DANCE AT THE LOWRY SEPTEMBER – DECEMBER 2005
Another stimulating season of dance is scheduled throughout the winter months with something to satisfy every taste. Two of America’s most renowned dance companies demonstrate two very different styles of dance, with Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and a UK premiere from Mark Morris. Exciting UK chorographers also feature with Jasmin Vardimon and Henri Oguike presenting powerful new work.
The craze for ballroom dancing leaps from TV to the stage with Lionel Blair and Jane McDonald presenting the spectacular Strictly Ballroom Dancing, featuring four amateur couples competing in a final “dance off”. Hotly anticipated performances also come from Rambert Dance Company and Matthew Bourne’s multi award-winning Swan Lake famous for the all male swans.
Samudra
Sun 4 September
Strictly Ballroom Dancing
Mon 5 – Sat 10 September
Camp
Fri 16 September
Rambert Dance Company
Wed 21 – Sat 24 September
North West Dance Alliance – Devi Diva
Sat 24 September
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Tue 4 & Wed 5 October
Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake
Mon 17 – Sat 22 October
XPOSURE!05
Fri 21 October
Ish Mir – Theatre of Gods
Sat 22 October
Mark Morris Dance Company
Fri 28 & Sat 29 October
Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company
Park
Tue 1 November
Psyche – The Modern Self
Thu 3 November
The Henri Oguike Dance Company
Tue 15 November
Stomp
Tue 29 Nov – Sat 3 December
Ad Hoc – Yuletide Double Bill
Mon 12 December
Samudra
Sun 4 September
The internationally renowned Indian dance company, creating a new dimension in contemporary Indian dance theatre.
Times 7pm
Tickets £10
Quays Theatre
Strictly Ballroom Dancing - The Live Dance Spectacular
Mon 5 – Sat 10 September
A lavish new spectacular theatre show, Strictly Ballroom Dancing features a cast of professional ballroom dancers backed by a live orchestra. With celebrity star hosts Lionel Blair and Jane McDonald, choreography by TV’s Come Dancing stars Erin Boag and Anton Du Beke and featuring a cast of 14 international dance champions, this show promises an evening of unmissable ballroom dancing. Plus - Your Chance to Dance! Four amateur dance couples, picked from auditions before the show arrives in Greater Manchester, will be given the opportunity to dance on stage with the professionals at every performance, culminating in a “dance off” to find the best couple at the final performance.
Time Eves 7.30pm. Wed & Sat mats 2.30pm
Tickets £12 - £25
Camp
Fri 16 September
Set to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Camp is the tale of five outdoor types, whose lives unravel when they pitch tent together. Engaging, funny and disturbing - it’s more entertainment than you can stuff in into a knapsack! A principal performer with Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, Pita is emerging as a choreographer of note and his outstanding cast here includes dancers previously with Random Dance Company, Protein Dance Company, Russell Maliphant and DV8 Physical Theatre. Contains some nudity.
Time 8pm
Tickets £8 - £12
Rambert Dance Company
With its Associate Orchestra, London Musici
Wed 21 – Sat 24 September
Rambert Dance Company presents the world première of a new work by its Associate Choreographer, Rafael Bonachela. Using Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings as inspiration, Bonachela explores the themes of night, sleep and dreams. Winner of the 2005 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production, Swamp, by Michael Clark, is modern dance at its most pure. Echoes of Clark’s classical background are very evident here, but this only acts as a foundation for his originality and inventiveness. Constant Speed, by Rambert’s Artistic Director, Mark Baldwin takes its inspiration from the fizz and sparkle of molecules ricocheting in space. Commissioned by the Institute of Physics to mark Einstein Year, Baldwin has created a prismatic world of colour, light and energy. It is performed to music by Franz Lehár.
Time 7.30pm
Tickets £12 - £22
North West Dance Alliance
Devi Diva
Sat 24 September
North West Dance Alliance presents a magical combination of classical ideas and modern concepts.
Times 7pm
Tickets £12
Quays Theatre
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Tue 4 & Wed 5 October
Renowned for its soul-stirring, high energy performances, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is one of the world’s greatest dance companies. Taking popular music, gospel and jazz and fusing modern, ballet and jazz dance, the company of 30 radiate a passionate and explosive energy that is purely infectious.Highlights of The Lowry programme are Alvin Ailey’s most famous work, Revelations - a glorious celebration of the rousing gospel and spiritual music Ailey grew up with in 1930s Texas - and Love Stories, artistic director Judith Jamison’s collaboration with modern dance maverick Robert Battle and hip hop pioneer Rennie Harris, set to a Stevie Wonder soundtrack.
