Press Release: World premiere - Nico Muhly: Drawn Lines at Sadler's Wells

[Jan McNulty]

WORLD PREMIERE 

 

Cunningham / Keegan-Dolan / Peck
Nico Muhly: Drawn Lines
with Britten Sinfonia
Sadler’s Wells, EC1R 4TN 
Thursday 19 - Saturday 21 March 2020
Performances: 7:30pm 
Tickets: £15 - £65
Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com

 

Third in Sadler’s Wells’ Composer Series is prolific contemporary composer Nico Muhly. This new one-off triple bill is led by the music of Muhly, played live by Britten Sinfonia. Choreography comes from Sadler’s Wells New Wave Associate Julie Cunningham, Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Michael Keegan-Dolan and New York City Ballet Resident Choreographer Justin Peck. The production receives its world premiere at Sadler’s Wells on Thursday 19 March 2020 and all three performances are conducted live by Muhly. 

 

Sadler’s Wells’ Composer Series was launched to challenge choreographers to respond to the music of living composers by making new work, designed to enable collaboration between leading lights in the world of music and dance, and to exchange ideas. Nico Muhly follows acclaimed programmes inspired by the music of Mark-Anthony Turnage in 2011 and Thomas Adès in 2014.

One of today’s most sought-after composers, Muhly is the recipient of commissions from The Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and others. To date, he has written more than 80 significant works as well as various other arrangements and orchestrations. 

 

The composition from Muhly interpreted by Michael Keegan-Dolan is dark folk-song arrangement The Only Tune based on murder ballad The Two Sisters, sung live by folk artist Sam Amidon. Keegan-Dolan founded his acclaimed company Teaċ Daṁsa shortly after the closure of his award-winning company Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre. Teaċ Daṁsa forges deeper connections with the traditions, language and the music of Ireland and its first production, Swan Lake / Loch na hEala, co-produced by Sadler’s Wells, won the Irish Times Theatre Award in 2017 for Best New Production and the The UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Best Production (2018). 

 

Julie Cunningham selects Drones, a reflection on the subtle and constant noise in most dwelling places. Cunningham is an award-winning dance artist, formerly with Merce Cunningham Dance Company and Michael Clark Company and performing in projects with Jerome Bel and Boris Charmatz. Their work often explores gender and identity, in the body and its emotional states, often working between movement and text from sources ranging from popular culture to literature. Cunningham made up one third of Sadler’s Wells’ special 20th anniversary commission, Reckonings, in October 2018.

 

A new composition by Muhly, commissioned by New York City Ballet, accompanies New York City Ballet’s (NYCB) Resident Choreographer Justin Peck’s work. Created for 12 dancers from NYCB, the piece marks the company’s first performances in London since 2008. In 2018, Peck received the National Arts Award, the Tony Award for his choreography in the Broadway revival of Carousel and the Golden Plate Honor from the Academy of Achievement in 2019.

 

Sadler’s Wells’ Artistic Director and Chief Executive Alistair Spalding, said: “I am delighted to be presenting the world premiere of the third work in our composer series, focusing on the work of leading contemporary composers. I commissioned our New Wave Associate Julie Cunningham, our Associate Artist Michael Keegan-Dolan and American dance maker Justin Peck to create new work on the music of New York-based Nico Muhly. I am excited to see how each choreographer responds to the music and reveals its qualities through dance.”

Muhly and Peck’s work for NYCB premieres in New York on 26 February 2020.

Michael Keegan-Dolan’s Teaċ Daṁsa presents the UK premiere of its newest production MÁM on 5 - 7 February 2020, at Sadler’s Wells.

 

Michael Keegan Dolan is a Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist and Julie Cunningham is a New Wave Associate

A Sadler’s Wells production

Supported by Cockayne - Grants for the Arts, part of the London Community Foundation 

Supported by The Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation

The Monument Trust supports new commissions at Sadler’s Wells

 

Listing information:
WORLD PREMIERE
Cunningham / Keegan-Dolan / Peck
Nico Muhly: Drawn Lines
with Britten Sinfonia
Thursday 19 - Saturday 21 March 2020
Sadler’s Wells, EC1R 4TN 
Performances: 7:30pm
Tickets: £15 - £65
Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com
 

Notes to Editors

 

ABOUT SADLER’S WELLS
Sadler's Wells is a world-leading creative organisation dedicated to dance in all its forms. With over three centuries of theatrical heritage and a year-round programme of performances and learning activities, it is the place where artists come together to create dance, and where people of all backgrounds come to experience it – to take part, learn, experiment and be inspired.

 

Audiences of over half a million come to its London theatres each year, with many more enjoying its touring productions at venues across the UK and around the world, and accessing its content through digital channels.

Sadler's Wells commissions, produces and presents more new dance work than any other theatre in the world, embracing the popular and the unknown. Since 2005, it has helped to bring over 160 new dance works to the stage, many of them involving its 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and four Associate Companies – the most exciting talents working in dance today.

 

It also nurtures the next generation of talent through research and development, running the National Youth Dance Company and a range of programmes including Wild Card, New Wave Associates, Open Art Surgery and Summer University. Sadler's Wells' learning and engagement activities reach over 25,000 annually through programmes that take dance out into the community and invite communities into the theatre. Projects include community productions and the renowned Company of Elders, its resident over-60s performance group, while events range from pre and post-show talks with dance artists to classes, workshops and assisted performances.

 

Located in Islington, north London, the current building is the sixth to have stood on site since entrepreneur Richard Sadler first established the theatre 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 having all started at Sadler's Wells.

www.sadlerswells.com
 

ABOUT BRITTEN SINFONIA
Britten Sinfonia is one of the world’s most celebrated and pioneering ensembles. The orchestra is acclaimed for its virtuoso musicianship and versatility. It breaks the mould by not having a principal conductor or director, instead choosing to collaborate with a range of the finest international guest artists from across the musical spectrum, resulting in performances of rare insight and energy. Britten Sinfonia is a Barbican Associate Ensemble and has residencies in Norwich, Brighton and Cambridge. The orchestra also performs a chamber music series at Wigmore Hall and appears regularly at major UK festivals including Aldeburgh and the BBC Proms. The orchestra’s growing international profile includes regular touring to Mexico, South America and Europe. In February 2012, Britten Sinfonia made its American debut at the Lincoln Centre, New York. Britten Sinfonia also performed as part of the first edition of the Composer Series with Thomas Adès.

www.brittensinfonia.com

[Lenore]

I just happened to be looking at this on the Sadler’s Wells website & noticed the following addition (at least, I don’t remember seeing any cast info before), for anyone interested:

 

’The evening culminates in a highly anticipated performance by New York City Ballet, back in London for the first time since 2008. Hot on the heels of its February world premiere in New York, 12 dancers from the illustrious company, including principal stars Sara Mearns and Gonzalo Garcia, will perform Justin Peck’s Rotunda set to a new Nico Muhly composition.’

[Jeannette]

ROTUNDA is a highly recommended work about dancers being themselves, in a rehearsal room. Mearns and Garcia each dance impressive soli but be on the lookout for a delectable pdd early-on for long-limbed Miriam Miller and Andrew Scordato.