A Fond Farewell for Richard Alston Dance Company
Richard Alston Dance Company visits Woking’s New Victoria Theatre for a final performance on Tuesday 5 November. With this autumn tour called Final Edition the company will embark on its farewell tour across the UK, giving its loyal audiences a last chance to see a live performance by what is undoubtedly one of the world’s best dance ensembles. The Richard Alston Dance Company will sadly cease to operate in April 2020.
Sir Richard Alston said, “This tour is the last for my Dance Company and it’s a chance for me to say a huge thank you to the marvellously loyal audiences who have come to see us year after year. We are so so lucky to have had such terrific support and I personally cannot thank you enough.”
Over the past 50 years, Sir Richard Alston has played a major role in the world of contemporary dance, developing a unique and distinct dance language and shaping the art form in this country. Determined to go out with colours flying, Richard Alston has put together a celebration of this company’s unflagging creativity, a richly diverse mix of dance and music bringing some brand-new dances along with key works revived from the company’s history.
Voices and Light Footsteps is the UK premiere of Alston’s latest creation. The dance was inspired by the sensuously expressive vocal madrigals and instrumental sinfonias of Claudio Monteverdi, genius of the Italian Baroque.
Red Run is a signature work created in 1998 and revived for the company’s last season. Alston uses Heiner Goebbel’s powerful music to evoke a terrain of shadows across which the dancers travel with a nervous edgy energy.
Brahms Hungarian, set to the hugely popular Brahms pieces played live by solo pianist Jason Ridgway, will culminate the evening. Created last year, this new dance proved a favourite with audiences and returns to be enjoyed one last time.
“The moment it ended I longed to see it again – immediately.” ***** Culture Whisper
The Final Edition tour covers nine venues across the UK as well as a visit to the Dampfzentrale Bern in Switzerland, followed by an At Home Season at the company’s London base The Place. Richard Alston’s last work for his company, Shine On, co-commissioned by DanceEast and Snape Maltings and generously supported by the Tezmae Charitable Trust, will have its world premiere in Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh.
The evening of dance will be a celebratory one: there will be a pre-show talk with Richard Alston at 6.30pm, free to all ticket holders (limited availability so must be booked for at the Box Office), and a short curtain-raiser by Rambert Pre-vocational school will open the special performance – choreographed by Hannah Kidd. As the young group make their debut in Woking, Richard Alston Dance Company will take their last steps on the stage in a triumphant end to a successful 25 years.
This really is the last chance to see one of Britain’s most celebrated companies perform in Woking.
Listings
Tuesday 5 November, 7.30pm
Pre-show talk: 6.30pm
Tickets from £13 fees apply
You can book tickets by calling the Box Office on 0844 871 7645 (Fees apply. Calls cost up to 7p per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge), Groups Booking Line 0333 009 5386 or online at www.atgtickets/woking (fees apply).
New Victoria Theatre, Peacocks Centre, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6GQ