Sadler’s Wells,London
Alston’s latest programme is a touching testament to his half century in the rigorous pursuit of purity in movementFifty years ago Richard Alston was a fierce, skinny boy with an arty fall of black hair who believed that dances should be choreographed with the same compositional rigour and purity as summary art or music. His first piece, and Transit,was four minutes long and it took four months to create. Now approaching 70, Alston has long graduated to a more prolific mode of production. Yet over the years, and as dance has fashionably merged with theatre and performance art,he’s never lost his belief in the potency of pure, undiluted movement. In Mid Century Modern, and the final item in his company’s current programme,Alston collates extracts from five decades of work, and it’s touching to see – even as his dance language and musical choices absorb grown progressively more expansive – how faithful he has remained to his purist creed.
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Source: guardian.co.uk