Three emerging choreographers, ENB dancer Tamarin Stott, Rambert dancers Mbulelo Ndabeni and Kirill Burlov, have been selected by Print Room Artistic Associate Hubert Essakow to join him in creating four new short dance works that celebrate the year in which the Coronet was built.
Work in progress will draw inspiration from specific theatrical sources, such as the first opera to be performed at the Victorian playhouse and those who famously graced the Coronet stage, to the wider historical themes of the period, including the Belle Epoque, and a world on the verge of political upheaval.
The one-week contemporary dance festival runs from 23-28 February 2015.
Commenting on the Print Room at the Coronet’s—its new, permanent home in the iconic former Victorian playhouse and legendary cinema in London’s Notting Hill—second season, Print Room's artistic director Anda Winters said: “it has been a source of great joy and pride to have opened our first season in the Coronet, which has been met with such enormous warmth by our diverse audience.
"With our second season, we hope that our work will continue to attract people from across the city to our new home, and that we will be able to open more of the building for public use."
The Notting Hill venue will eventually include three flexible theatre spaces—the largest of which will remain fully operational as a cinema with both 35mm and digital facilities, rehearsal and workshop spaces, administration offices and a restaurant and bar.
The Coronet first opened as a theatre in 1898 with a capacity of 1,143 seats. It was designed by one of the leading architects of the time, WGR Sprague, and is the oldest surviving theatre of his in London. His other work included Wyndham’s Theatre, Aldwych Theatre and the Noël Coward Theatre.
It quickly gained a reputation as one of the finest theatres outside the West End, with appearances from actors including Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt, and was frequented by King Edward VII. John Gielgud saw his first Shakespeare production at the theatre, As You Like It, in 1912.
Though film screenings at the Coronet began in 1916, it didn’t become a full-time cinema until 1923. Between 1950 and 1977 it was named the Gaumont Theatre after its owners, Gaumont-British Cinemas.
Then, after a period where it looked like the cinema might close, it was bought by the independent operator Panton Films, who chose to return the name to The Coronet Cinema and refurbish the seating, decreasing the capacity to 400.
In 2002, a second 150-seat screen was installed and The Coronet functioned as a two-screen cinema until the Print Room moved in summer 2014.