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Tuesday 23rd – Saturday 27th September, 7.30pm
Saturday 27th, Family matinee, 2.30pm

Ticket office 020 7863 8000
Rosebery Ave, Islington, London EC1R 4TN
Nearest tube Angel
Tickets from Ł8

Christopher Wheeldon's Mesmerics
© Asya Verzhbinsky

More information on programme
Book Online

And watch out for Mike and Billy on BBC 2 this Tuesday 16th Sept at 4.30 pm on Celebrity Ready,Steady,Cook!

I managed to find out from Mike what he cooked and who won....but I shall leave you all in suspense..........

>using all 5 company members
which mentions Michael and Billy, Monica Zamora,Oxana Panchenko and Hubert Essakow,right?
And I'd like to know Hubert Esskow is the same man of K-Ballet?Is he a guest only this time in the part of Matthew Hart?

>the Cathy Marston's 'Non Exuent', a duet for two female dancers which Cathy has created on Oxana Panchenko and Monica Zamora.

It's also interesting to see.Oxana Panchenko and Monica Zamora also has joined K-Ballet as guest before,I'm remembering their beautiful form of ballet.About Michael and Billy of cource we're remembering and hope their success from Japan!

Then in walked Christopher Wheeldon. Wow. He too was very friendly. They immediately got down to work, first they ran through the piece, 'Mesmerics', talking about various parts where they felt good and others that they thought needed more work. Then they focused on particular sequences, dancing through a sequence, with Chris watching and commenting. He has an amazing eye, just a small adjustment here or there and the movement, which had looked pretty darn good to me in the first place, became wonderful. Sometimes it was just the guys, or just the girls, or just Billy and Michael, sometimes they referred to the video and other times Chris adjusted the movement to better fit the dancers or the music. Everyone worked very hard, and they all contributed the artistic process, with suggestions, lots of laughs, and amazingly beautiful movement. I am truly grateful to GPD for allowing us the privilege of watching the artistic process in motion. It was an experience I will never forget.

I think the member of GPD have been very nice and woderfull members,they have flexsible come and gone like a rolling stone,I guess Matthew Hart will join many companies as a guest with his wide field from now on!
corrival,Thank you so much for talking about your precious experience!

>Everyone worked very hard, and they all contributed the artistic process,
>with suggestions, lots of laughs, and amazingly beautiful movement.

Very happy to hear the comfortable atmosphere of them,I hope they can continue their own way to dance!! And I hope someday Christopher Wheeldon's works also agian to see like "Pavane" at 2000 K-Ballet tour in Japan.

I think great dancers and choreographers just like "Rolling Stone gathers no moss",of cource,as a good meaning!!

Satoko.K

I often think one of the privileges of life is sitting in a studio seeing how it all comes together. What happens on stage is fantastic and marvellous, but what can happen in a small studio is truly miraculous and makes you understand just how amazing the human body is (or some human bodies!)

Now it really is over to you!

Wish we were there to take in their performances this week, but we are biding our time as it is less than a month before we meet up with them here in Washington and get the whole 'floor show' as well. Carol and I are also working on ways to drum up support here in the US for this tour and their 2004 tour as well. That's how much they blew us away!

To all seeing them this week,enjoy and spare no detail when you tell us all about it.

~Dani

~such reveries~

Hope to hear from some of you!

George Piper Dances 23/9/03 Sadlers Wells

The Boyz are back and are at their very best with a programme of three new works and one firm favourite (Critical Mass) from their established repertoire.
George Piper Dances started off on a shoestring budget in 2001, when Billy and Mike said THEY were the only dancers they could afford to pay!..... and have gone on to establish a firm following for their powerful modern pieces by innovative choreographers.
Their jaunty video clips give a feeling of intimacy with the company,
very intimate indeed in Billy’s introduction, from his bath tub, to the Forsyth work.
That towel got wrapped around him in the nick of time. Mr Trevitt, you are a tease!

William Forsyth has created a duet on Billy and Oxana entitled ‘Approximate Sonata,I,V
with music by Thom.Willems, Tricky Pumpkin
This opens with Billy walking slowly forward and pulling strange facial gestures, grimacing and pulling his jaw from side to side, like an animal roaring. The music had a roaring sound to it too; I had visions of a T.Rex stalking its prey! He stops with his hands and arms held forward and says ‘ I feel like a dog!..’ and is told by a voice from off stage to”put one arm down then.”
The duet with Oxana had a deliberately unfinished feel, at one point they stop and discuss their steps. …………..an unusual presentation, but that’s Forsyth !
At the end, Oxana has some amazing, spider-like movements at floor level and these were so fascinating to watch that I was very disappointed that the curtain fell as she danced. I didn’t understand this piece but it was strange and interesting.

