mapdance to Bring 10th Anniversary Tour to The Old Rep

mapdance celebrates its 10th anniversary with an exciting and varied event, featuring new works and reconstructions by renowned and upcoming international contemporary choreographers. The roster of artists includes Britain's Kevin Finnan (Motionhouse) and wacky maverick Liz Aggiss, as well as Israel Aloni and Lee Brummer, co-artistic directors of Sweden's ilDance. The current crop of thirteen 'mapdancers' also appear in Martin Lawrance's restaging of Richard Alston's vibrant, evergreen Roughcut (1990) and Abi (Lila Dance) Mortimer's elegant, Leonardo-inspired Schemes, Dreams and Machines from mapdance's 2015 tour.

The University of Chichester's MA touring company is an established group of dynamic young dancers recruited nationally and internationally. Their gratifyingly diverse repertoire offers audiences a refreshing mixture of gritty dance-theatre, wry humour, and intricate and questioning choreography. Happy birthday, mapdance!

mapdance 2016 will be performed at The Old Rep on Thursday 3 March, 7.30pm. Tickets are £12, with concessions at £8. To book, call the Box Office on 0121 359 9444 (open Tues-Sat 10am-6pm) or visit oldreptheatre.co.uk (online booking fee applies).

mapdance 2016 Repertoire

Eminent British choreographer Richard Alston's rehearsal director and associate choreographer Martin Lawrance has re-staged the former's renowned Roughcut. Premiered by Rambert Dance Company in 1990, and revived nearly a decade later by Alston's own eponymous troupe, the work was initially made to celebrate the energy and exuberance of Rambert's young dancers. It has now been specially selected to do the same for mapdance's 10th anniversary cast.

Inspired by the sketches, inventions, architecture and artistry of Leonardo da Vinci, Abi Mortimer's elegant Schemes, Dreams and Machines captures the sensation of time and movement within his paintings and zooms in on the details of individual relationships.

A cacophony and collage of dance, text and music (from Beethoven, to the Propellerheads and Dame Shirley Bassey), Liz Aggiss' History Repeating......completes a mapdance trilogy begun in 2008 with Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage and continued in 2014 via Cut with the Kitchen Knife. To quote mapdance co-director Detta Howe about this outrageously smart new work: "'It's sad, it's funny and it smacks the audience around the face."

The programme also includes Passage, from Motionhouse choreographer Kevin Finnan. He describes the piece as "a valediction for the Syrian refugees who have attempted to flee the conflict by sea in small boats. It's a momentous subject, and I don't know if I have the ability to do justice to such suffering and grief, but I had to try."

Finally, Me And Then, according to choreographer Lee Brummer, explores duality via the notion and sensations of a young self in an older self. This new work, which she has created with Israel Aloni, "visits various marks on the timeline of a life, and the hopes and aspirations for a future supported by the past but created by us right now. How powerful are our memories, and can we maintain a youthful spirit inside an ageing body?'

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