British Dance Edition, Cardiff & Newport
British Dance Edition is one of the major events in the industry year, showcasing a huge range of work by UK-based choreographers and companies. While principally tailored to an audience of promoters and programmers, some performances at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff and The Riverfront in Newport are open to the public, giving access to work from artists as diverse as James Cousins, Aakash Odedra and Gary Clark (all at The Riverfront, Newport, Wed). The latter brings his new touring production, Coal, which looks back at the mid-80s miners’ strike.
Ballet Black: Triple Bill, London
Ballet Black makes its debut on the Barbican stage with a triple bill of typically eclectic, ambitious and original works. The centrepiece of the evening is a revival of Christopher Hampson’s Storyville, a dark morality tale set to the music of Kurt Weill, which follows a young girl’s dangerous coming of age in 1920s New Orleans. Framing the piece are new works by two choreographers with previous associations with the company. There’s a piece by Christopher Marney, who created Two Of A Kind and War Letters for Ballet Black, while Arthur Pita, who was behind a deliriously transgressive version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, creates a duet for the company.
