13 and 14 February 2015 sees launch of National Dance Company Wales's new Spring Season with a UK Company première at its home, the Dance House at Wales Millennium Centre.
Performing Walking Mad by Johan Inger as part of a triple bill of international work, NDC Wales will be the first UK Company to present and tour the work by the internationally acclaimed Swedish choreographer, continuing its commitment to bring work to the stage that is not generally seen in the UK.
Inger created Walking Mad for Netherlands Dance Theatre in 2001 and received the Lucas Hoving Award for Best Production and the Danza & Danza Award.
Set to Maurice Ravel’s Boléro and Arvo Pärt’s Für Aline it is a 20-minute piece for nine dancers. A large wall surrounds the set, which dancers manipulate and navigate, climbing and hanging from it, using doors to exit and enter the dance space.
NDC Wales's new Artistic Director Gustavo Ramírez Sansano said, "it is a real pleasure to see this unique work of Johan's featured as part of the Company's spring season. I have a long-held personal connection with the work, having been a dancer for NDT at the time it was created, so it is particularly meaningful to see it performed by a UK company for the first time, as I embark on my own journey with NDC Wales".
Inger is a prolific and celebrated choreographer on the international dance scene, particularly well-known for his time as Artistic Director of the Cullberg Ballet, and Netherlands Dance Theatre where he remains an Associate Choreographer.
Over the last five weeks, NDC Wales has opened up a series of weekly Friday afternoon open rehearsals offering audiences the chance to get even closer to the work by seeing it in progress, and an opportunity to talk directly to the dancers as well as Carl Inger, Johan’s brother, who has been running the rehearsal period with the Company.
As part of the triple bill, NDC Wales will also perform Tuplet, choreographed by another leading European talent, Alexander Ekman, which was the main work in the autumn season. It continues to be the first and only British company to bring the work of this prolific choreographer to the UK stage.
Originally created for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Ekman’s Tuplet is a swift, pulsating, eighteen-minute tour-de-force for six dancers using a score created in collaboration with their own rhythmic impulses, bodies as percussive instruments. This soundscape is integrated with original electronic music composed by Mikael Karlsson.
The third work of the triple bill is Stephen Shropshire’s Mythology, featuring group movement sequences set to an avant-garde composition for piano, jazz ensemble and spoken word. Mythology has featured as part of the Company’s repertory for the last two years and continues to be a favourite with audiences.
Following the launch in Cardiff, the Company will embark on a tour to Llandudno, Llanelli, Mold, Aberystwyth, Milford Haven and Leeds, featuring triple and quadruple bills from their current repertoire, including additional works, Purlieus and They Seek to Find the Happiness they Seem by Lee Johnston.