Live, Video: Kritiken zu klassischen Konzerten, Opern, Ballett und Tanz finden | Richard Alston Dance Company

The final full stop for a much-loved company

A poignant farewell leaves the home audience wanting more.

It is sad that Final Edition will be Richard Alston dance company's final tour, but it is a fantastic production to leave us with.

A lifetime of achievement that keeps on giving 

Tango infused contemporary dance sizzles on a hot summer evening. Sometimes tempestuous, sometimes tender; four couples oscillate between summer storms and wintry chills. Tangent, choreographed by Martin Lawrence opens a triple bill by the Richard Alston Dance Company at Sadlers Wells. He draws inspiration from Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas played on stage by pianist Jason Ridgway. 

Contemporary Dance comes to The Lowry with a triple bill: An Italian in Madrid, Tangent, and Chacony. From Naples to Madrid; South America to Britain, a diverse, musical programme.

The latest bill from the Richard Alston Dance Company shows its leader as a consummate teacher: studied, scholarly, thoughtful.

Richard Alston is a true Contemporary Dance artist and choreographer, and his company a staple within the British Contemporary Dance scene. But last week's performance at Sadler's Wells was short of a five star. 

Barbican Britten: Phaedra is just one of the events in the venue’s two-week celebration of the composer’s centenary. The programme presents four pieces choreographed by Richard Alston to Benjamin Britten’s music. Alston’s choreography is well suited to Britten’s music: both artists are lyrical, tempered, and incline toward narrative.

Richard Alston’s Autumn season At Home was greeted with a full house. Dance celebrities and non-celebrities, the older generation from his experimental years, and eager younger choreographers with notebooks all gathered in celebration at The Place.

A Celebration of Bob Lockyer was less a celebration of the man than of his work. Lockyer has had a full career ranging from producer of award-winning dance programmes at the BBC, to chair of Dance UK and South-East Dance. His lengthy career has earned him the accolade of “one of the great heroes of British dance”.

True to their usual standard of extraordinary craftsmanship and virtuosic dancing, Richard Alston Dance Company brought a mixed bill of new and old works to Sadler’s Wells. The evening’s programme included three pieces: Alston’s Roughcut, which premièred in 1990; Lie of the Land, a work by rehearsal director Martin Lawrance; and one of Alston’s newest choreographies, A Ceremony of Carols.

Saturday’s one-off double bill saw new work from one of Britain’s best, Richard Alston, paired with American Stephen Petronio’s creation for the National Dance Company of Wales. The show comes as part of the biennial British Dance Edition, a showcase of the top talents in British dance.