Major commissions for Shobana Jeyasingh from Rambert and the Royal Opera House

Published: 29 September 2014
Reporter: Vera Liber

Sunbee Han in Strange Blooms by Shobana Jeyasingh Credit: Chris Nash

Shobana Jeyasingh's Terra Incognita, her first work for Rambert, plays Sadler’s Wells 18 to 22 November 2014 and Bayadere—The Ninth Life at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, 25 to 28 March 2015.

Working with composer Gabriel Prokofiev following their critically acclaimed collaboration in 2013, Jeyasingh's Terra Incognita is a dance work in three acts inspired by Europe’s Age of Exploration, driven by ideas and images of difference and distance—and journeying into the unknown.

Gabriel Prokofiev's new score for string orchestra and electronics, with influences ranging from Russian classical to tango to dark electronica, will be played live by the Rambert Orchestra at Sadler’s Wells.

Prokofiev is also writing the music for Bayadere—The Ninth Life, Jeyasingh’s new work for her own company, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance, which premières at Linbury Studio Theatre on 25 March.

Commissioned by the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio Programme, Bayadere—The Ninth Life is a radical reimagining of Petipa’s celebrated 1877 ballet La Bayadère.

Drawing on the original story of the ballet, as well as the first visit of Indian dancers to Europe in 1838, Jeyasingh's many-layered narrative moves from fact to fantasy, promising to be at once visually interesting, technologically innovative, contemporary and personal.

*Some links, including Amazon, Stageplays.com, ATG Tickets, LOVEtheatre, BTG Tickets, Ticketmaster, The Ticket Factory, LW Theatres and QuayTickets, are affiliate links for which BTG may earn a small fee at no extra cost to the purchaser.

Are you sure?