Richard Alston Dance Company
Type of work
Contemporary dance
Company Policy
Launched in 1994 to great acclaim, Richard Alston Dance Company has grown into
one of Britain's most celebrated contemporary companies. The Company is based
at The Place, London's home for dance, where Alston is Artistic Director.
Alston is one of the most inspiring and influential figures in British dance. He choreographed his first work in 1968 as one of the original students at London School of Contemporary Dance, directed this country's first independent dance company, Strider, and was Artistic Director of Rambert Dance Company from 1986 to 1992.
'Since the death of Frederic Ashton in 1998, Richard Alston has been Britain's foremost dancemaker' Financial Times
In building its repertoire, Richard Alston Dance Company focuses on Alston's new choreography but combines this with the re-creation of seminal works from his career. Music plays a vital part in the Company's identity and Alston is rightly admired for the musicality of his work.
'A choreographer for whom every dance is a love affair with his chosen music' The Times
The Company has participated in a range of musical collaborations including a Harrison Birtwistle retrospective with the London Sinfonietta and a commission to choreograph Rite of Spring for the BBC's Masterworks series.
'Alston, one of Britain's greatest choreographers, has been making sensual dances for 30 years. He is an outstandingly musical creative force.' Evening Standard
Richard Alston Dance Company tours throughout the UK and overseas. After a highly successful US debut in New York in 2004 the company now visits the US each year, sometimes twice a year.
'Lyrical is a word I seldom use...But Richard Alston's choreography is lyrical in the deepest, clearest sense: it sings' The Village Voice, New York
'An exquisite balm for tired eyes and souls, [Alston's work] has not been forgotten here in New York...It is good to have him back.' New York Times
Review extracts
'The cast are superb. Blithely at ease, they're the clinching reason to see a
company that's never stopped believing that dance can fill and transform a stage'
The Guardian
'Alston is an accomplished dance maker, the most fluid contemporary choreographer we have.' Evening Standard
On Red Run
'From this edgy soundscape Alston's dance rediscovers the tense, unpredictable
energy that marks his greatest work' The Guardian
On The Devil In The Detail
'Might make you fall in love' Daily Telegraph
'Witty, chic...the whole inventive work is a delight' The Sunday Times
On Shimmer
'Shimmer looks amazing. It isn't just his wonderfully reflective choreography
or the seven fantastic dancers who perform it. It's the extraordinary costumes
of the fashion designer Julien Macdonald. They must be among the most ravishing
ever created for dance...Alston's barefoot dancers look as if they have been sprinkled
with fairy dust. The effect is magical.' The Times
Production highlights
Brisk Singing
Brisk Singing celebrates the music of Jean Philippe Rameau, genius of the French baroque. Alston has created an uplifting work for his whole company carried along by the warmth and lightness of spirit in Rameau's music, surely some of the most joyous ever written for dance.
'Alston's response to the helium-buoyed rhythms of Rameau's Les Boréades of 1764 is all joy.' Jenny Gilbert, The Independent on Sunday (1998)
Charge
Following performances of Grey Allegro, Richard Alston Dance Company here again presents work by company dancer Martin Lawrance. His most recent choreography Charge, especially commissioned for The Place Prize, is a razor-sharp septet powered by the music of Steve Reich.
Fever
Fever gives us lush velvet dancing to the glorious madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi. Both music and dance are infused with the sensuality and warmth of Italy.
Gypsy Mixture
The guttural and fervent cries of Balkan singers form the basis of Alston's new work Gypsy Mixture. Re-mixed by a fantastic range of DJs from all over the world, gypsy influences are given a sharp twist, a grittier edge. Gypsy Mixture is about humanity fighting to keep its spirit against harsh and uncertain surroundings.
Shimmer
Shimmer is danced to the sun-drenched music of Ravel played live. Julien Macdonald's fabulous, jewel-encrusted cobweb costumes illuminate dazzling streaks of limpid choreography in a ravishingly beautiful piece of theatre.
'Shimmer is one of the loveliest dances I shall see all year' Ismene Brown, The Daily Telegraph (2004)
Such Longing
Such Longing is danced to the music of Chopin - not just pretty waltzes or virtuoso fireworks but the achingly beautiful mediations of Chopin Nocturnes and Etudes. Filled with sad longing for his Polish homeland, this is Chopin in lyrical and introspective mood.
'Alston has an unerring instinct for making dancers look good and a keen musical ear - qualities that come to the fore in his simple but lovely Such Longing... rich in gentle melancholy' Rupert Christiansen, Mail on Sunday (2005)
Volumina
Volumina, which premiered at the Cambridge Arts Theatre in October 2005, is Alston's brand new work and is danced to Ligeti's cavernous organ-piece. The mighty music fills the air with ghostly and subtle rustlings and sudden erupting note-clusters. It thunders round the dancers, who dart back and forth half-hidden in the shadows - Volumina is both spectacular and mysterious.
Coming Soon
Tour dates
The Devil In The Detail, is a light-hearted, light-footed celebration of sheer elegance and wit. Scott
Joplin, 'the King of Ragtime', wrote piano rags of huge appeal, rich in syncopated
detail - it's music to make the dancers strut and stride in high style, yet remain
cool and nonchalant in the face of the strenuous life.
About-Face is company dancer Martin Lawrance's first commission for the Richard Alston Dance Company. It captures the simplicity yet also the intricacy of Marin Marais' Suite dans un Goût Etranger, sublime seventeenth century music for viols. It too will premier in March 2006.
Size of company Middle scale (10 dancers+crew, musicians)
16 permanent members of staff
Artistic Director: Richard Alston
Administrative Director: Chris May
Marketing Manager: Sarah Lowry
Production Manager: Helen Cain
Current dancers:
Luke Baio
Annelie Binder
Amie Brown
Jonathan Goddard
Martin Lawrance
Maria Nikoloulea
Sonja Peedo
Francesca Romo
Silvestre Sanchez Strattner
Dam van Huynh
Contact Details
Richard Alston Dance Company
The Place
17 Duke's Road
London
WC1H 9AB
Tel: +44 (0)20 7387 0324
Fax: +44 (0)20 7383 5700
Email: radc@theplace.org.uk
www.theplace.org.uk
Exclusive overseas representation:
David Lieberman/Artists Representatives, Inc
PO Box 10368
Newport Beach, California USA 92660
(+1) 949 251-0001 info@dlartists.com
www.dlartists.com
Photograph: Hugo Glendinning
Dancers: Martin Lawrance & Maria Nikoloulea
