Yorke Dance Project joins five national ballet companies—The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet—for Kenneth MacMillan: a National Celebration at The Royal Opera House with Sea of Troubles at the Clore Studio Upstairs (26 and 27 October and 1 November), plus a four-venue UK tour of Rewind Forward (opening on 13 October 2017).
Marking the 25th anniversary of the choreographer's death, Yorke Dance Project will present MacMillan’s rarely-seen 1988 work Sea of Troubles which artistic director Yolande Yorke-Edgell revived for her company last autumn in collaboration with MacMillan’s widow Deborah MacMillan, who designed the work, Susie Crow, one of the original performers, and Jane Elliott, the original Benesh notator. The piece was a gift from MacMillan to Dance Advance, an ensemble of former members of The Royal Ballet, set to music by Anton Webern and Bohuslav Martinů and taking as its starting point the death of Hamlet’s father.
The event was created by Royal Ballet Director Kevin O’Hare to bring together Britain’s leading ballet companies to demonstrate the impact of MacMillan on dance in this country. Over two weeks, some of the choreographer’s most celebrated works will be performed alongside a programme of talks exploring his legacy.
Rewind Forward’s four works are Kenneth MacMillan’s Sea of Troubles, Robert Cohan’s latest work Twilight—a new version of 1979’s Songs, Lamentations and Praises set to music by Vivaldi—Self by Charlotte Edmonds—inspired by the trio from MacMillan’s Manon to Donna McKevitt’s score—and Yolande Yorke-Edgell’s Untethered, a work about self-discovery and transformation set to music by the string quartet Brooklyn Rider.