Dance Revolutionaries: Yorke Dance Project film of works by Robert Cohan and Kenneth MacMillan, screenings at Phoenix Picturehouse and Curzon Oxford 26th & 30th June

Dance Revolutionaries is a captivating 74-minute exploration of raw emotion through dance set in stunning locations, showcasing Portraits – five solo dances, and an innovative production of the rarely-seen ballet, Sea of Troubles. From Emmy-nominated director David Stewart, the film explores the emotive world of two dance visionaries: choreographers Kenneth MacMillan and Robert Cohan, who redefined our connection to the art form.

Cohan’s film work Portraits is an intimate series of solos created with award-winning dancers. MacMillan’s Sea of Troubles, inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, poignantly explores universal human emotions of grief, jealousy and the drive for revenge.

Yorke Dance Project, in partnership with the Royal Ballet and award-winning artists, produces and performs this extraordinary journey, providing unprecedented access to the revolutionary works of Cohan and MacMillan.

Director: David Stewart
UK, 2024, 74 minutes, PG rated
Cast: Dane Hurst, Romany Pajdak, Edd Mitton, Jonathan Goddard, Freya Jeffs, Oxana Panchenko, Benjamin Warbis, Yolande Yorke Edgell, Laurel Dalley Smith

Dance Revolutionaries: Two Artists Who Revolutionised Dance In The Twentieth Century will be screening nationwide from 24th June, with screenings in Oxford on 26th and 30th June at the Phoenix Picturehouse and Curzon.

Date: Wednesday 26th June 8.20pm Phoenix Picturehouse and 6.20pm Curzon Oxford, Sunday 30th June 2.40pm Phoenix Picturehouse

Venues: Phoenix Picturehouse, 57 Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6AE: Curzon Oxford, Westgate Shopping Centre, Oxford OX1 1NZ

Find information about all screenings and how to book tickets here

Find out more about Yorke Dance Project here

Read Susie Crow’s piece about the history of Sea of Troubles and its revival for Yorke Dance here

 

Clorinda Agonistes. Shobana Jeyasingh Dance, Oxford Playhouse, Tuesday 15 & Wednesday 16 November; introduced and discussed at DANSOX, Wednesday 9 November 2022 – Maggie Watson reviews

An informative and stimulating DANSOX event, hosted at St Hilda’s College on 9th November, heralded Shobana Jeyasingh’s new work, Clorinda Agonistes, which played to full houses at Oxford Playhouse last week.

Speaking at DANSOX, Jeyasingh described her work’s lengthy gestation period. The inspiration that she drew from hearing Claudio Monteverdi’s operatic scena Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda led her to research the story derived from Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata that lay behind it. Initially drawn by Monteverdi’s use of recitative, which Jeyasingh felt had an emotional effect similar to the vocalisation of syllables in classical Indian dance, she discovered a story that in spite of its late mediaeval orientalising tropes offers new resonance and meaning for audiences today.

 

Connecting to Cohan: a special evening of dance honouring Robert Cohan, presented by Yorke Dance Project. The Mill Banbury, 14 May 2022 – Maggie Watson reviews

Yorke Dance Project’s Connecting to Cohan evening at The Mill Banbury fell into three parts: five solo dances drawn from Robert Cohan’s last work Afternoon Conversations with Dancers; an on-stage discussion between Richard Alston, Yolande Yorke-Edgell and Laurel Dalley Smith, and finally Lockdown Portraits, a film showing seven of the solos, filmed on locations chosen by Cohan.

Cohan’s last dances are intensely moving.  He consulted Alston about his recent work shortly before embarking on the project, and Alston responded that the group dances Cohan was creating were similar to his earlier works, but the solos were completely original and new.  Cohan went on to create Afternoon Conversations with Dancers, a collection of eight solos on which he worked collaboratively in dialogue with each dancer, exchanging ideas in words and movement, initially in the studio and then during lockdown over Zoom.

 

Twenty: Yorke Dance Project’s 20th anniversary season, Swindon Dance, 26th April 2019 – Maggie Watson reviews

This was a stunning evening of new dance works, alongside extracts from Kenneth MacMillan’s newly revived ballet Playground.  The curtain raiser Who’s It?!, choreographed collaboratively by Edd Mitton and Jordi Calpe Serrats with students from the Centre for Advanced Training at Swindon Dance Centre, was an ingenious preparation for MacMillan’s deeply disturbing work with its references to children’s games. In the duets from Playground that followed, Oxana Panchenko as the Girl with make-up and Jonathan Goddard as The Youth portrayed an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship, enmeshed within violent and coercive social forces, in a ballet that pushes game-playing to a horrible conclusion.

 

Twenty: Yorke Dance Project in works by MacMillan, Cohan, Stoller and Yorke-Edgell, Mill Arts Centre Banbury 4th April 2019

Yorke Dance Project currently celebrates 20 years of performing inspiring dance by past masters and emerging artists from the UK and USA. This celebratory programme features works by world renowned choreographers Kenneth MacMillan and Robert Cohan alongside emerging Los Angeles choreographer Sophia Stoller with a commissioned score by Justin Scheid. Completing the programme is an exciting new work by artistic director Yolande Yorke-Edgell. April brings a not to be missed opportunity to see the company at the Mill Arts Centre, Banbury.

