Press Release: Nora invites Aggiss, Burrows, Fargion & Tanguy: 26 - 27 November, Sadler's Wells

[Jan McNulty]

Nora

Nora invites Aggiss, Burrows, Fargion & Tanguy
Thursday 26 November & Friday 27 November

Performances at 8pm

Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1R 4TN

Tickets: £17

Ticket office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com

The world premiere of Nora is the coming together of dancers Eleanor Sikorski and Flora Wellesley Wesley at Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Studio from Thursday 26 November - Friday 27 November. 

 

Their desire to dance together, their love of choreographic structures and their critical eye has given them the impetus to invite several distinguished dance makers to create work especially for them. In their first collaborative endeavour they perform an evening of new works by the indomitable Liz Aggiss, acclaimed duo Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion, and up and coming French choreographer Simon Tanguy.

 

Aggiss has conceived BLOODY NORA!, a story of competitiveness and hormonal imbalance in which shit tricks become cheap laughs, and a Bach is worse than its bite. Affectionately known as 'the grand dame of anarchic dance’, Aggiss is a Brighton-based performer, choreographer and dance filmmaker, who has been presenting her work nationally and internationally since 1980. 

 

Burrows and Fargion's piece, entitled Eleanor And Flora Music, is a brand new translation of composer Morton Feldman's For John Cage, the source of their iconic Both Sitting Duet (2002). This new piece reimagines the earlier work as a standing performance, building silent music from a gestural landscape of touch. “What [Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion] are brilliant at is turning the eccentricities of their shared creative world into irresistible theatre… It's all wildly, unclassifiably bonkers” (The Guardian). 

 

Tanguy has worked with Nora to develop Digging, a complex score of movement and text, creating a unique and intricate portrait of the two women and the political world they live in. Trained in clowning, burlesque, buffoonery and grotesque at the Samovar School in Paris, alongside choreography at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, Tanguy’s eclectic background also extends to street circus, judo and philosophy. 

 

Eva Martinez, Sadler’s Wells Artistic Programmer and Artist Development said: “What drew me to support Nora is their pro-activeness, combined with their astute curatorial choices and of course the fact that they are such interesting and intelligent performers. Their evening brings together a focus on practices that are important but not often visible in the UK dance scene from artists with a clear longevity and strong authorial voices. I like that this makes possible an unexpected meeting of generations and ideas about what dance is today.” 

 

Eleanor Sikorski and Flora Wellesley Wesley have both previously presented work as part of Sadler’s Wells’ inaugural 2013 Wildcard series, The BELLY of the Beast, curated by Bellyflop Magazine. Wild Card opens the stage to an exciting and adventurous community of dance makers, giving a broad range of artists the unique opportunity to curate their own evening at the Lilian Baylis Studio. 

London Contemporary Dance School graduate Flora Wellesley Wesley is a dance artist and actor who has worked with a variety of choreographers, directors and visual artists, in addition to independently and collaboratively producing her own work. Flora co-founded Hiru Dance Organisation, former artists-in-residence at The Albert, an arts space in Queen's Park. There, she developed the solo improvisation in performance practice anchored around the title, Sorbet du Soir, performed as part of The BELLY of the Beast at Sadler’s Wells. 

 

Fellow London Contemporary Dance School graduate Eleanor Sikorski is a dancer and choreographer. She has worked with a range of artists including Tino Sehgal, Eva Recacha, Seke Chimutengwende, Alexandre Achour and William Collins. She often makes work alone, creating solos, and also collaborates with sound designer and composer Alberto Ruiz Soler. For The BELLY of the Beast at Sadler’s Wells, Sikorski created Cake, described as “hilarious and beautiful, poignant yet self-mocking” (Cloud Dance Magazine). 

 

 

Commissioned by Sadler's Wells Trust and DanceEast.

Co-commissioned by South East Dance.

 

Supported by Arts Council England through National Lottery Funding, The Nightingale, Greenwich Dance & Trinity Laban Partnership, Dance4, Roehampton University, Leeds Beckett University, Institut Français and Chisenhale Dance Space.

 

The Monument Trust supports co-productions and new commission at Sadler’s Wells.

 

Free post-show talk: Thursday 26 November

 

NOTES TO EDITORS:

 

Sadler’s Wells

Sadler's Wells is a world-leading dance house, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the very best international and UK dance to London and worldwide audiences. Under the Artistic Directorship of Alistair Spalding, the theatre’s acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, from contemporary to flamenco, Bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap. Since 2005 it has helped to bring over 90 new dance works to the stage and its award-winning commissions and collaborative productions regularly tour internationally. Sadler’s Wells supports 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and an Associate Company and nurtures the next generation of talent through hosting the National Youth Dance Company, its Summer University programme, Wild Card initiative and its New Wave Associates.

 

Located in Islington, north London, the current theatre is the sixth to have stood on the site since it was first built by Richard Sadler in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since, with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera all having started at Sadler’s Wells. Sadler’s Wells is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and currently receives approximately 10% of its revenue from Arts Council England.

[aileen]

Reading this press release is hard going.

[Jan McNulty]

The print size? I've amended the post to increase it.

[aileen]

No, the wording.