Ballet in small spaces

Posted on April 23, 2014

The programme Visible Music brings together performers from Ballet in Small Spaces and Barefoot Opera, celebrating intimate performance.

In Two old instruments, dancer Susie Crow and musician Jonathan Rees celebrate the solo salon pieces of the 18th-century composer and virtuoso Carl Friedrich Abel. The music ranges from exuberance to melancholy, while the performers reflect on history and memory. Two old instruments has a flexible format that means it can be performed in non-theatrical settings, from concert halls to libraries or historic locations.

In Dances, Oracles, Mysteries, pianists Julian Jacobson and Mariko Brown, singer Jenny Miller and dancers Chiara Vinci and Francesco Mangiacasale respond to works by Debussy, including piano works, songs and the little-known ballet Khamma.

Visible Music will be performed at the Bristol Music Club on April 25, with further performances at St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch, London on April 27 and the North Wall Arts Centre,Oxford on April 29. For more information, see http://balletinsmallspaces.wordpress.com.

Artist Antonia Bruce has drawn the dancers in rehearsals for Two old instruments. An exhibition of her work is at Oxford’s Art Jericho until May 11. The exhibition is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12 noon to 6pm.

Picture: Susie Crow and Jonathan Rees in Two old instruments. Photograph: Dulcy Lott.

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.