Time 7.30pm
Tickets £16 - £27
XPOSURE! 05
Fri 21 October
A triple bill of newly choreographed and highly entertaining pieces of dance commissioned by Dance Northwest, featuring, Rick Nodine and Chapter4 in collaboration with Rosemary Lee.
Times 7.45pm
Tickets £8 Concessions £2 off
The Studio
Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake
Mon 17 – Sat 22 October
Thrilling, audacious and totally original, Matthew Bourne's inspired production – acclaimed around the world - transforms one of ballet's best-loved stories into a stylish, witty, poignant and contemporary tale. With extravagant, award-winning designs by Lez Brotherston, this is the show that took the West End and Broadway by storm.Perhaps best known for replacing the traditional female corps de ballet with a menacing male ensemble, Bourne blends ballet, style, humour, spectacle, character comedy and mime, to create a provocative and powerful Swan Lake for our times. After its 1995 world première, Swan Lake went on to become the longest running ballet in London's West End and on Broadway and has been acclaimed as a landmark achievement on the international stage.
Time Eves 7.30pm, Wed & Sat mats 2.30pm
Tickets £12 - £35
Ish Mir
Theatre of Gods
Sat 22 October
Gauri Sharma Tripathi brings the stunning immediacy of her exquisite technique to ancient Kathak* dance.
Times 7.15pm
Tickets £12 The Studio
*Kathak is a North Indian style of classical dance.
Mark Morris Dance Company
Fri 28 & Sat 29 October
The master of American contemporary dance celebrates the 25th anniversary of his internationally acclaimed company. New York-based Mark Morris sets the standards for a new generation of dancers, choreographers and critics. The specially chosen Lowry programme features the UK premières of Somebody’s Coming To See Me Tonight – danced to Stephen Foster songs – and All Fours, a major creation for a dozen dancers set to Bartok’s String Quartet No 4. The UK première of Candleflowerdance, a new piece set to Stravinsky, and the highly-acclaimed V – “one of the few great works modern dance has produced in a decade” New York Times – complete this unmissable bill of stunning contemporary dance.
Time 7.30pm
Tickets £18 - £22
Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company
Park
Tue 1 November
Park is an urban oasis, a place of refuge, where eight characters play, fight, fall in love and learn to survive. Jasmin Vardimon is one of the most exciting and accessible choreographers working in the UK today and this latest work is packed with insightful humour and beautifully detailed movement, a collision of physical theatre, text, powerful dance and funky music. Contains strong language and nudity.
Time 8pm
Tickets £8 - £12
Psyche The Modern Self
Thu 3 November
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, this Indian contemporary dance company breaks new ground with its latest performance piece.
Times 7.15pm
Tickets £10
Quays Theatre
The Henri Oguike Dance Company
Mixed Bill
Tue 15 November
An exhilarating mix of four wide-ranging and immensely appealing works celebrating this young British choreographer/performer’s intense musicality and driven dance. Second Signal, Oguike’s latest work, resonates with the primal rhythms of traditional Japanese Taiko drums, while sacred music and sublime movement unite in Seen of Angels, an elegant piece set to excerpts from Handel’s Messiah. Scarlatti’s bright and rhythmical pieces for harpsichord form the setting for White Space while Shot Flow is a stark, yet passionate duet danced by Henri Oguike and Charlotte Eatock.
Times 8pm
Tickets £10 - £14
Stomp
Tue 29 November – Sat 3 December
Stomp - the British theatre’s dance sensation - returns to The Lowry direct from another sell out West End season. With its unique combination of theatre, dance, comedy and percussion, this multi award-winning production continues to thrill audiences around the world - guaranteeing a stomp-ing, stamp-ing, stand-ing ovation at every performance! Whether on film, TV or stage, Stomp finds beauty and music in the mundane. The incredible high-energy cast turn a broom into an instrument and handclapping into a conversation. The junk and clutter of urban life becomes the source of infectious rhythm and wonder.
Time Tue – Thu eves 8pm, Wed mat 2pm, Fri 5pm & 8.30pm, Sat 3pm & 8pm
Tickets £12 - £22
Ad Hoc – Yuletide Double Bill
Mon 12 December
The Lowry’s in-house contemporary dance company with a performance inspired by the visual and performing arts programme.
Times 8pm
Tickets £3
The Studio
Posted on Tuesday, 28 June 2005 under Press Theatre Press