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“A choreographer for whom every dance is a love affair with his chosen music”
The Times
“Since the death of Frederic Ashton in 1998, Richard Alston has been Britain’s foremost dancemaker”
Financial Times
“Alston, one of Britain’s greatest choreographers, has been making sensual dances for 40 years. He is an outstandingly musical creative force.”
Evening Standard
“[Alston] turns the stage into an expanse on which music and movement meet for a rewarding, refreshing, uplifting ride.”
Newsday
Artistic Director
Richard Alston Dance Company
Perhaps more than any other choreographer, Richard is known for his instinctive musicality. Alston is renowned for having a very close relationship with his music, taking inspiration for his work directly from the music he uses, to use the music as a point of departure for the choreography. (He recently said that to unwind, as well as reading or watching films, and listens to music he knows he does not want to make dance to).
Some recent examples are:
- Shimmer, set to Ravel’s solo piano music, with costumes designed for him by Julien MacDonald
- Overdrive, set to the minimalism and complexity ofTerry Riley’s rhythmic Keyboard Study #1
- Gypsy Mixture, set to riotus Balkan gypsy music given a techno remix by DJ Shantal
- The Devil in the Detail, set to Scott Joplin’s piano rags
Born in Sussex in 1948, Richard was educated at Eton where he discovered his passion for music in the school gramophone library, listening to Bach and Billie Holliday, or blasting Wagner’s Ring at the cows grazing outside. He then studied fine art and theatre design at Croydon College of Art in 1965, before becoming one of the very first students at the newly established London Contemporary Dance School in 1968.
It was at this point that he started to choreograph, as he studied under the groundbreaking teaching of Robert Cohan and the leadership of Robin Howard, who first brought contemporary dance to the UK from America in the late 1950s.
He went on to choreograph for The Place's resident company London Contemporary Dance Theatre before forming the UK’s first independent dance company, Strider, in 1972. In 1975 he left for New York to study at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio and on his return two years later he worked throughout the UK and Europe as an independent choreographer and teacher. Ironically, working with Cunningham – known as the man who completely divorced dance from music – brought Richard back to his musical instincts. Returning from New York he made a solo about what he’d missed from England while he’d been away – he illustrated his solo with slides of Hawksmoor churches, and set them to Purcell’s harpsichord music.
“I think that’s the first time I really dealt with music. I had very specific ideas about how music and dance should co-operate. I don’t like the ‘bathroom effect’ – when you put on music that makes you feel huge – it’s great in the shower but I don’t want it in the theatre. I want the thing you see to be what uplifts you.”
In 1980 he was appointed Resident Choreographer with Ballet Rambert, becoming the company's Artistic Director from 1986 - 1992. During his time there he created twenty-five works for Rambert besides being commissioned to create works for the Royal Danish Ballet (1982) and the Royal Ballet (1983); he also made Soda Lake (1981) and Dutiful Ducks (1982), two solo works for Michael Clark. He returned to Rambert in 2001, creating Unrest to help celebrate Rambert's 75th anniversary.
In 1992 Richard was invited to create a full evening of his own work for the Ballet Atlantique based in La Rochelle, France. He made another full evening for London Contemporary Dance Theatre at the 1994 Aldeburgh Festival and it was therefore a logical step to go on to form his own company, which he did when he took up the post of Artistic Director of The Place. Richard Alston Dance Company was launched at The Place in November 1994.
Richard was made an honorary Doctor of Philosophy (in Dance) at Surrey University in 1992 and in 2003 received an honorary MA from University College Chichester. In 1995 he was named Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of his work in France. In January 2001 he was awarded the CBE in the New Year Honours list. Richard Alston Dance Company made its New York debut to great acclaim at the Joyce Theatre in the spring of 2004.
Richard Alston Dance Company has an education programme, Essential Alston, which runs dance workshops in secondary schools throughout the UK teaching sections of Alston repertoire along with creative work to GCSE and A level Dance students.
Richard has created recent commissions for The Barbican, Ballet Theatre Munich and Ballet Black and Richard Alston Dance Company is firmly established as one of the most popular and celebrated in the UK, touring the country annually as well as making frequent visits to the USA.
In 2008, to mark Richard’s 60th birthday and 40 years of choreography, he has been commissioned by Dance Umbrella and Sadler’s Wells to create a special programme to be performed at the Wells in October.