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Richard Alston Artistic director 1986-1992 - Coggle Diagram
Richard Alston
Artistic director 1986-1992
BACKGROUND/
TRAINING
Educated at Eton but dropped out to study fine art at Croydon College.
Referred to as a 'dropout, then a rebel.'
After watching a Royal Ballet performance by Frederick Ashton, he decided he wanted to become a choreographer.
Trained at London Contemporary Dance School and made his first piece at 21 for London Contemporary Dance Theatre.
Went to New York in 1975 to train at Cunningham studios.
CONTRIBUTIONS OUTSIDE OF RAMBERT
Created Strider with Siobhan Davies, Britain's first alternative contemporary dance group.
Influenced by Judson Church Theatre: experimented with everyday movement, multimedia, task or process based compositional methods.
Performed in non-theatre spaces: halls, galleries and outdoors.
1977 - set up Richard Alston and dancers.
Co-founded influential group Second Stride with Siobhan Davies and Ian Spink.
1994 - created Richard Alston
Dance Company. Continues as one of the principal companies in mainstream British modern dance.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO DEVELOPMENT OF RAMBERT
CUNNINGHAM TECHNIQUE
Replaced Graham technique and involves the 5 positions of the spine (curve, arch, twist, tilt and triplet) and balletic footwork.
COLLABORATION
Close collaboration between choreographers, composers and designers; adopting Marie Rambert's original ethos, inspired by Ballet Russes' Diaghlev.
NAME CHANGE
From Ballet Rambert to Rambert Dance Company; better aligned with its deviation from being a solely classical ballet company.
MUSICALITY
Alston worked very closely with the music, ensuring it was intrinsically linked with the music. This is showcased within 'Strong Language' (1987).
TECHNIQUE
Highly technical with Cunningham and Balanchine influences.
REPERTOIRE
Reworked 24 pieces for Rambert, including Soda Lake, and created new pieces such as Strong Language.
ABSTRACT
His works did not have themes or narratives inspired from Cunningham's ethos of 'dance for dance sake' and Judson Church Theatre. This signified a deviation from North's thematic and emotional, Graham inspired pieces.
NEW CHOREOGRAPHERS
Invited new and established choreographers to create works for Rambert, aligning with Morrice's 1966 changes. Eg. Cunningham's 'Touchbase' (1992).
INFLUENCES
Frederick Ashton's 'La file Ma Gardee' after watching a performance of this piece.
Cunningham technique - after time training at his studios.
August Bournonville - balletic, technical influence.
HIS DISMISSAL
His time as Artistic Director was during an economical recession.
In a difficult financial period audiences were not spending their money on watching abstract pieces.
This caused ticket sales to majorly decrease and the company became financially unstable.
Alston was not prepared to compromise and the board of directors felt the company repertoire should be of a less abstract nature and with wider audience appeal.
December 1992, he was dismissed.