The man creating a new dance for Miami City Ballet's next season is a 24-year-old dancer with London's Royal Ballet who's being touted as one of the form's most promising choreographic talents. And the creative collaboration came about through an ungraceful but fortuitous meeting, as MCB director Edward Villella, visiting the Royal during a vacation in London, and Liam Scarlett literally collided outside a Royal Opera House elevator last spring.
“He was getting out of one of the lifts … and I was getting in.” Luckily, Villella, who had just been wowed by a rehearsal of Asphodel Meadows, Scarlett's first piece for the Royal's main theater, was delighted to run into the young choreographer.
“I was very impressed, and I asked him whether he might like to come and do something with us,” Villella says. The prospect dazzled Scarlett, who was already reeling at the upcoming debut that would have British critics rhapsodizing and speculating that he might be ballet's next big thing.
“It is a huge honour,” says Scarlett, who is still awed by the attention and chances to create now coming his way. “I know I have a lot resting on my shoulders, but I am very excited at the prospect.”
via Miami City Ballet commissions a new work by 24-year-old choreographer Liam Scarlett – Entertainment – MiamiHerald.com
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
