World's First Disability-Inclusive Dance-Theatre Company Celebrate 40 Years

The world's first disability-inclusive professional dance company, Amici Dance Theatre Company, will be celebrating their 40th anniversary in the Main House at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre with their biggest production to date, Amici's One World: Wealth of the Common People. The pioneering dance-theatre company will bring together an 80 strong cast of disabled and non-disabled performers, many specially invited from around the world.

Choreographed by the internationally-renowned Wolfgang Stange and devised by the performers themselves, Amici's One World is a timely exploration of unity, tolerance and the ongoing refugee crisis told through the eyes of those who have experienced first-hand what it's like to be marginalised by difference. This ambitious spectacle masterfully mixes projection, dance, spoken word and live music in an explosive celebration of joy, life, protest and the beauty of uniting people from different cultures across the globe. It is part of an Amici celebratory week of workshops, photographic exhibitions and films at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre.

Amici will be inviting guest performers from Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Wales, Japan, USA, Canada, Austria and Sri Lanka and will once again be collaborating with celebrated director Michael Vale (Macbeth, RSC; Bent, National Theatre), Tina Bicat (who won the Critics Circle Award for Design for Punchdrunk's Faust), and Phil Supple (the designer behind the iconic Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red that saw 888,264 poppies cascade down the Tower of London). Amici's stunning work continues to subvert stereotypes and challenge conventional attitudes to disability and the arts breaking both barriers and new ground.

Wolfgang Stange comments, I was pushed to make work that raised awareness of the atrocities that are plaguing our planet after the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka and the current refugee crisis on Europe's shores. I've been deeply affected by the innocent lives that have been lost while trying to get a better future for their children. It is more important than ever to remind ourselves that in order to change things, we must relive some of those horrors, but we must not lose sight of hope. Without hope we would be very lost indeed. Amici shows that sharing and celebrating each other's differences is the only way forward.

Amici are a unique integrated-arts company that have, over the years, inspired thousands of people to look at art (and the world) from a new and magical perspective. With a focus on individual talent regardless of ability, they help performers to realise their latent gifts as artists. They run weekly classes for its 40+ members, organise open-workshops, residencies, and student placements and stage performances throughout the year including their biennial full company show, performed in the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre's Main House, where they are a Lyric Partner Company.

Tickets start from £14 and are available through the Lyric's Box Office, https://lyric.co.uk and 020 8741 6850.

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