29th February
Richard Alston Dance Company performed 3 works at Sadler’s Wells 29th February and 1st March. Richard Alston Dance Company is part of The Place, also the home of a fabulous dance Theatre and London Contemporary Dance School.
I drew the Richard Alston Dance Company when they performed in the Saatchi Gallery last year.
Roughcut choreographed by Richard Alston, music by Steve Reich
Lie of The Land choreographed by Martin Lawrence, responding to Ned Rorem’s String Quartet No. 4
A Ceremony of Carols, choreography Richard Alston, Music Benjamin Britten, sung by Canterbury Cathedral Choir
Three dances all entirely different. New company dancer, James Pett, modelled for a life size sculpture commission I had early last year, wonderful to watch him dancing in Sadler’s Wells in the Richard Alston Company. Alston says of Roughcut “a dance about vitality” which is exactly how it feels to watch it. I felt very tired, almost didn’t get to the theatre, only down to my sensible lovely daughter telling me to go and that I would feel better to draw dance and watch. So right – by the end of Roughcut I was smiling and energized.
Even more so in Martin Lawrence’s work Lie of the Land, fabulous.
The final dance A Ceremony of Carols, accompanied by by Canterbury Cathedral Choristers with their angelic treble voices and Camilla Pay on the harp felt mystical and powerful.