Press Release: Northern Ballet Mixed Programme - June 2013 - Leeds

[Jan McNulty]

Northern Ballet Mixed Programme - Leeds - June 2013

 

 

Northern Ballet focuses spotlight on emerging and established international talent

 

Northern Ballet returns home in June with a showcase of outstanding emerging and established international choreography. The Company will perform a mixed programme at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre in its award-winning headquarters in Leeds from Wednesday 5 to Sunday 9 June.

 

Following hot on the heels of a tremendously successful tour of The Great Gatsby, the Mixed Programme features a collection of three works including Dutch dance master Hans Van Manen’s Concertante, Angels in the Architecture by American choreographer Mark Godden and a new work by Northern Ballet Premier Dancer Kenneth Tindall entitled  Luminous Junc·ture.

 

Hans Van Manen has created more than 100 short classical ballets during an illustrious career spanning 60 years. He has worked extensively with Nederlands Dance Theater and Dutch National Ballet and his work has been staged internationally by numerous companies including the Royal Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Concertante is performed to Frank Martin’s ‘Petite Symphonie Concertante’.

 

Mark Godden performed as a soloist with Royal Winnipeg Ballet before becoming their first choreographer in residence in 1991. He created several major works for the Company, among them Angels in the Architecture which is set to Aaron Copland’s famous music ‘Appalachian Spring’. It is inspired by the life and beliefs of the Shaker people and the choreography is a beautiful and moving tribute to their simple yet spiritually-motivated lives. Mark continues to create new work for Boston Ballet, Memphis Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Ballet Florida and American Ballet Theatre's Studio Company.

 

Premier Dancer Kenneth Tindall’s talent as a choreographer came to light with Project #1 which he created for a Northern Ballet Choreographic Workshop in the summer of 2011. The piece was later extended to form part of Northern Ballet’s Perpetual Motion and went on to win him the Bundesjungendballett Production Prize at the 26th International Choreographic Competition in Hanover in 2012. He has also created Out of mine and into 4 for the L-Università ta' Malta which toured to the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London and the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre, Leeds. His piece Signature 31/30 gained critical acclaim whilst on tour with Ballet Central this year and his work for Bundesjugendballett was selected by John Neumeier to open Folksongs, a mixed programme for the Company which premièred in March 2013. 

 

Kenneth has recently worked with artist Linder Sterling on a major new performance piece entitled The Ultimate Form which was performed in Paris at the Musée d'Art Moderne in January and will have its UK première at the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield on Saturday 11 May. His new work for Northern Ballet, Luminous Junc·ture, explores a moment in time – the present. Up-and-coming, Manchester-based fashion designer, Emma Guilfoyle, will create the costumes.

 

Northern Ballet’s Artistic Director David Nixon OBE says: ‘It is a great thrill to be performing a piece by Hans Van Manen for the first time. Performing a masterwork such as Concertante is a real challenge and demonstrates the very high standard of our dancers. Mark Godden’s Angels in the Architecture may be familiar to Northern Ballet audiences as we have performed it twice previously. It is a beautiful work and a delight to perform. I am also very excited to see Kenneth Tindall’s skill as a choreographer develop and it’s very important that we have the ability to encourage and nurture such talent in our dancers.’

 

- ENDS -

 

 

 

Notes to Editors

Northern Ballet is renowned for its full-length narrative productions. The Company is committed to touring throughout the UK and overseas, developing new audiences for dance.  Northern Ballet is based in a centre of excellence for dance in Leeds. Their award-winning headquarters on Quarry Hill is the largest purpose-built space for dance outside London.

 

The Ultimate Form Linder Sterling’s exhibition which is currently running at the Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield, culminates with a performance piece entitled The Ultimate Form on Saturday 11 May. The performance draws on Linder’s research into Barbara Hepworth and collaborators include Northern Ballet’s Kenneth Tindall and composer Stuart McCallum (Cinematic Orchestra). hepworthwakefield.org

 

Listings

Northern Ballet Mixed Programme

Wed 5 – Sun 9 June

Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre, Leeds

0113 220 8008

theatreleeds.com