The Royal Opera House Presents Dance Reflections By Van Cleef & Arpels Festival

Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival is an exciting new dance event taking place throughout March in partnership with the Royal Opera House, Tate Modern and Sadlers Wells, showcasing modern and contemporary choreography. For the first time these three London institutions unite to celebrate dance with a series of performances, insights, workshops and screenings, creating a new festival for the artform.

Van Cleef and Arpels has been a devotee of dance since its foundation and the Royal Opera House has enjoyed a close partnership with the maison since 2006. This new festival continues this partnership with work by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Lucinda Childs, Ola Maciejewska and Alessandro Sciarroni presented across the stages of the Royal Opera House - the Linbury Theatre, Paul Hamlyn Hall and Clore Studio. A film series will also be shown in the Linbury Theatre offering a reflection on the history of modern dance and includes work by Merce Cunningham, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Giselle Vienne and Christian Rizzo.

Opening the festival in the Linbury Theatre programme Ola Maciejewska presents Bombyx Mori, drawing inspiration from Loïe Fuller signature piece the Serpentine Dance. Fuller merged dance with special effects to capture the movement of fire, water and other natural elements hiding her body under vast sweeps of silk. Regarded as a pioneer, Fuller was the first person to use electric light on stage and was a force for innovation in dance.

Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker premiered Fase, Four Movement in 1982, set to music by Steve Reich. The work comprises of four repetitive compositions by Reich with both music and dance exploring 'phase shifting' resulting in an ingenious play on changing forms and patterns.

Lucinda Childs passed down three of her iconic solos to her niece Ruth Childs and Ruth has continued to breath new life into her aunt's choreography. This programme which is presented in the Paul Hamlyn Hall focusses on the choreographer's aesthetic transition leading up to the 1979 creation of her now seminal show, Dance which is also being performed at Sadler's Wells as part of the festival.

Save the last Dance for Me by Alessandro Sciarroni is presented in the Clore Studio. This work is based on a Bolognese dance known as Polka Chinata, a courtship dance dating back to the early 20th Century. Originally performed by two men and physically demanding it involves dancers whirling around in a crouching position, facing each other with arms interlocked. Whilst in the Linbury Sciarroni also presents The Collection danced by Lyon Opera Ballet, inspired by Schuhplattler, a traditional Trrolean dance of hitting shoes and legs with your hands. This series of combinations tests the dancer's physical endurance with the piece ending when there is only one dancer left on stage or no more audience.

In additional to these performances the festival and Centre national de la dance - CN D (Paris) presents a selection of films in the Linbury looking back on the modern history of dance, these films will also be available on the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels and CN D websites.

For details of Dance Reflections Festival by Van Cleef and Arpels visit Homepage | Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels (dancereflections-vancleefarpels.com)

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