Season 3
Summer Dance
Episoden
Enter Achilles
The season begins with another chance to see Enter Achilles, Lloyd Newson and DV8's challenging exploration of masculinity which won a special prize at last year's Prix Italia.
CRWDSPCR
Now aged 78, New York-based choreographer Merce Cunningham is still creating dances. This film follows Cunningham as he creates a new work - entitled CRWDSPCR but pronounced crowdspacer - with the help of computer software.
Nympheas
Another chance to see Robert Cohan's work, inspired by Monet's paintings of waterlilies and set to the piano music of Debussy, performed by the now-disbanded London Contemporary Dance Theatre.
Carmen
Mats Ek choreographed this version forthe Swedish Cullberg Ballet with Ana Laguna dancing the principal role, and Yvan Auzely and Marc Hwang as her rival lovers. This colourful, Emmy Award-winning television version of the ballet is danced to an arrangement of Bizet's opera music by the Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin.
The Wrecker's Ball
American choreographer Paul Taylor has reworked a trio of his most popular works for the screen. These three triumphant dances are about love, longing and war and are set to popular songs spanning the forties, fifties and sixties. Company B, Funny Papers and A Field of Grass are danced by the Paul Taylor Dance Company in the setting of a disused ballroom, dressed for each period and awaiting the demolition or wrecker's men.
Smoke
This duet created by Swedish choreographer Mats Ek won an award at the 1997 Prix Italia. Sylvie Guillem stars with the choreographer's brother Nicklas Ek, with music by Estonian composer Arvo Part. The piece explores a relationship between a man and a woman, and smoke plays a key role, surrounding the dancers and exuding from their clothes and mouths.
Romeo and Juliet
Rudolf Nureyev originally choreographed Romeo and Juliet for the London Festival Ballet (now the English National Ballet) in 1977; this version, staged by Nureyev for the Paris Opera Ballet, features a cast specially chosen by the late dancer/ choreographer. Featuring Manuel Legris and Monique Loudieres in the title roles, Charles Jude as Tybalt and Lionel Delanoe as Mercutio. Prokofiev's music is played by the Orchestra of the Paris Opera, conducted by Velio Pahn.
Harmonica Breakdown
he season concludes with this part-performance, part-documentary on Jane Dudley, one of the most influential dance teachers of the last 30 years. Here she talks about choreographing and performing her famous solo, Harmonica Breakdown, in Depression-era New York.