Phoenix Dance Theatre 40th Anniversary Celebrations

[SheilaC]

Yesterday the delayed gala celebrating the 40th anniversary took place at the Yorkshire Playhouse. It comprised a wealth of dance, from ballet to contemporary to other modern techniques, from 8 companies in addition to Phoenix itself.

 

It was introduced, inspiringly, by the founder, David Hamilton, who commented on the early struggles but also the initial achievements, including securing the first dance officer for Leeds and the West Yorkshire region. I thought back to the first time I saw them, nearly 40 years ago, at that point three energetic young men, on a small stage in a community centre in Saltburn, not far from Teesside. It has evolved many times since, through varied directors.

 

The ballet highlights included a wonderful duet by Robert Cohan, from his ballet Nympheas, which was revived for the recent Cohan celebration. It was again fluently danced by Romany Pajdak and Matthew Ball. More virile ballet came from eight male dancers from Northern Ballet, in the first live performance of Men Dances by Mlindi Kulashe: it had been choreographed in lockdown and performed in a zoom. An exhilarating start to the second half. Scottish Ballet contributed a duet by Sophie Laplane, Dextera, performed vividly by Jerome Barnes and Anna Williams, to Mozart.

 

Other contributions came from Yorke Dance Project (which had also been responsible for the Nympheas piece), a solo created on Dane Hurst (still, it seems, artistic director of Phoenix) and danced by Luke Ahmet. Another of my favourite small groups, the Mark Bruce company (which never normally performs in the North, we have to travel to London to see them), ended the main programme with a duet, Green Apples, to The White Stripes music. Other duets explored conflictual relationships ; male/female from Company Chamelon and male/male from Denada Dance Theatre. Very different was an excerpt from Mana, by Ace Dance and Music, exploring African religious traditions.

 

The programme ended with a performance of one of the pieces in Phoenix's current programme celebrating past choreography. It should have been Heart of Chaos, the piece by one of their best previous directors, Darshan Singh Bhuller, about the first African American heavyweight champion, no less, Jack Johnson, but because of injury it had to be substituted by another dance piece from the programme. Sadly I couldn't watch it all as I had to make my way to the station (by then the performance had taken almost twice as long a scheduled!) to cope with a disrupted journey due to the East Coast line being out of action north of York (you people in Brighton are not the only ones with travel problems!)

[capybara]

So interesting, SheilaC. Thank you!

[Jan McNulty]

I attended the 40 Years of Phoenix programme on Friday evening.  It comprised 4 of the 5 listed works and had been curated by Dane Hurst.

 

The evening opened with Henri Oguike's glorious Signal which is performed to Japanese Taiko drumming.  It was abstract dance in the truest sense of the word.  The piece is for 5 dancers who duetted, triod and ensembled.  The piece really showed of the dancers skills and I found it enthralling to watch.

 

This was followed by a quirky solo, Harmonica Breakdown, choreographed by Jane Dudley in a style (to me) reminiscent of the 1920s.

 

After the interval we were treated to Ben Duke/Lost Dog's Pave Up Paradise which was about a man and a woman meeting and their relationship developing.  With a live guitarist on stage and some dialogue for the dancers as well as the energetic choreography it was a theatrical and interesting take on relationships.

 

The evening finished with Family, choreographed by Danial Shapiro and Joanie Smith.  It featured a large arm chair around which all aspects of family life and relationships (including a boyfriend) were played out.  It was witty, entertaining and energetic and finished the evening on a high.

 

This show gave us a potted glimpse into Phoenix' past and left us with a great sense of optimism for the next 40 years!

 

 

Saturday evening gave us the Celebration Gala (which had been delayed from December) and what a special evening it turned out to be starting with a stirring speech from one of the company's founder members David Hamilton.

 

Phoenix opened the dance with an excerpt from Sharon Watson's Windrush which was both moving and witty.  I had been due to see the whole work at The Lowry but Covid intervened and this excerpt just left me wanting more.

 

All the guest companies gave us something to enjoy and I was particularly thrilled and moved to see the love duet from De Nada Dance Theatre's Mariposa again.  Completely out of context of the whole piece Harry Alexander and Stan West performed the piece with such emotion that I was again moved to tears by their beautiful performance.

 

It was lovely to see a variety of dance styles included in this evening which was brim-full of delights.  I feel a bit unfair trying to mention highlights from the evening.

 

Act 2 started with a five-minute spot from poet Khadijah Ibrahim who had us all laughing out loud with her comments before she read her poem A Legacy Libation.

