Sadler’s Wells season, Quartermark, which will run on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 March 2019.
Following the announcement of the company’s closure in 2020, this will be the first of its final two seasons at the theatre. As the company enters its 25th year, it will present two works by Alston, and one by the company’s associate choreographer, Martin Lawrance under the title Quartermark.
Brahms Hungarian is set to Brahms’ wildly popular Hungarian Dances. Seeing a new slant on the Roma culture that has long fascinated him, Alston has wanted to make a dance to this music for years. Long-time Alston collaborator pianist Jason Ridgway plays live and the company’s nine superlative dancers are carried along by fast steps and a joyous, abandoned fervour as they respond to the music’s rhythms. The stylish, elegant costumes are by theatre, film and tv designer Fotini Dimou, another regular member of Alston’s creative team.
In contrast Alston’s Proverb, to Steve Reich’s score for voices and percussion, is cool and serene – yet intensely moving. The proverb of Reich’s score is the chanted words of Ludwig Wittgenstein “How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life” (from his 1946 work Culture and Value). A version of this work was first seen in 2006 as part of the Barbican’s celebrations of Steve Reich’s 70th birthday. Alston, who celebrates his own 70th birthday on 30 October, also presented an extract as part of his 2017 work Mid Century Modern.
Richard Alston Dance Company launched in November 1994 at The Place. It is one of the UK’s leading choreographer-led companies, for which its founder Artistic Director Richard Alston has created over 45 dance-works. Richard Alston is also Artistic Director of The Place, London’s leading centre for contemporary dance, where the company is based. Richard Alston Dance Company focuses on Alston’s new choreography but combines this with the re-creation of seminal past works from Alston’s career.