Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata & an Evening of New Ballets 2015

This varied and compelling evening included Tangents, choreographed by Dutch National Ballet’s Daniela Cardim, Orbital Motion, choreographed by the Royal Ballet’s Valentino Zucchetti, Toca, by Royal Ballet’s Erico Montes and Mad Women, by Royal Ballet’s Kristen McNally.

The evening concluded with a newly commissioned work by Andrew McNicol, based on Tolstoy’s novella The Kreutzer Sonata. This moving and tragic ballet featured a world-class young string quartet playing the music of Janácek, and an on-stage concert featuring excerpts from Beethoven.

On tour 5 July to 22 August 2015.   View full programme here.

Tangents 

Tangents is an abstract investigation into relationships and how people interact within them. There are different types of relationship but there’s a main path that more or less every couple goes through. Everyone travels that path in various ways but there are certain situations we all recognise and go through as a community.
The ballet was mainly inspired by the music and I tried to reflect the music’s drastic changes of mood in my choreography while making a visual and emotional connection between them.” Daniela Cardim, Choreography

Orbital Motion

Orbital Motion was originally choreographed for The Royal Ballet’s Draft Works, an annual event which that year had the audience surrounding the stage from all angles. When I started choreographing the piece the general idea was to give the audience from every side a facade of the choreographic patterns and aesthetic lines. This train of thought introduced a circular motion throughout the piece in order to have most of the choreography facing outwards towards the audience” Valentino Zucchetti, Choreography

TOCA

Toca is inspired by The Maias, a novel by the great Portuguese author Eça de Queiroz. It’s a story about a brother and sister that were split up when they were very young. They meet as grown-ups, unaware they’re siblings, and fall in love with each other. The story is very long, dramatic and full of detail but I’ve stripped it right down to the essence of the relationship between the two central characters.” Érico Montes, Choreographer

Mad Women

“I was inspired by an exhibition of photographs by Miles Aldridge at Somerset House in London. He created a dream world populated by modified women who are visually perfect objects of desire. These women have evolved into flesh and blood Stepford wives and men are assumed to be their consumers. Mad Women is me wanting to comment that this isn’t a man’s world, it’s very much a woman’s one.” Kristen McNally, Choreographer

Kreutzer Sonata

“After hearing a powerful performance of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata in his Moscow home Tolstoy was inspired to write his novella. Janácek in turn composed his version in response to the novella thirty four years later. Interestingly, Tolstoy originally intended it to be part of a performance event, which solidified my belief and desire to translate it into a new dramatic ballet. The music both inspired the narrative and was created in response to it, meaning that the action and psychological depth of the complex characters are deeply embedded within it.” Andrew McNicol, Choreographer

Creatives:

Tangents

Choreographer: Daniela Cardim
Music: Modest Mussorgsky
Costume Design: Daniela Cardim

Orbital Motion

Choreographer: Valentino Zucchetti
Music: Music Philip Glass Violin Concerto No.1 © 1987 Dunvagen Music Publishers Inc. 
Design: Louie Whitemore
Lighting Design: Andrew Ellis
Duration: 17 minutes

Toca

Choreographer: Érico Montes
Music: Heitor Villa-Lobos
Design: Kristen McNally
Lighting Design: Andrew Ellis
Duration: 10 minutes

Mad Women

Choreographer: Kristen McNally
Music: Popular melodies
Costume Design: Kristen McNally and Tour de Force
Lighting Design: Andrew Ellis

Kreutzer Sonata

Choreographer: Andrew McNicol
Music: L v Beethoven & Leos Janacek
Costume Design: Emma Bailey
Lighting Design: Andrew Ellis
Set Design: Lincoln Seligman (artwork)

Team

Company Manager Daniela Cardim
Ballet Mistress,
Production Liaison & Guest Teacher,
Director of Development,
Company Administrator,
Development Co-ordinator,

Performance programme

5 JULY Cheltenham Music Festival, Everyman Theatre

7 JULY Richmond Theatre

9 JULY Wycombe Swan Theatre

17 & 18 JULY Taking Chances, Works in progress on the Southbank, Rambert Studio Performance

22 JULY Mixed Bill, Canary Wharf Summer Sessions at Canada Square Park

24 & 25 JULY Mixed Bill, Lyric Hammersmith Studio Performance

20 – 22 AUGUST Dancing for Nepal, A series of fundraising performances by NEBT and Special Guests in aid of the Nepal Earthquake Recovery Appeal 2015 St. James Theatre

Alumni Dancers 2015


Gyorgy Baan Hungarian Dance Academy
Hayley Blackburn 
The Royal Ballet School
Niklas Blomkvist Royal Swedish Ballet School
Alexandra Cameron-Martin
 Australian Ballet School
Fiona Cameron-Martin 
Australian Ballet School
Ivan Delgado del Rio 
Conservatorio Profesional de Danza de Sevilla
Helena Enguidanos Conservatorio Professional de Danza (Valencia)
Chantelle Gotobed 
Royal Ballet School
Joshua Harriette
Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance
Mariá Huguet Planas 
Royal Ballet School
Chloe Anais Lopes Gomes 
Bolshoi ballet Academy in Moscow
Emma Lucibello 
Teatro di danza dell’Opera di Roma
Alessia Lugoboni
English National Ballet School
Arianna Marchiori
Il Balletto di Castelfranco, Veneto, Boston Ballet
Simona Marsibilio
Ecole Superieure de Danse Rosella Hightower
Abigail Mattox 
Clea Pitsillidou School of Ballet
Paul Oliver 
Elmhurst School for Dance
Curtis Pooley 
Elmhurst School for Dance
Matthieu Quincey 
Académie Besso in Toulouse
Silas Stubbs 
Elmhurst School for Dance
Joshua Woodhams 
Vanemuine Theatre Ballet