 

Of course, I loved Northern Ballet's Men Dances, choreographed by Mlindi Kulashe.  We had a closing speech from Delia Barker who is the Chair of Phoenix' Board.

 

The evening ended with another fabulous performance of Family from the Phoenix Dancers.

 

I came out of the theatre on a real high and I can't wait to see what comes next for Phoenix!

 

 

[Jan McNulty]

The piece that Northern Ballet danced - Men Dances - was released by Northern Ballet during the lockdown as part of their Pay as you can digital season.  It is still available to watch (with a slightly different cast):

 

https://northernballet.com/digital-dance/short-films/men-dances

[Lynette H]

Phoenix are coming to the Peacock in London on 29th and 30th March and I'm very much looking forward to seeing them. The programme there looks slightly different from what is described above. The Sadler's website gives it as follows:

 

Featuring Pave Up Paradise from Lost Dog (Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer); Darshan Singh Bhuller’s Heart of Chaos; Signal by Henri Oguike; Jane Dudley’s 1938 masterpiece, Harmonica Breakdown; and Family, choreographed by Shapiro & Smith. 

 

https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/phoenix-dance-theatre-40-years-of-phoenix/

 

The total programme is 1hour 30min.  Maybe there is room for a few extra pieces ? 

 

I'm very much looking forward to seeing Harmonica Breakdown.  More about that piece here

 

http://roehamptondance.com/harmonicabreakdown/about-the-project/

 

 

[Jan McNulty]

The company hadn't been able to perform Heart of Chaos due to injury.

 

I do hope it appears in the rep.

[alison]

Henri Oguike - there's a choreographer I'd forgotten about - and now miss  

[SheilaC]

5 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

The company hasn't been able to perform Heart of Chaos due to injury.

 

I do hope it appears in the rep.

They performed Heart of Chaos in York in November at both performances and it is really good. The whole programme is excellent- very varied, well balanced, with a nice selection of pieces, some dramatic, some humorous, from different stages of the company's history. And all have good choreography. The dancers are committed. All in all, well worth seeing on the regional tour or at the Peacock in London.

[alison]

On 14/02/2022 at 09:22, Jan McNulty said:

I attended the 40 Years of Phoenix programme on Friday evening.  It comprised 4 of the 5 listed works and had been curated by Dane Hurst.

 

The evening opened with Henri Oguike's glorious Signal which is performed to Japanese Taiko drumming.  It was abstract dance in the truest sense of the word.  The piece is for 5 dancers who duetted, triod and ensembled.  The piece really showed of the dancers skills and I found it enthralling to watch.

 

This was followed by a quirky solo, Harmonica Breakdown, choreographed by Jane Dudley in a style (to me) reminiscent of the 1920s.

 

After the interval we were treated to Ben Duke/Lost Dog's Pave Up Paradise which was about a man and a woman meeting and their relationship developing.  With a live guitarist on stage and some dialogue for the dancers as well as the energetic choreography it was a theatrical and interesting take on relationships.

 

The evening finished with Family, choreographed by Danial Shapiro and Joanie Smith.  It featured a large arm chair around which all aspects of family life and relationships (including a boyfriend) were played out.  It was witty, entertaining and energetic and finished the evening on a high.

 

This show gave us a potted glimpse into Phoenix' past and left us with a great sense of optimism for the next 40 years!

 

Thank heavens I looked in my diary!  This (or something very similar) started last night at the Peacock Theatre in London, and is on tonight as well.

[Lynette H]

I'm pleased that I managed to catch this at the Peacock last night.  Great to see Harmonica Breakdown again, and the company looked in fine form. There's a lot of anniversaries around at present - 40 years of Phoenix, 20 years for Ballet Black and for Ballet Boyz, and certainly the audiences I saw at Phoenix and at Ballet Black were in a celebratory mood. 

[Ianlond]

It was wonderful to see Phoenix once again, after too long a break. Harmonica Breakdown was, to me, worth the price of the ticket & my first thought when it finished was ‘can I watch that again?’ Having studied its significance at dance school, it was great to watch again. Absolutely loved Heart of Chaos with some very strong performances from the whole cast. 
Phoenix is a very important company & it did make me think once again how much ‘historical’ contemporary dance is not being performed alongside more recent choreography. More power to them! 

[Peanut68]

I think I need to move to Leeds! You have so much exciting dance based up there!! I feel it’s assumed that from the south coast where I live you can get to London….though to be fair I have recently seen companies I had heard of but never before seen (Mark Bruce Company & Yorke Dance Project) more close by (Winchester & Bournemouth) 

Still think we fall way behind the Northern dance powerhouse!! We need more Southern companies too!!