Category: UK/Ireland

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Oona Doherty – Specky Clark

February 6th – 7th, 2025 Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER, Ghent
March 7th, 2025 Festspielhaus St. Pölten, St. Pölten
April 24th – 25th, 2025 Lieu Unique, Nantes
May 9th – 10th, 2025 Sadler’s Wells, London
May 14th – 17th, 2025 Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin
June 24th – 27th, 2025 Théâtre de la Ville, Paris
120 minutes

Meat, Sorrow and Irish Sounds

© Luca Truffarelli

Part fiction, part biographical, all elements are overlapping, and it will become difficult to determine what’s myth and what’s reality. 

It goes back to a time when families worked in the abattoirs of Belfast. Pigs in the garden of New lodge.

There’s something in the meat of me, bloodline, there is a pink fleshy vulnerability to me, to dancing, there is a violence in me.

This new show will follow the story of Oona’s Great Great Grandfather Specky Clark and his arrival in Belfast.

For this piece which will be unfolding in a series of theatrical images, Oona Doherty will collaborate with many faithful and new partners. The production features music from Irish band Lankum, Gavino Murgia and David Holmes & Raven Violet. Maxime Jerry Fraisse is sound designer, Irish playwright Enda Walsh is dramaturg, Sabine Dargent is set designer, Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust is costume designer and long-time collaborator John Gunning is lighting designer. The piece will be performed by an international cast of 9 dancers.

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UK/Ireland

Matthew Bourne – Swan Lake

December 2nd, 2024 – January 26th, 2025 Sadler’s Wells, London
February 6th – 15th, 2025 Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham
February 18th – 22nd, 2025 Theatre Royal, Nottingham
February 25th – March 1st, 2025 Liverpool Empire, Liverpool
2 hours 20 minutes incl. one 20-minute interval

The 30th Anniversary of Bourne’s Genre-defining Work

© Johan Persson

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake returns for its 30th anniversary with a 2024/25 UK tour. This audacious reinvention of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece caused a sensation when it premiered almost 30 years ago and has since become the most successful dance theatre production of all time. In celebration of that ongoing impact, Swan Lake will take flight once more in this major revival for the next generation, visiting 19 venues over 29 weeks.

Thrilling, bold, witty and emotive, this genre-defining event is still best known for replacing the female corps-de-ballet with a menacing male ensemble, which shattered convention, turning tradition on its head.

First staged at Sadler’s Wells in London in 1995, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake took the dance theatre world by storm becoming the longest running full-length dance classic in the West End and on Broadway. It has since been performed across the globe, collecting over thirty international accolades including the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production and three Tony Awards for Best Director of a Musical, Best Choreography and Best Costume Design.

Matthew Bourne said, “As our swans take flight once more in this major revival, I’m full of anticipation for the challenges it will bring for our next generation of dancers and the wonder that it will bring to audiences who will experience it for the very first time.”

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UK/Ireland

Aaron S. Watkin & Arielle Smith – NUTCRAKER

December 12th, 2024 – January 12th, 2025 London Coliseum, London
2 hours incl. one interval

A New Interpretation of the Classic Ballet

© ASH

The whole thing feels familiar but fresh,
colourful but still classy,
sweet but not sickly.

Lyndsey Winship

This festive season, join Clara on a fantastical adventure where anything is possible. Embark on a journey full of colour and wonder as English National Ballet brings Nutcracker to life with over 100 dancers and musicians.

It’s Christmas Eve in Edwardian London. Clara and her mother are shopping at Drosselmeyer’s Sweets & Delights Emporium where she meets an enchanted Nutcracker doll. They take home liquorice all-sorts, nougat, marzipan and of course, sugarplums, to delight their party guests. As music and laughter fill the house, Clara has a magical sugar plum vision, sparking an adventure in which she bravely defends her home from the Rat King before discovering a dazzling ice realm and its Queen. Step out of the ordinary and follow Clara as she travels to the Land of Sweets & Delights where the Sugar Plum Fairy has arranged a grand celebration in her honour.

Choreographed by English National Ballet’s Artistic Director, Aaron S. Watkin, and Olivier Award-winner Arielle Smith, this new interpretation of the classic festive ballet combines exquisite dancing with spectacular sets and costumes designed by Dick Bird. English National Ballet Philharmonic perform Tchaikovsky’s iconic score live.

From the orchestra warming up, to the final bows and applause, English National Ballet’s new Nutcracker is an unforgettable treat for audiences of all ages.

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