Pam Tanowitz's second world premiere for The Royal Ballet this Season is part of a special programme in the Linbury Theatre. The new work will be seen alongside the first revival of her ballet Everyone Keeps Me and a film screening of Dispatch Duet, created for The Royal Ballet's A Diamond Celebration last November.
The new creation, Secret Things, is a ballet for eight dancers set to Grammy-nominated composer Anna Clyne's Breathing Statues. Everyone Keeps Me was created for the company in 2019 as part of the Merce Cunningham Centennial Celebrations. Roslyn Sulcas for The New York Times wrote that “for 20 entrancing minutes, we are in her strange, resonantly poetic world.” Sarah Crompton in The Guardian said, “Like a lot of Tanowitz's choreography, it sets off ripples of memory – it recalls at various moments Cunningham, Martha Graham and Jerome Robbins's Dances at a Gathering – but is uniquely and utterly itself. She has a great gift.”
Dispatch Duet was created for the gala that marked the 60th anniversary of the Friends of Covent Garden. The punchy pas de deux (set to a score by Ted Hearne, as was Everyone Keeps Me) featured the principal dancers Anna Rose O'Sullivan and William Bracewell. For the Linbury programme, however, Dispatch Duet will be presented by the screening of a bespoke film of the piece directed by Anthoula Syndica-Drummond.
Pam Tanowitz Linbury Theatre
4–16 February 2023
Tickets £4 – £35
Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, Bow Street, London
Booking: www.roh.org.uk
SECRET THINGS – World Premiere
Choreography PAM TANOWITZ
Composer ANNA CLYNE
Costume Design VICTORIA BARTLETT
Lighting and Scenic Design CLIFTON TAYLOR
Staging and Répétiteur DEIRDRE CHAPMAN
String Quartet KAORU YAMADA, KATHRYN SPENCER, FIONA BONDS, LAUREN STEEL
Dancers: Hannah Grennell, Nadia Mullova-Barley, Annette Buvoli, Mica Bradbury, Liam Boswell, Giacomo Rovero, Brayden Gallucci, Francisco Serrano
DISPATCH DUET (FILM)
Choreography PAM TANOWITZ
Composer TED HEARNE
Costume Design REID BARTELME and HARRIET JUNG
Director ANTHOULA SYNDICA-DRUMMOND
Staging and Répétiteur DEIRDRE CHAPMAN
Dancers: Anna Rose O'Sullivan and William Bracewell
EVERYONE KEEPS ME
Choreography PAM TANOWITZ
Composer TED HEARNE
Costume Design FAY FULLERTON
Lighting Design CLIFTON TAYLOR
Staging and Répétiteur DEIRDRE CHAPMAN
Assistant to the Choreographer MELISSA TOOGOOD
String Quartet KAORU YAMADA, KATHRYN SPENCER, FIONA BONDS, LAUREN STEEL
Dancers: Isabel Lubach, Marianna Tsembenhoi, Amelia Townsend, Hannah Park, Pantuso, Taisuke Nakao, Harrison Lee, Luc Foskett, Joonhyuk Jun
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.
