Phoenix Dance Theatre triple bill for 2016 @ West Yorkshire Playhouse

Until.With/Out.Enough. Photo: Stephen Wright

Phoenix Dance Theatre bring a triple bill of work to Leeds’ West Yorkshire Playhouse. Undivided Loves is co-commissioned between Watford Palace Theatre and Phoenix Dance Theatre, in celebration of Phoenix Dance Theatre‘s 35th Birthday and to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

Shakespeare’s timeless themes of desire, duplicity and unrequited love are brought to life in Kate Flatt’s new piece for Phoenix Dance Theatre‘s Triple Bill 2016 tour. Fusing sound, words and dance, Shakespeare’s most intimate, mysterious and radical sonnets are reimagined to Adriano Adewale’s vibrant and percussive score.

As part the Triple Bill 2016 and in celebration of Phoenix Dance Theatre‘s 35th Birthday Dutch/Israeli choreographer Itzik Galili reworks his piece, Until.With / Out.Enough, which explores the concept of the enclosed space that exists within our minds.

Melt. Photo: Chris Nash

Speaking about the creation of Until.With / Out.Enough Itzik Galili said

‘What I have made for Phoenix is an old piece that I have adapted and given a facelift, with new costumes and lighting. I created it fairly early in my career, but I don’t like to leave pieces, because as we change our pieces also change as we develop. We see this revision process in writing all the time. Essentially I am recreating it based on the abilities of the dancers, who naturally influence the work, because it is important that they own what they do. The company dancers currently look very good. Until. With/Without.Enough will be an emotional journey for the viewer, essentially abstract but with intimacy and tension. A good work should move you emotionally and intellectually and I think it works with this ballet.

Until.With/Out.Enough is a co-commission between The Royal Ballet and Phoenix Dance Theatre.

I saw Artsitic Director Sharon Watson’s Melt as part of Phoenix @ Home in which aerial dance combines with the Wild Beasts’ rhythmic soundtrack to great effect. The performers are pushed to barriers unknown through athletic stretches and tests of balance. The skilful design by Michael Mannion benefits also from coincidental images on the reflective floor. Using the ropes overhead, the dancers swing and then are carefully caught and others spin in a chiaroscuro of light and dark.  Melt is all we expect from the excellence of Watson’s direction: strong, clear, incisive and absolutely amazing.

17 to 20 February, West Yorkshire Playhouse.