One of the highlights of the upcoming season at The Place is the première of Rosalind (15 to 18 March) by Work Place artist James Cousins (winner of the inaugural New Adventures Choreographer Award). Commissioned by the British Council and The Place and created last year in Korea, it takes its inspiration from Shakespeare’s eponymous heroine and questions whether women need to take on stereotypical masculinity to find equality in our modern world.
Also having its London première this season is Stepmother/Stepfather (2 to 11 March) by London Contemporary Dance School alumnus Arthur Pita. Inspired by fairytales and the cult US post-punk band Violent Femmes, it blends macabre folklore with the terrifyingly grotesque.
Fevered Sleep, making its Place debut, will present Men and Girls Dance which brings together men who dance professionally and girls who dance for fun in order to celebrate their right to dance together. Following an extensive tour, the show arrives at The Place from 13 to 22 April.
Work Place artist Vera Tussing will show her latest work Mazing, which investigates social relationships in the 21st century and attempts to generate positive shared experiences through dancing and the fragility of touch.
Other visiting companies include 2FacedDance which brings its gritty double bill Run and Gabriele Reuter & Mattef Kuhlmey (4 to 5 April), whose dance/physics performance lecture (with electronic soundtrack) The Amplitude (31 March) will form part of a wider research project around acoustic waves, sound and space.
Continuing to draw on scientific influences, The Place will be one of three venues to host the first ever London staging of The Sick of the Fringe festival (17 to 19 February). A popular event at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2015 and 2016, the programme will feature work which engages with arts and health in new and exciting ways.
The Place’s London Contemporary Dance School will present three events showcasing the work of its students, beginning with an evening of dance performed by 40 of its undergraduate students (9 to 10 February). Later in the season, students working towards a Postgraduate qualification in Choreography and Performance (23 to 24 March) will showcase their work, followed by an evening of dance from final year undergraduate students in Undergraduate to Professional (28 and 29 March). InHouse (11 February) will see The Place’s resident companies come together for a ‘one night only’ celebration, danced by Shuffle, Shift, Cando2, Fuel, Edge and Scatter.
Shobhana Jeyasingh Dance will present Material Men Redux (28 to 29 April), which blends classical Indian and Hip Hop choreography in a full-length piece for two performers of the Indian diaspora.
Inspired by global migration and centred around the relationship between two brothers, ACE Dance and Music’s TEN (25 April) will draw on movement from Kathak, Flamenco, martial arts and ballet. Accompanying shows throughout the season is Spectator School, The Place’s regular series of post-show talks, workshops and contextual events.