Chris Wheeldon created the first 5 minutes of Mesmerics as a new work for GPD’s Critics Choice ***** last season.
This stands on its own as a fascinating abstract work, with the haunting melodies of Philip Glass’ various String Quartets. The work has now been developed into a full half-hour ballet for the five members of George Piper Dances.
New recruits Hubert Essakow( ex-RB) and Monica Zamora ( ex BRB principal) join Billy, Mike and Oxana in this lyrical and hypnotising piece. The initial sequence has been compared to an underwater seascape, with the dancers weaving around each other as if two fronds of seaweed were caught in a current. The costumes resembled surfers wetsuits too, adding to the watery theme. The work develops into further patterns of an earthier feel, and there are duets and trios, building up to all five dancers synchronising bold arms movements as they fly across the stage. From sea to earth to the air!

Cathy Marston described her new duet for two female dancers in the rehearsal video clip, she wanted to explore the relationship between two women who have had their ambitions thwarted and their love destroyed, and who descend into despair, madness and ultimately death. Lady Macbeth and Ophelia are two fictional women caught in time, and whilst the characters in ‘Non Exuent’( no exit) are real women, the motifs that Cathy uses identify Monica Zamora as ‘Lady Macbeth’, rocking a baby then casting her arms open, washing her hands, etc….whilst Oxana Panchenko as ‘Ophelia’ trails her hands in an imaginary river at the very edge of the stage, and prepares to cast herself into the waters……….

The dancing is very feminine and light, with a simple score, the music is by John Cage ( Six Melodies)
They have ‘no exit’ from their story, and the footlights which trap them to the front and rear of the stage act as their prison.

To lighten our mood, the video then takes us on a whirlwind tour of the UK, to various venues ( including High Wycombe….Yes I went there Billy !) and brings us back to Sadlers Wells and Russell Maliphants ‘Critical Mass’. The music is by Richard English and Andy Cowton , an electronic score, the rhythm giving the machine-like early section its distinctive beat. The second part astonished me…..I hadn’t seen the Boyz tango before! Oh for a rose each, between their teeth, I loved the humour of this part. The third section develops and returns to the theme of the first part, the two men support, lift and wrap around each other, their trust is absolute and their timing is split-second and spot on.

The Ballet Boyz have shown us again that they are here to stay, they have the ability to astonish us, to commission new works by superb choreographers, and to build on their wonderful company with talented dancers. I missed Matthew Hart, but he has gone back to freelancing, and may guest sometimes…………..
Good Luck for your tour of the States, guys, and come back soon!

~dani

~such reveries~

The production is slick and beautifully designed. There are video clips of the company on tour and in rehearsal interspersed among the performances. I would have preferred to see the video footage on the William Forsyth piece before the performance, although I'm not sure it would have helped much. I assumed it was about the Elephant Man, but then it morphed into a pdd which could have been about relationships and disabilities, or about a rehearsal, or...

I do love Christopher Wheeldon's choreography and Mesmeric lives up to it's name. The music hypnotic, the movement entrancing.

Cathy Marston's piece has a helpful introduction to explain that the reason the girl is in a red dress is that she is Lady Macbeth and that's why she wrings her hands and rocks a baby, the girl in the white dress is Ophelia, she will swish around in a pool of blue light. They will tell their story both on and offstage by stepping in and out of the light. I didn't like it, I felt it was style over substance, the person I sat next to thought it was beautiful. It finishes with the girls in a square of white light.

There is more video footage. It's now starting to seem like padding, as if the show was running short and so the footage is there to stretch out the show. The film finishes with the words 'And now for something completely different' and...

The screen comes up to reveal a square of white light. Not completely different then. This is the signature piece and I got the feeling that Billy and Mike have started to get just a little bit jaded. Yes, it has some great moments, but it just didn't feel punchy and fresh.

We left feeling disappointed. The hype had raised our expectations and this time the George Piper Company did not fulfil them.

It is a sign of how resilient an ensemble GPD are that they went ahead nonetheless to give a persuasive evening - with an excellent guest (whose name I didn't catch) standing in for Michael Nunn in Critical Mass