MacMillan’s Playground is one of the featured works in this anniversary programme, its first restaging since its premiere at the 1979 Edinburgh Festival and performed to music by Gordon Crosse. Costumes and set have been reimagined by Charlotte MacMillan.  Also featured is Cohan’s Communion set to music by Nils Frahm and designed by past Cohan collaborator from London Contemporary Dance Theatre,  John B Read.  Completing the programme is a Cohan Collective commission from Stoller and composer Justin Scheid Between and Within. The final work Imprint by Yorke-Edgell reflects her own experience of working with dance legends Richard Alston, Bella Lewtizky and Robert Cohan.  With highly acclaimed and athletic dancers performing engaging, thought provoking and enlightening new work, this is a rare evening of exceptional dance.

Dancers for the tour of this programme include wonderful guest artists Jonathan Goddard, Romany Pajdak (Royal Ballet Company), Dane Hurst, and Oxana Panchenko (Michael Clark Company). Ben Warbis will be returning to YDP as will last year’s apprentice, Ellie Ferguson, dancing alongside company members Edd Mitton, Abigail Attard Montalto and Freya Jeffs.  Yorke Dance Project is also excited to be working again with lighting designer Zeynep Kepekli.

The performance at Banbury will include a curtain raiser by The Mill’s own Remarkable Dance Company.

Performance:  Thursday 4th April 7.30pm

Venue:  The Mill Arts Centre, Spiceball Park, Banbury, Oxfordshire OX16 5QE

Tickets:  from £15, book online here or call the Box Office on 01295 279002

Find out more about Yorke Dance Project here

 

 

Being a Dancer: Advice from Dancers and Choreographers, by Lyndsey Winship – Maggie Watson reviews

Lyndsey Winship’s very enjoyable book Being a Dancer distils the advice of 25 professional dancers and choreographers on subjects ranging from training and getting a job, through performing and choreographing, to living a life in dance. The book contains plenty of good, pithy, practical guidance, such as ‘Tips on Partnering’ and ‘Nailing an Audition’ and will be relevant to students whether they seek careers in ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, commercial theatre or the dance of non-Western cultures. If there is one clear message that runs through the book like a thread, it is that however talented a student is, hard work and perseverance are essential.

 

Figure Ground: Yorke Dance Project at Swindon Dance, 27 February 2015 – Maggie Watson reviews

Yorke Dance Project’s Figure Ground is a glorious evening of pure dance. To see three really good new dance works and a revival of another in one programme was a rare treat.

The evening at Swindon Dance opened with a short original piece by students, that drew on ideas and movement motifs that would be seen later on. The programme proper then began with Charlotte Edmonds’ No Strings Attached to a score by Michael Gordon. It opens to the sound of rainfall with three men (Jonathan Goddard, Benjamin Warbis and Edd Mitton) powerfully dominating the space in full pliés in second with their arms extended, seeming to fill the stage. They are joined by Laurel Dalley Smith, Amy Thake and Hannah Windows, but the dancers work more as a group than as three pairs. Edmonds’ response to the music is subtle, using the underlying pulses and not just the more obvious surface rhythms for her movement patterns. Nothing is predictable, there are hints of narrative or relationships – here, the notion of the group and those outside the group; there, the suggestion of a couple – and she creates balance on stage without resorting to the purely symmetrical in this very satisfying work.

 

Sex, fear and the flickering light – Mark Bruce Company, Dracula, 5 November, The North Wall – Dana Mills reviews

The tale of the quintessential vampire, Dracula, has been told many a time and in many a medium.  Indeed, it is one of those narratives which, for the spectator, merge into a long genealogy of receptions and reproductions. This genealogy disables us from distinguishing the history of reception from the story itself. This position of a story entrapped between narrative and its reception presents anyone contributing to this genealogy a double challenge: not only conversing with the characters and bringing them to life, but conversing with all the other storytellers who have done so before. Mark Bruce does so beautifully in this new production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

 

Mark Bruce Company in Dracula at The North Wall 5th-6th November 2013

Following the success of their previous show Made in Heaven, Mark Bruce Company return to the North Wall with Bruce’s newest piece Dracula, made in association with Tobacco Factory Theatre, Pavilion Dance and Wilton’s Music Hall.  Jonathan Goddard plays the infamous Vampire Count, whose sinister and ruthless ambitions challenge the very fabric of Victorian society. As his victims and opponents rally against him they must face the darkness and savagery within themselves. With an eclectic mix of music from Bach and Mozart to Ligetti and Fred Frith.  Bruce’s company of ten exceptional dancers bring Bram Stoker’s haunting erotic tale to life in a heart wrenching and magical dance-theatre production.

“The best thing that Bruce has ever done… kill for a ticket.”  **** The Observer